Впервые в ОАЭ First time in the UAE

My husband and I visited the UAE for the first time. The travel agency advised the Beach Hotel Sharjah as a decent inexpensive hotel. By the way, we paid 86 thousand rubles. for a voucher for a special offer for 10 days for two. Many people convinced us that a three-star hotel in the UAE can be equated in terms of level with 4* and even 5* hotels in Turkey and Egypt. Don't believe! Our disappointment began already at check-in, when we were informed that there were no available rooms. Fortunately, we were offered to stay for 2 days in a neighboring hotel of the same owner (Carlton 4 *) at no extra charge. As a result, we got to Beach only after 4 days. Especially after Carlton, everything seemed somehow miserable to us. The room was given on the 1st floor, with access to the pool, although we ordered with a sea view. Very few rooms have a true sea view, as the hotel is located in the form of a square, and almost all rooms have a view of the pool. The room is somehow narrow, dark, not cozy, the floor is without carpet, you don’t look like barefoot. The air conditioner is very noisy, it drips condensate. A couple of times at night they simply froze with the air conditioner turned off, the cold came from the common corridor through the gap under the door. The room has a musty smell. Curtains are dirty. The walls are so thin that in the evening we had to turn down the sound of the TV to a minimum so as not to disturb the neighbors (there was an incident about this). Room cleaning was good.
The beach is very small, sand with shells. We went swimming in the territory of neighboring hotels (everything is nearby and the sand is much better). The sea is wonderful, but several times in the morning it washed up garbage and dead fish in huge numbers! The staff was not in a hurry to clean the beach. Several times we saw floating stingrays, it was a little scary. There is practically no greenery (several palm trees). There are very few sunbeds on the beach, and there is no chance to take them, so we sunbathed by the pool, where there were enough sunbeds, mattresses, umbrellas. The pool is very nice, cleaned every morning for an hour.
The food is frankly bad. There are no lunches, only breakfast and dinner. Sausages, french fries - very reminiscent of fast food. Some unusual for us salads, puddings (all this remained completely untouched), although the chef was always present in the hall and watched the process. Fruits and vegetables were unripe, simply inedible, you could only eat bananas, the rest was thrown away. There were no natural juices, they gave diluted concentrates, tea in ordinary thermoses.

There are a lot of Germans among the vacationers, mostly elderly. The attitude of the staff towards them is especially courteous. But overall, we were treated well. A free transfer to shopping centers is, of course, a good thing, but especially on the way back, the bus must be taken by storm: no one wants to stay in hot, stuffy Dubai after many hours of shopping, where there is nowhere to just sit and relax. And one more thing: do not confuse the free bus of your hotel with the neighboring one (Grand Hotel) when you return from Dubai and do not think that the neighbor will take you home cordially: you will have to pay 50 dirhams per person for this "oversight" and listen to accusations of your address (from the Russian girl at the reception), it is useless to argue.
The country itself, of course, delights. We took excursions to the Burj Khalifa tower and to the Atlantis water park (an average of $ 100 per person) - just a delight, I advise! They say it's interesting in Abu Dhabi, not a safari. And, of course, shopping. You can buy a fairly inexpensive fur coat, if you bargain well, electronic equipment, gold. Don't mess with "callers". Oversized items will be delivered directly to your room for free. Goods of famous brands in shopping centers are a little cheaper than ours.
In general, the impressions of course the sea, but our expectations, mainly from the hotel, did not materialize.