Hotel Review: Petra Marriott, Jordan

After spending three nights at the Hilton Dead Sea Resort & Spa, Shae and I drove south so that we could visit Petra (see this post for more about that).

There were quite a few low-priced guesthouses available in Petra due to it normally being a popular place with tourists, although it was much quieter there when we visited in August 2021 due to the ongoing impact of COVID on tourism.

However, I decided to book us in for three nights at the Petra Marriott instead. Although it was a little more expensive than the guesthouses, I’d seen good reviews of the hotel online and my Titanium status with Marriott Bonvoy meant we should get a room upgrade and other perks.

Here’s a review of our stay at the Petra Marriott hotel in Jordan.

Check-In

Shae and I stopped off at the Museum at the Lowest Place on Earth on our way down to Petra, so we arrived at about 5pm. The hotel was extremely quiet throughout our entire stay – I don’t think we saw more than a dozen other guests throughout our entire three days there. That unsurprisingly meant there was no line when we came to check in and so the check-in process was quick and smooth.

After making our reservation a couple of months beforehand, I requested the use of three of my suite night upgrade awards from earning status the previous year to upgrade from a standard king room. Unlike Hyatt, Marriott doesn’t process these requests until five days before your stay. Thankfully I received an email five days before we arrived confirming that we’d been upgraded to a room with a view of Petra’s mountains and valley.

Similar to the Marriott Mena House in Cairo, when checking in we were offered the option of 1,000 points or a food and beverage amenity. When staying in the US, I tend to choose points seeing as the food and beverage amenity is usually just a couple of sodas and a bag of chips. In both Cairo and Petra though, one of the options was half a bottle of wine and mixed nuts, so we picked that.

A porter assisted us with our bags up to our room. We were in 805 which is on the top floor of the hotel. The guest rooms surround a small atrium which had a nice design and plenty of sunlight.

Bedroom

When entering our room the bedroom area was straight ahead. The bathroom was off to the left of the king bed.

The king bed was very comfortable. Our room faced west which meant that along with the blackout curtains, our room stayed nice and dark even in the morning. On one of the bedside tables was a bottle of hand sanitizer along with a pack of sanitizing wipes.

To the right of the bed were a couple of comfortable armchairs, with a small table in front of them. Although I liked our room, it would’ve been nice to have had a slightly larger table. When eating room service dinner, it was hard fitting two meals on top.

On the other side of the room was a desk and chair. On top of the desk were a couple of bottles of water, an electric kettle and items to make tea and instant coffee.

To the right of the desk was a cabinet with a TV on top and a separate luggage rack. The shelf beneath the luggage rack had a couple of pairs of slippers.

In the left side of the cabinet was a safe and a couple of small drawers.

The right side of the cabinet contained a mini fridge which also served as a mini bar.

Thankfully the mini fridge wasn’t completely full, so we had space to add some bottles of water.

As mini bars go, this one didn’t feel completely extortionately priced. For reference, 1 JOD was ~1.50 USD when we visited.

Back by the room’s entrance was the closet.

The closet contained a couple of bathrobes, an iron and ironing board.

I mentioned earlier that we’d been upgraded to a room with a view of Petra’s valley and mountains. Sure enough, we had a lovely view from our room.

With our room facing west, it meant we had some pretty spectacular sunset views too.

A few minutes after we got to our room, our welcome amenity was brought up. The nuts were the right level of salty and I worked on them throughout our stay.

Bathroom

The bathroom was off to the left of the king bed. This contained a bathtub with shower, as well as a separate walk-in shower. The walk-in shower had both a rainfall shower head and a handheld shower head. The bathroom featured a bidet in addition to the toilet.

With us staying in Jordan, the toiletries contained Dead Sea minerals. These toiletries seemed decent quality.

Breakfast

Breakfast was complimentary for all guests and from what I can remember it was available until 11 am each day. It was served in Dushara restaurant which is on the second floor.

There were several hot options available each day along with fruit, cold cuts, cereal, breads, pastries, pancakes and more.

Dinner – Room Service

On the first couple of nights of our stay we ordered room service dinner. Here’s a photo of the QR code for the menu in case you want to check out the full menu.

The first night I ordered the Arabic mixed grill which consisted of shish kofta, grilled chicken, lamb chops, beef kofta with Arabic rice, shrak bread and onion sumac salad – all of which was very good, but was an enormous amount of food. Shae was feeling pasta-y, so she got the penne arrabbiata.

After three weeks of eating pretty much only Middle Eastern-type food for dinner, I felt like having something a little more Western the second night and so ordered the fish and chips. What was fun was that this had a Jordanian twist as the fish had some kind of coating – perhaps cumin and something else.

Shae ordered the Marriott Burger which was much bigger than it might look in the photo below. She thought it was OK, but nothing special.

Dinner – Al Matal Bedouin Tent

On our final night at the Petra Marriott, we had dinner at the hotel’s Al Matal Bedouin Tent. You have to make a reservation earlier in the day to ensure they prepare enough food – you’ll see why in a moment.

You get the choice of lamb or chicken, so we ordered one of each. Here’s the QR code for the Al Matal Bedouin Tent menu so you can check out the full menu.

The tent faces the west, so the evening is spent looking at the mountains and sunset.

The Petra Marriott has a frame in front of the mountains which would be perfect for sunset-heart-hands Instagrammers. Still, it was a cute photo opportunity and so we took advantage of it too. The frame is available all day, but the view is best at sunset seeing as the sun goes down right behind you.

The reason you have to make a reservation for dinner at Al Matal Bedouin Tent is because when making your reservation you order what you’ll want for dinner and it then gets cooked in the ground for several hours.

Dinner started with drinks and appetizers.

The main course was then brought out. The lamb, rice and vegetables were all good, but the chicken was fairly dry.

Dinner was followed by Arabic tea (black tea with mint and cardamom) and coffee, along with some musical entertainment.

The final course was dessert which was muhallabieh. That’s a milk pudding dessert topped with crushed pistachios.

They also offered the opportunity to smoke hookah with apple or mint and lemon flavors available.

Amenities

The Petra Marriott has an outdoor swimming pool which is just about large enough to do laps. While not quite as warm as some of the other hotel pools on our trip, it was still a decent enough temperature.

In addition to the sun loungers, there were tables and chairs in the pool area.

On the other side of the low wall was some more seating facing the mountains.

You can order food and drinks by the pool – here’s a link to the pool menu.

Somewhat surprisingly, the hotel doesn’t have a fitness room. I guess if you’re staying there though, there’s a good chance you’ll be doing a lot of walking around Petra and so won’t feel like working out too.

Speaking of Petra, the hotel has a full service spa called Loofah Turkish Bath where Shae got a foot massage after we’d walked 8-10 miles at Petra.

Here’s the spa menu – there’s a QR code you can scan to see the full list of prices in case the writing’s too small below.

Still speaking of Petra, the Marriott offers a shuttle service down to the historic site. We didn’t make use of this seeing as we had a rental car, but it’s a nice option to have.

There’s a gift shop on site in case you need to get any postcards or last minute souvenirs.

There’s also a table displaying a guy’s sand art. We got to watch him making some of these and it was fascinating how it was done and how quickly he’s able to create each one.

Parking

Parking at the Petra Marriott is free. There was no issue with us finding somewhere to park seeing as the hotel was so quiet during our stay.

Service

Service at the hotel was very good overall. Aktham in particular was simply fantastic; he’s the front desk clerk, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he ends up managing this hotel or another one someday – he’s that good.

Staff in Dushara restaurant were always friendly at breakfast. It took a while for them to take Shae’s poolside order even after going in to let them know she wanted to order something, but other than that there weren’t any service issues (and that was only minor).

Wi-Fi

The Petra Marriott’s internet was good. The Wi-Fi was a good speed and I don’t remember having any issue with it cutting out.

Check-In & Check-Out Times

Check-in is at 3pm, while check-out is at 12pm.

COVID PCR Test

We had to get a COVID test towards the end of our stay in order to fly back to the US. The hotel arranged for a doctor to come to our room to conduct our PCR tests. We received our results that evening via WhatsApp and he then left printed copies of our results at the front desk the next morning.

The PCR tests only cost 30 JOD (~42 USD) per person which was great value considering how much we had to pay for PCR tests in other locations on our trip.

Location

The Petra Marriott is in a great location seeing as it’s pretty close to Petra. It’s a little too far to walk there, but that’s not really an issue seeing as the hotel offers a free shuttle service.

Being up on a hill and opposite the mountains means you get some amazing views, especially at sunset.

Cost

The standard king room we booked cost 106.73 JOD including taxes and fees – that’s approximately 150 USD. Our total bill ended up coming to $843.95 when taking into account our meals and Shae’s spa treatment.

If you want to book an award stay, the Petra Marriott is a category 4 property and so costs 20,000, 25,000 or 30,000 points per night depending on if you’re traveling during off-peak, standard or peak dates respectively. Paying cash was therefore better value than redeeming points for our stay.

Points Earned

An added benefit of paying cash for our stay is that we also earned points. We earned 9,616 points which is made up of 5,495 base points and 4,121 bonus points for having Titanium status.

I paid for our stay with one of our Marriott credit cards which had a special offer at the time awarding 10 points per dollar on Marriott stays rather than the usual 6 points per dollar. That meant we’ll earn an additional 8,440 points for a total of 18,056 points.

Final Thoughts

Shae and I enjoyed our stay at the Petra Marriott hotel. Although the hotel doesn’t have a ton of amenities, most people staying there are there for Petra itself.

It was a nice quiet hotel, the food was tasty, the views were fantastic and the service was very good, especially from Aktham.

Our Rating

Room = 4.2 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 3.8 / 5
Food = 4.4 / 5
Location = 4.6 / 5
Service = 4.5 / 5
Overall Value = 4.5 / 5

Total = 4.33

Address

Petra Marriott Hotel, Queen Rania Al Abdallah Street Wadi Mousa, 21163, Jordan

Check Out All The Posts From Our Dubai/Egypt/Jordan Trip

• It’s Time For Shae’s Secret Birthday Extravaganza!
• Flight Review: Emirates First Class – Chicago (ORD) To Dubai (DXB)
• Hotel Review: Grand Hyatt Dubai (1 Bedroom Grand Suite)
• Awesome Dubai Desert Safari For Shae’s 40th Birthday
• 1 Week In Dubai: Here’s What We Did
• Hotel Review: Ramses Hilton In Cairo, Egypt
• Exploring Babylon Fortress In Old Cairo, Egypt
• Visiting The Pyramids Of Giza In Cairo, Egypt
• Hotel Review: Marriott Mena House In Cairo, Egypt
• 6 Days In Cairo, Egypt – Here’s What We Did
• Our Dead Sea Experience: Floating, Mud & Tequila Shots!
• Hotel Review: Hilton Dead Sea Resort & Spa, Jordan
• 10 Tips For Driving In Jordan
• Visiting Petra In Jordan – One Of The New 7 Wonders Of The World
• Hotel Review: Petra Marriott, Jordan
• 1 Week In Jordan – Here’s What We Did
• Flight Review: Turkish Airlines Business Class – Istanbul (IST) To Chicago (ORD)
• Hotel Review: Hilton Chicago O’Hare Airport, IL
• Spending Breakdown: 3 Weeks In Dubai, Egypt & Jordan – Here’s What It Cost