Our short stay in Doha had us returning to the familiar Westin Doha Hotel and Spa. The Westin was a brand new property a few years back, and we didn’t see a need to change properties to try somewhere new during our short stay in Doha. Our stay at the Westin Doha Hotel and Spa would be marked by a fabulous suite upgrade amid comfortable surroundings in this inner city resort like hotel. Read on to see how our stay was.

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This post is one chapter on my trip to the Republic of the Maldives. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and Air Canada’s Aeroplan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Review: The Westin Doha Hotel and Spa, Doha, Qatar

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“Our Return to the The Westin Doha Hotel and Spa marked a comfortable overnight layover in one of the most modern and spacious Westin’s around. The hotel delivers on convenience, modern amenties and a comfortable stay”

We had a nine hour and fifteen minute connection time between our Qatar Airways Q Suites Business Malé – Doha and Qatar Airways Q Suites Business Class Doha – San Francisco flights.

While we could have opted for sleeping in reclining lounge chairs the Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Lounge, heading over to the in terminal Oryx Hotel, we just opted to get a hotel close to the Doha Hamad International Airport for a quick stay.

This marks our second visit to this hotel. If you care to see our first visit, please see our previous review of The Westin Doha Hotel and Spa.

Booking and Getting There:

We ended up staying at the Westin Doha Hotel and Spa as it was one of the closest Marriott property to the airport. I also considered staying at the Ritz Carlton Sharq Village & Spa using a Free Night Certificate for re-qualifying for Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Status, but instead given our short stay, I just opted for a paid cash rate at The Westin Hotel and Spa.

It was fairly easy to get a rate for under 550 QAR ($150 USD) making it likely better to use cash to stay at this property. I found reward nights going for between 16,000 – 17,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night.

Despite Marriott Bonvoy points being able to go very far in Qatar, if you value Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.008 cents per point, you’re likely better off redeeming points if your rate is above $130 USD. I personally value keeping the points for higher value redemptions, but you may be wanting to get rid of some points. Under certain scenarios, redeeming points may make better sense.

By comparison, rooms at the Oryx In Terminal Transit hotel at Doha Hamad International Airport were retailing for 1,325 QAR or $365 USD, making the Westin Doha Hotel and Spa a substantially cheaper alternative.

I ended up taking an Uber from Doha Hamad International Airport to the Westin Hotel. The fare was 43 QAR ($13 USD) and the trip took about eighteen minutes, not including wait time at the airport. The Westin Doha Hotel and Spa is one of the closer Marriott Bonvoy properties to the airport, and is likely ten to twenty minutes closer than the inner city Marriott Bonvoy properties.

Arriving to the Westin Doha:

Salwa Road, Fereej Bin Mahmoud, Zone 23, PO Box 39474, Doha, Qatar

It’s always comforting to arrive at a familiar hotel that you’ve stayed at in the past. Since we had previously stayed at this property, we felt very much at home at this property.

The Westin Doha is located immediately across several malls and supermarkets in the area. These include several western restaurants, making it suitable for those on a longer business stay.

We led ourselves into the front doors of the property, where we had a security check of our hand baggage. We were immediately offered assistance with our carry on baggage, which we declined.

The lobby was deserted given our midnight weekday arrival. The Westin Doha Hotel and Spa has an over the top decor scheme to it that is both extravagant and under stated at the same time. It looks like no other Westin Hotel that I’ve ever stayed at.

The lobby contains a large amount of sitting space, along with glass sculptures that run the interior of the atrium of the hotel. The atrium runs up the centre of the hotel towards the top floors, so it gives the hotel a very airy and bright feeling.

We were promptly attended to at the front desk. We were thanked for being Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Level members. We were provided an option to have both the welcome Marriott Bonvoy 1,000 points welcome bonus and a breakfast to go given that we were leaving early. This was a nice touch o the hotel’s part. We ended up declining this, in favour of breakfast in the Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Lounge instead.

We were also informed that we had been given an Marriott Bonvoy upgrade into the bridal suite for the evening. This information didn’t really mean anything to us at check in, but it turned out we had been upgraded into a massive suite designed to fit about fifteen people. While Marriott Bonvoy tends to underwhelm with upgrades in North America, I’ve generally found treatment outside of North America to be much better.

We navigated ourselves to the elevators and headed up to the room. The hallways were a little dark in lighting, and we found our way to the end of the hall to locate our room.

The Room: The Bridal Suite, Club Lounge Access, 1 Bedroom Suite, 1 King, Pool View

Our assigned upgraded room was one of the largest by square foot rooms I had ever been given in a Westin Hotel. It’s clear that the Bridal Suite was purpose built and designed for entertaining a large number of people for the purposes of a wedding or special event.

Immediately upon entering the room, I found myself in the hallway towards the living area. There was a small ensuite bathroom available in the hallway.

After a few steps, I found myself in a massive living room space. The living room space was a combination of both a sitting area and dining room area for four persons.

The living room space offered a sectional couch with seating for four designed for watching television, a desk and chairs with seating for three, along with a table and chairs that could easily handle four persons. As if that wasn’t enough, there was an additional chaise lounger in the corner that could also accomodate two persons.

The hotel had provided a nice complimentary welcome amenity in the hotel room, consisting of several small canapés and a welcome letter. It’s always a nice touch getting welcome amenities, since it makes the stay just that much more comfortable.

The living room also featured a small cabinet featuring glassware, a refrigerator and a tea and coffee maker Nespresso set.

The Bedroom:

Off the living room, a door way led to the bedroom. The bedroom contained a Westin Heavenly Bed, along with a reasonably spacious amount of room. The bed also contained a chaise lounger at the food of the bed, which is always a nice touch for storage or seating comfort when getting your shoes on.

In terms of sleep quality, we had a resoundingly good sleep in the Westin bed. The room was very quiet, and we didn’t get disturbed by any other noise from within the suite.

The bedroom had a large ensuite bathroom that featured both a stand up rain shower, and a separate Water Closet bathroom. The sinks were a double vanity sink combination, making it easy to get ready quickly.

In addition to the stand up shower, there was also a modern tub located in between the bathroom and the bedroom. It was located next to a walk in closet. I thought that the tub was a little out of place, but they made do with the configuration of the room and the space available to them.

Immediately off the bathroom was a giant walk in closet. The size of this walk in closet was the largest I’d ever seen in a hotel anywhere, even in some of the outrageous villas that I had seen in the Maldives.

Overall, I was exceptionally satisfied with the room. It offered lots of space to stretch out in, which is always nice when you are travelling.

Around the Hotel:

The Westin Club Lounge:

The Westin Doha Hotel and Spa property operates a Westin Club Lounge. We were given instructions that we had access to the lounge as per our Marriott Bonvoy Elite benefits. While Marriott Bonvoy only guarantees access for Marriott Bonvoy Elites at Sheraton and Marriott properties, we were given instructions that we had access to the lounge.

Sadly, I didn’t get an opportunity to get inside the lounge as it was closed during our visit. It wasn’t a lounge that had twenty four hour access. During our visit, the lounge was only open:

• 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM (refreshments)
• 5:30 – 8:30 PM (Hors d’oeuvres)

It’s perhaps worth mentioning that the lounge advertised a dress code, which is always appreciated, but slightly unusual in my experience. This is perhaps set up to avoid people coming straight in from the pool, despite the lounge and the pool being in entirely separate parts of the building.

The Outdoor Pool:

The Westin Doha Hotel and Spa offers an outdoor pool along with a small area of resort grounds. During my particular visit, the pool had been drained and was closed for maintenance.

Despite this, there were some small resort ground areas that allowed a pleasant but short walk within the hotel property. There were also a few chairs outside of sheesha pipes or other outdoor coffees in busier times.

We stayed on the property for about seven and a half hours before taking an Uber bak to Doha Hamad International Airport and our Qatar Airways Q Suites Business Class Doha – San Francisco flight back home.

My Thoughts about the Westin Doha:

All in all, the Westin Doha and Spa was a worthwhile stay that was all too short with our brief layover. The rooms were in great condition being new and the hotel is reasonably situated close to the airport. The only real minus is that there isn’t much immediately around the hotel in terms of easily accessible restaurants. I’d rate this property as “highly recommended” for a Westin overnight stay.

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If you’ve stayed at the Westin Doha, did you enjoy this new property?

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