Novotel Cairo Airport - Cairo, Egypt     

I would like to share a story with you fellow travellers. I only ended up overnighting in this hotel because my wife was terribly sick on the way from Sham-el-sheikh to Cairo and rather then catching connecting flight to London we had to overnight somewhere as she was too unwell to continue the journey the same day. Anyway, after arriving at the most disguisting airport arrival hall ever at Cairo Airport I was desperate to find a taxi to nearest airport hotel. A tout who offered me to take us to the hotel quickly established that we are a good prey and suggested Novotel as a good choice with a discount. After less than 5 minutes taxi ride we arrived at 3:30AM. The tout told me that he wants to come with me to the hotel and so then I can get a cheaper rate (hotel walk-in price outrageous USD220 versus tout price USD180.00) I was not really listening, all I wanted was to get my wife somewhere should could rest. All of the above was happening extremely fast in a extreme heat and so its hard to describe my feelings exactly at the time. Most importantly when it came to payment, I was asked to pay in advance and in CASH to the tout. This was something I never came across before in a reputable chain hotel (at least I thought Accor is reputable). I did not have any cash (last day of a trip) only credit card and was prepared to pay to the hotel directly by card but not to the tout by cash. There was a lot of pressure on me from 5 egyptian thugs receptionists+tout to make payment directly in cash to him. I refused and was going to walk out as this whole checkin-in precedure was very intimidating if not scary. To cut long story short, I ended up paying by card outrageus USD180, tout got his outragous 50 egyptian pounds for less than 5 minutes taxi ride and the standard room we ended up was ok to get few hours sleep but everything inside was run down, old, reception took an hour to get me international plug adapter and when checking out nobody came to pick up my luggage even though I called for the service. CONCLUSION: DO ALL POSSIBLE TO AVOID ACCOR HOTELS IN EGYPT.

As most people have said, if you are just here because of an early / late flight, it is does the job. The room was ok, but things like no soap in the bathroom or incomplete towel provisions made it look a bit amateurish. I flew in at 11.30pm and had a flight the next morning at 10am so I wasn't planning on holidaying here. I can't imagine why anyone would. It is not a base for Cairo, or anything else really. Mainly a business hotel. Breakfast was rubbish so don't count on it. It does have a shuttle service to and from the airport. Not much else good to say. It's not terrible, it's not great, it is just a cheap, basic hotel. Not an easy one to review.