Anyone who’s ever seen a photo of Dubai knows how quickly the city has turned desert into metropolis. And anyone who’s ever stepped foot in the city knows that photos don’t do justice to the massive scale of the city’s ambition. Ski slopes sit adjacent to man-made islands, not far from aquariums encased in enormous shopping malls, and hundreds of high-rise condos, many still awaiting residents.

Now, finding a Dubai hotel with fewer than five stars is harder than it was to find Dubai on a map 30 years ago. That was before the city state—de facto culture capital of the United Arab Emirates—found oil, leveraged its oil, then realized the oil wouldn’t be sustainable, so it diversified its economy into