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This apartment hotel is literally located right at the doorstep of Exit 2 of Financial Centre metro station, meaning that one could reach the hotel entrance in less than a minute after leaving the station―potentially a huge advantage for those visiting during the sweltering summer months of Dubai. What is interesting is that it opened about four years prior to another property that was called "Emirates Grand Hotel" across the highway (also adjacent to the other exit of the metro station) managed by the same operator, possibly leading to very interesting situations for taxi drivers. For some reason, the other Emirates Grand Hotel changed its name to Grand Stay Hotel some time in 2019, and later rebranded to a Residence Inn by Marriott removing any name confusion, although old entries for that hotel still remained up in TripAdvisor and Google Maps, for some reason.
The hotel building had 33 floors, with a small rather old-fashioned-looking lobby on the ground floor. Several retail spaces were also located on the ground and mezzanine floors, which included a third-party restaurant, as well as a Hardee's and a Pizza Hut. A spa apparently run by a third-party operator was located on the 1st floor. Floors 2 to 30 had 346 serviced apartments, except for the 21st floor which had function rooms and a defunct in-house restaurant. The top 31st floor was where most of the ancillary facilities were concentrated, including an indoor swimming pool, a gymnasium, and the main in-house restaurant where breakfast (but apparently no other meals) was served to staying guests. A separate 6-floor parking garage was located at the back of the main hotel building, with a rooftop tennis court on the top 5th floor.
The building had four elevators, divided between three passenger cars and one service elevator, all supplied by Mitsubishi. The service elevator was not in a separate vestibule, but shared the same landing with the other three passenger cars, and could be called via one of the two hall stations. This video features the bank of three passenger elevators among those. These elevators belonged to GPM-3 series, Mitsubishi's newest high-rise model at the time, though they ran quite slow for the number of floors served. They served every floor of the building except for the retail mezzanine. Their cabs were very small considering the hotel's size, and felt rather claustrophobic especially due to walls heavily padded with crimson velvet. (While apartment buildings in some European countries are known to use elevators this small, it is certainly not appropriate for an upscale hotel property.) The floor buttons were of small rectangular type and not the regular-sized version, which was probably necessary to accommodate all of them on the narrow COP. These also saw regular lateral oscillations, resulting in a less enjoyable ride quality (and even possibly frightening for some people) combined with the small cab size.
Manufacturer: ETA-MELCO Elevator Co. L.L.C.
Model name: GPM-3M
Year of commission: 2004
Loading: 750kg (1,650lbs)
Capacity: 10 persons
Full speed: 2.5m/s (500FPM)
Serviced floors: *G, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31