1

There is shower facility at terminal free and hotel for around $ 45/hour minimum 4hours

2

There's the Marhaba lounge, open to passengers regardless of class of travel, the entry fee is US$45. I appreciate that's more than you want to pay, but thought I would mention it anyway.

3

@dbx1969: On my way to Vienna via Dubai I did access the Marhaba lounge at Terminal 3. There was food (including beer) and sofas but no shower facilities to the best of my knowledge. Thank you for responding.

@marcopolo: Thanks.

4

There are def shower facilities at T3 now. I know because I was searching for a rest room, and instead went to a facility that had showers only. The thing is that its not very clearly marked, so either ask information or go check every block of gates where the toilets normally are. What I mean by that is that if you are traveling to T3, the layout of the toilets is that there is one set for every 6-8 gates and they all go in a sequence.

With regards the lounge, I once transited Dubai with a 5 hour stop-over where lunch fell in the middle, and because I was traveling emirates, I was able to show my boarding passes and tickets at the marhaba lounge and they gave me a coupon for a free meal. I think its part of hte airline rules that for long stop overs, they must provide refreshments. Might be worth just landing up at the lounge to see. Also, there are 2 marhaba lounges, and both have horrendous toilets (no showers) and very oily and cold food. So, if I had to pay, I would definitely not pay for the marhaba, its not worth it.

There are a few other lounges that charge the same - they might be worth the $$$.

5

There is a hotel inside the airport (T3 I think) where rooms are rented out by z hour

6

If you fly with Emirates they will give you a free hotel if your stopover is more than 8 hours and free food if stopover is more than 4 hours.

Free Dubai Airport Showers
Terminal 3:
Located on the West side near to Gate no 201 & East side near to
Gate no 231.
The Shower rooms are not provided with Shampoo, Towels, Soap.

7

The free hotelroom by Emirates only applies if you have spent more than $ 1.150,00 on your ticket!

8

geertjea and anybody else on this limb:
I don’t where you got the idea that ‘The free hotel room by Emirates only applies if you have spent more than $ 1.150,00 on your ticket!’ unless it was personal experience. Unfortunately you really did suffer poor customer service.
I am guessing the Op has booked this flight online and NOT with a human being – aka a travel agent?
IF with a travel agent they will know that when an airline is a member of IATA they are obligated (it is not set in concrete) to offer you access to a hotel room, transfers to and from the airport IF the hotel room is ‘land side’, organise a visa also if the hotel room is ‘land side’ and food vouchers when it is the airline's timetabling that causes a minimum of a 7 hour transfer delay. The airline will have this in their ticket rules (aka Contract of Carriage) - yes that is the small print - STPC stands for "Stopover Paid By Carrier’. However I remember that unless an airline specifically says that,STPC will not be provided in their fare rules, it has an obligation to provide.
I have been travelling overseas annually since 1984 and since I live in Sydney Australia my flights are always both ‘disconnecting’ and with long periods of 'turnaround' time at awful hours of the day and night.
My first travel agent told me then to work on the IYDAYDG theory – ‘If you don’t ask you don’t get’. I do and every airline has ‘come to the party’ on this matter. She also told me that IF I get a refusal warn them that I will report them to IATA if they are a member. In the last 4 years with the WFC, no airline wants to lose a customer.
With Asian and Middle Eastern companies they also don’t want to ‘lose face’ when I also mention that I will report them on all the travel boards.
injunnomad - contact the airline and as I have said communicate with them your needs of a shower at a minimum and in their interest of good customer service you should get some results. IF the 9 hour transfer is your choice and the airline representative says there is a fee, offer them your price of $30 as you have stated and see what the result is. Remember: IYDAYDG .

9

As the original post was made 12 months ago, I suspect the advice given in the above post is unlikely to help.

For the record, geertjea is correct - a minimum fare does apply to get STPC, in addition to the length of the connection. This is clearly stated on Emirates web site:

http://www.emirates.com/uk/english/plan_book/essential_information/long_stopovers.aspx

Whilst I generally applaud the idea of passengers standing up for themselves, there are plenty of showers in Dubai airport that are free of charge.

10

I think this is the the most common question asked - 'where can I have a shower?' about the hub terminals at Dubai so I recommend that it go into the FAQs. I think that a map online showing where the '..plenty of showers in Dubai airport that are free of charge' would also help some of the 'newbies' transiting through Dubai.