Reviews of Cataract Pyramid Resort, Cairo, Egypt

Worst Hotel I have ever seen

Overall Rating:

1/10

Board Basis:

Bed & Breakfast

Date of Holiday:

Sep 2008

Tour Operator:

Hotel Club

Submitted By:

sham123

Comments:

This hotel was the worst hotel i have ever seen. The whole hotel, espially the room was dirty, terrible customer service, there was never anyone to deal with any of your concerns. They didn't allow me and my husband to be in the same room, becuase we had two different passports. The hotel may say 5 stars, but whoever rated it must have been blind, deaf and with a mental disorder.

The behaviour of the personnel...

Overall Rating:

1/10

Board Basis:

Bed & Breakfast

Date of Holiday:

Jan 2008

Tour Operator:

Holiday Hotels

Submitted By:

Mr G

Comments:

The behaviour of the personnel at the reception towards its costumers is outrageous, Irresponsible and lacks professional training. I would say they have a laid-back attitude and are incapable of confronting a serious problem I was facing. After pre-booking and having paid at a discounted price with a well-established legal agent officer, I was fully refused without any mature negotiations between us. I was eventually forced to repay a considerable amount for 3 nights, bed & breakfast which as a total amount is a lot higher than 2 nights I spend, bed and breakfast, in a 4-stars hotel in Los Angeles. Furthermore, unclean, unhygienic conditions and broken bathroom lights in the room. In simple words, to describe the room,‘stinky’ and ‘skunky’ with the full meaning of these two words. As for the breakfast menu, they were serving it for the second time, especially perishable food like canned mini-sausages (ironically to hide the fact that they were presented at the table for the second time, they would add cooked vegetables in the sausages. Very unprofessional and disgusting) and bread for the second and third time. It also seemed that they didn’t have a head chief in the kitchen because there were many young people of the personnel wondering around with poor English knowledge, if any at all. The general mood of the hotel is not agreeable and every time I would be the one who would greet the staff of the hotel. The only privileged part this hotel has it’s the architecture which again considering other hotels in Cairo I stayed, it is outdated. It is built in an unpolluted area but if you get out of the hotel, it’s like a secluded world, a dessert. There is no way you can walk by your feet to reach the giza/Sakkara pyramids or even a mini-market because it is separated by a high way with dangerous impatient drivers.

this hotel might be rated 5 star...

Overall Rating:

2/10

Board Basis:

Half Board

Date of Holiday:

Jan 2008

Tour Operator:

Med Hotels

Submitted By:

Mr J Underwood

Comments:

this hotel might be rated 5 star but it is only a 3 star standard very poor rooms need a good refit food quite good but not as good as the sister hotel in aswan would not go back. my friends stayed at the intercontinental and they said it was very good so give it a try.

We wanted to stay in a hotel...

Overall Rating:

2/10

Board Basis:

Bed & Breakfast

Date of Holiday:

Apr 2006

Tour Operator:

Octopus Travel

Submitted By:

Mr D Morgan

Comments:

We wanted to stay in a hotel near to Giza so we could visit friends but also somewhere we could relax and chill by the pool in the sun too so the Cataract seemed like an ideal choice.



Reading other on-line reviews mostly suggested that the hotel was just what we were looking for and the handful of poor comments were generally outweighed by the positives so we booked it.



This was a bad mistake.



The Cataract is a well laid out complex with a very attractive pool which is incredibly inviting and allows for unspoilt hours in the heat of the sun however as soon as the sun starts to fade the mosquitoes come out with a vengeance.



The staff at the Cataract are very friendly and helpful but unfortunately let down by poor food - expect to spend lots of time on the toilet.



Although it's location suggests otherwise the Cataract doesn't work as a base to explore from - because you can't escape the mosquitoes from dusk till dawn.



Honestly... you can do better - MUCH better.

This was not a package holiday,...

Overall Rating:

9/10

Board Basis:

Bed & Breakfast

Date of Holiday:

Mar 2005

Tour Operator:

Longwood

Submitted By:

Mrs M N Cooper

Comments:

This was not a package holiday, I had returned from a trip to Taba in Egypt last year, very happy with the standard of accommodation and the agent who I had dealt with, Ezy travel in London. They’re an agency that uses Longwoods Holidays, who I had also found very good on my last trip to Egypt. A quick telephone call outlining my needs and intended destination and dates resulted in a two-week holiday in Cairo. I enjoy the space a two week stay allows to explore a place, most package tours do just that, they package a tour into a short time period, disallowing the luxury of meandering slowly.


I chose Cairo as I had a good friend who lives not far from the city who had offered to show me the Cairo the Cairenes know and love. The hotel was suggested by Ezy Travel as they know my likes and dislikes.

The Cataract Resort has everything one could possibly want contained in one spot. It had the added advantage that its reasonably removed from the hustle and bustle of the city, but close enough to access that if wanted. This time I was travelling alone as my holiday companion couldn’t get time from work and had family commitments elsewhere.


I arrived late on a Saturday evening to be met by a Longwoods rep, he had 12 other visitors to meet and saw to our visas quickly. He had us through the customs and immigration hall far faster than we would have been had we been without his help. We were put onto transport for our hotels quickly and efficiently. I am most impressed with Longwoods service. He booked me into my hotel with the minimum of fuss and I found myself being driven to my room in a golf buggy converted to a luggage transporter. My customary check of my hotel bed disclosed a sprung interior mattress, not the memory foam type I was used to, and had found in Taba. Still after hanging my clothes and showering I slept well. I had not taken in much about the hotel the night before as it had been dark when I arrived, plus I’d been extremely tired, so on my first morning, showered, dressed and ravenous I set off to find the breakfast restaurant.



The previous night while being taken to my room I could have sworn my room was miles away from my breakfast venue, it wasn’t, in fact the block I was in was adjacent to it. I had a half an hour after breakfast to kill before my friend arrived to accompany me to Cairo, so I went walk around. The complex is difficult to describe so I wont try. It has a well-equipped health suite with knowledgeable staff, a breakfast restaurant that is also a private functions venue, two a la carte restaurants with bars, one of them an outdoor-ish restaurant, a reasonably sized pool with splash bar. at least one 'pub' that serves bar snacks above the indoor a la carte restaurant. An open buffet restaurant is housed in the main reception area on the mezzanine level, a cafe is also in the main reception area, and a nightclub disco bar tucked away at the end of a small shopping area.


The hotel caters mainly for short stays, 3 or 4 days and is used by the packaged tours companies, this means the staff never really get to know the guests or vice versa. Such a shame as I learn so much from hotel staff, not the least where to go to see or hear traditional music and dance or find the shops where the "locals" buy. The news I was staying at the hotel for two weeks spread quickly after a young waitress asked how long would I be staying. My friend had been late and by the time of his arrival I had been welcomed by everyone working in reception that morning, a million names were given but so constant were the handshakes and introductions I remembered very few. We left the hotel at 9.00 returning at 6.30 after visiting two Cairo must see venues, the Cairo museum, I could spend a week there, and the Citadel.


I ordered coffees for my friend and myself, there had been a change of staff, the young waitress asked me if I was Mrs Maggie. My companion nearly spat his coffee across the table, recovered himself and asked me how in less than 24 hours could I be on first name terms with the staff. By the time two weeks were up I knew most of them and had become firm friends with a few.


My sixty second birthday took place while in Cairo, I had a wonderful evening in the city, where I watched the sunset from the Cairo tower, had a boat trip on the Nile which my companion had organised for my birthday, just the pair of us and the helmsman. I think he regretted it as I love boats, and was hanging over the sides, running to the bow then the stern but had to relent when I saw the delicate shade of green he was turning. That was followed by a stint of oohing and ahhing at down town Cairo shop windows and the most beautifully tasty moussaka and falafel in what I can only describe as an Egyptian diner.



I’ve eaten moussaka in Cyprus, Germany, France, England and New York but never one that tasted like that. Deposited back at my hotel at 10.30 my friend made his way back home some 35 kms away and I made mine through the lobby, only to be stopped and asked quietly to go to the disco. I did. There were some of the reception area staff and a few guests , they threw me a little surprise party. Over the next few days I had two more birthday celebrations organised by staff and a birthday cake , then my taxi driver that I used each day, asked me to his home to meet his wife and children, I did, and found a huge half chocolate, half vanilla, iced sponge cake with a single candle.



I know in Taba at the Sea Star hotel if your passport disclosed a birthday the hotel would surprise you with a birthday cake. (This was different, this was really nice people trying to give me a nice birthday, and they succeeded, it wasn’t a hotel ritual.) Five lovely children sang and danced for me then got covered in chocolate cream and cake, priceless. The hotel staff had organised their little treats themselves and the manager, (he introduced himself as an Egyptian Yorkshire man because he spent 12 years learning his trade in Yorkshire, by the heck thee meet em every wheres,) joined in one of them.


I ate my evening meals in the hotel, I used the two a la carte restaurants as the food was excellent, though the staff never got used to my no bread, no rice, no chips, just vegetables with the meat/ fish/kababs. The most expensive meal I ate was a seafood platter. The octopus was cooked to perfection, the king prawns wonderful, and what tasted like mackerel but came out of the Nile was delicious. Even allowing for my hors deuvres, Chantilly crepes and Turkish coffee, diet pepsi and bottled water a bill for slightly less than £10.00 sterling was amazing. One could get very fat staying there.



The hotel offers a laundry service, which was fast, excellent and reasonable. After a day sightseeing in Cairo my clothes would be extremely grubby. Sit at roadside cafe with a beaker of water. after 5 minutes examine it. you’ll find a layer of grit deposited at the bottom of the glass. Multiply that amount of grit by 7 hours and you'll realise how handy an efficient laundry service is. It would be checked in my room by the laundry staff and myself, I would be asked to initial the items entered on the list, they would come back washed, pressed hung and covered, underwear carefully enclosed in bags, then each item checked off the list and hung in the wardrobe. I never had anything go astray.


The Cataract isn’t a shining glass and chrome glitzy hotel, its a charming slightly family run feel hotel, it’s rooms are clean, plain but comfortable, again no coffee or tea making equipment in the rooms as there’s 24 hour room service available. You can breakfast or have any meal in your room. The charges are all displayed clearly and hold no surprises, indeed I found them good value. I went bed and breakfast as the hotel wasn’t advertising half board or inclusive. I wouldn’t have gone all-inclusive because of my dislike for open buffet food. Also I knew I would be venturing out to explore most days.


Housekeeping was excellent, the staff that I had contact with, wonderful, and something I shall never forget was the point blank refusal I received from all the staff to accept a gratuity from me. What was echoed again and again was they had received thanks through my kindness and courtesies, they were so glad I had chosen their hotel. Strange, that’s what I felt about them.