The Deep End Of Decadence
Bloomberg Businessweek US|March 06, 2023
A suite can cost as much as $100,000 a night at Dubai’s Atlantis the Royal, but don’t you dare just stay in your room.
Lisa Fleisher
The Deep End Of Decadence

From the moment you step through the front entrance, Atlantis the Royal puts on a show. Water pours down inside glass walls, while fire periodically flashes up. The pressure to post to Instagram is immediate, because you’ve arrived at the self-titled “most ultraluxury” resort in the world.

This isn’t the world, though. It’s Dubai, where “ultraluxury” has a specific meaning and nouveau riche aesthetics are giddily embraced. Wealth like this was made to flaunt, not accrue silently in savings accounts. Ultraluxury is over the-top, clad with gold and marble.

That’s what the $1.2 billion Atlantis the Royal, the latest property from Dubai-based hotelier Kerzner International Ltd., delivered with a “Grand Reveal” show in January starring Beyoncé. And it’s what guests have experienced since its 795 rooms opened in mid-February.

The journey of opulence begins in the hotel lobby, where the unifying theme of water (Atlantis, remember?) is hammered home with a towering aquatic sculpture and pool cutouts in the floor into which guests occasionally tumble. Check-in occurs at unmarked golden counters, which require constant buffing with microfiber towels to remove dreadful indicators of human presence such as fingerprints.

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