If you are doing business in Dubai, particularly anything legal, patience is the key. Tea will be served regardless of deadlines and fairly lengthy requests after the health of family members and mutual acquaintances will follow thereafter. My tip is follow the maxim 'less haste, more speed.' Observe your hosts' order of proceedings and the goodwill engendered will ultimately be to your benefit.
Hospitality is taken very seriously and if at all possible accept invitations to dinner if given. Most of all, enjoy the different way of doing business, engage in the sometimes convoluted process and the subtle verbal games and learn that there is another way of doing things.
My tip for a hotel is the Marriot in Deira. Away from the glitz so that you can concentrate but close enough to everything that you want, first class business facilities and a rooftop pool. The best restaurants are the Sphinx at the Pyramids and Shabestani Iranian restaurant at the Hyatt.
