Hotel Albergo, Beirut

As Beirut is being rebuilt and re-establishing itself as a playground for the wealthy of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, giant hotels are sprouting up along the Corniche, exemplified by the high-rise Four Seasons that opened in 2010.  The two big exceptions to this trend are Le Gray and the Hotel Albergo, further inland.

With Le Gray fully booked, we chose the Albergo.  Most of the hotel experience was fantastic.  A driver met us at the airport and safely steered us through the insane, there is no other way to describe it, traffic of the city.  For some reason we were upgraded at check-in to the honeymoon suite, which was absolutely beautiful - a huge sitting area, bedroom and a bathroom that was bigger than some flats I've lived in.

The Albergo occupies a refurbished town-house of about ten narrow floors.  The ground floor houses a discrete reception desk, lounge bar and a formal restaurant which we didn't use.

Above all of the bedrooms, the jewel in the hotel's crown is the rooftop complex which offers a less formal lounge and beautiful terrace.  A fantastic Lebanese breakfast is served to guests up here, while drinks and food are available all day.  Curiously, with the exception of breakfast, all the food offered in both the formal restaurant and roof terrace is, at least nominally, Italian.  This isn't to say the meals we ate there weren't excellent, but having no Arabic offering seems a little strange.

The terrace is a wonderful place to spend a couple of hours with a book and a few drinks.  There's also a pool, but it's extremely small and I didn't really fancy walking, dripping wet, back to my room through the cocktail lounge.

So, a beautiful building, great room and excellent staff... But we won't be back.  The entire Albergo experience is ruined by their insistence on using plasticised mattress protecting sheets each time they make the bed.  The result is that you're either too hot to sleep or wake up dripping in sweat.  It's a decision that I fail to comprehend - this is an seriously expensive hotel and they're employing devices that I last came across on a rowing camp in rural France.  The bed itself was a great four-post affair with a comfortable mattress; spoiled by ten pounds worth of over-active housekeeping.

The decision making process behind this choice baffles me.  Somebody has spent many millions of pounds restoring a building and filling it with with beautiful furniture and charming staff, then suddenly become gripped with worry about the cost of replacing mattresses should somebody wet the bed?Extraordinary.

Photos of the room and roof follow.

Comments

[Hotel promocao]

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