Domina Emilio Hotel

This is probably the worst hotel we have ever stayed in - and that's in 35 years of holidaying abroad, all over the world.
Now I'm broad minded but, a brothel right next door, which played knocking shop type music at about a million decibels all through the night until 4.45 am - and then the local Imams took over and started calling the faithful to prayer at 5am.
We - correction -I, didn't get more than 3 hours sleep on any night, (my husband can sleep hanging over a rope in the middle of a runway). We didn't actually book this hotel but were informed 10 days prior to departure that due to extensive building work at the Mercure Inn - the hotel we had booked - we would be staying at a lower graded hotel called the Emilio.
This hotel is in the Beirut end of town with fetching demolished buildings, walls, pavements and a noise level that would fracture your skull. The front entrance opened directly on to a main road which made Silverstone look like a quiet run to the bakers.
Crossing this road was the equivalent of playing with the traffic at 5pm on the M6 - on foot.
The 'swimming pool' (hah) was on the 7th floor roof and certainly there were marvellous views of the Temple and the Nile from there, but ONLY from there, our room overlooked the dust laden main road so that we couldn't open our balcony window at any time for fear of choking and also - of course - in the side street, the knocking shop with two heavies guarding the door .
My husband was fascinated by the goings on and could sit and watch the 'girls' ( & I do use the term very loosely) leading their clients on to a room on the roof - for ages. His black eye will die down in time.
Yes the staff were friendly, some of them a mite TOO friendly and would attempt a cuddle at every opportunity, they obviously' kicked with both feet' as they made no distinction between men or women.
The dining room was quite 'compact' and the food nondescript to 'good grief, what's this' - we were issued with one, very grey towel each per day although there were free towels in the pool area.
We noticed most people who stayed there were using it as an overnight stop only en route to cruises or Cairo, very few had booked for the whole week.
In short, one to avoid like the plague - unless you owe yourself a grudge.

The Emilio Hotel is only 2-3 Star but we thought it was fantastic. It is located in the centre of Luxor whereas a lot of the other hotels are on the outskirts.
We enjoyed this as we felt as though we were experiencing the real Luxor. The weather was fantastic - over 35 degrees every day so maybe a bit hot for some!
Food was a bit hit and miss in the local restaurants but maybe this was because we were on a budget so did not go anywhere really posh! The restaurants and cafes along the Nile were brilliant.
There are so many things to do in Luxor, 7 days was not enough! We booked all of our trips through a local agency called Jolly's as they were half the price of the ones offered by the tour operator and exactly the same.
Our hotel room was nice and a fairly decent size. The air con was a bit noisy but worked fine.
The only annoying thing was the call to prayer at 4am from the mosque next door!
All in all I would thoroughly recommend the Emilio Hotel.

I took my mother on a holiday as a Mother's day present and we just wanted a rest. It was great as the hotel staff were very nice and cleaned to a high standard. After a morning doing whatever, we loved going back to our room and watching trash telly during the hottest part of the day. Our maid was super and everyday she made nice animals from the clean towels. The food in both restaurants was good, cheap and comparable to outside. The hotel shop owner was very polite but zealous in his efforts to sell his wares, but mild in comparison to vendors outside.
When I fell ill with Pharaoh’s revenge, all staff demonstrated very genuine concern (one waiter was a little offended because I would not tell him what was wrong - little did he know that I mortifiably embarrassed!!!) The hotel might do themselves a favour and stock very basic remedies for sickness, etc. The local pharmacy trek when I was ill was not so good. My only complaint about the hotel was the noise during the night as we were in the middle of town.
However, unlike most tourists I absolutely LOVED hearing the call to prayer and it was very nice to see people ceasing any and every activity for that purpose (I am not a Muslim).