Stay Report: Conrad Cairo (Cairo, Egypt - December 2012)

Stay Report: Conrad Cairo
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photo courtesy of Conrad Cairo

I was traveling to Cairo to visit a family friend and they had suggested to stay in the Zamalek neighborhood.  There are a couple of hotels in this neighborhood, with the most famous being the Cairo Marriott, so it was recommended to look for a place near the Marriott since many cab and tour drivers know of this hotel.  When I started to look for places, I found the Conrad Cairo which was about a 10-15 minute drive and located across the bridge from the Marriott.  The Conrad was providing a good deal and I wanted to try out this product from Hilton so I decided to book this hotel.  Overall, the hotel was nice with a large and modern lobby.  The hotel had many amenities and the rooms were spacious and comfortable.  The major negative of the hotel was the service, which was definitely not up to par and needed major improvement.

You enter the hotel through a huge lobby that makes the hotel feel large and grand.  At the beginning of the lobby is the car service and taxi stand.  As you walk through the lobby, you pass many sitting areas until you get to the back of the lobby where the check-in desks are located.   Right next to the check-in desks are stairs – which you can take upstairs to the breakfast and lounge area or downstairs to the bank and other amenities.   Even though it was not mentioned on the booking, the check-in desk let us know that the breakfast buffet comes standard with each reservation.  Check-in took a while, the first step of the poor service, but I received the key and proceeded to my room.

photo courtesy of Conrad Cairo

The room itself was nice and looked like a standard, Hilton two double-bed room.  As you entered, on the right was the bathroom while on the left was a closet.  The bathroom was a nice size and contained a toilet, a bathtub, a sink, and a bidet.  There were nice toiletries also available in the bathroom.  Across from the bathroom was the closet, which not only provided storage but also contained an iron and ironing board.  As you progressed further into the room, against the left-side of the wall was a dresser with drawers on the bottom and the TV on top, a desk, and couch plus chairs to sit on.  Against the right-side of the wall were the two double beds with a nightstand in the middle.  The beds were nice and large, and were updated to new Hilton beds so they provided a nice and comfortable sleep.  The best part of the room was the balcony, which was not large but still provided a nice view of the river as well as some parts of the city. 

photo courtesy of Conrad Cairo

As a full-service hotel, there were a lot of facilities available for the guest.  Breakfast was included in our rate, and the breakfast buffet was extensive and had a lot of variety in it.  The buffet catered to a variety of tastes, including Arabic, English, and Continental options.  The seating area was on the 2^nd floor, above the open lobby, and faced very large windows which overlooked the river and provided some really nice views while enjoying the food.  Other facilities included a fitness center, an outdoor pool, a business center, an ATM located in the basement, and complimentary wifi.  The wifi was a bit spotty at times but overall decent. 

Not everything in the hotel was great.  As I said before, the customer service was extremely poor and not helpful at all.  Neither the taxi/car service provided any help nor were the staff responsive or helpful with any requests.  When we spoke up about our complaints to the manager, the response was “this is the best I can do given the situation (the trip was in 2012 when the protests were going on)”.   I completely understood the situation that the country, and the hotel was facing, but there is still respect and decent customer service.  In fact, one would imagine that since tourists are not coming in the same numbers that they would be treated better in order to spread the word about the good service they received.  Instead, the hotel had dropped the level of their customer service and that was not good.    

Another issue was transportation.  When we went, I am not sure if the hotel is new or for some other reason but many taxi drivers were unaware of the hotel.  It took some explaining and having the information written in Arabic for the drivers to get us close to the hotel or to the hotel itself.  There were plenty of taxis waiting at the hotel to take you where you wanted to go. 

Overall, positives of the hotel included the decent and comfortable room, and the nice breakfast.  The location was decent as it was near Zamalek and walking distance to a mall.  Negatives of the hotel included the poor customer service and the sometimes lack of awareness of taxi drivers of the hotel.  The Conrad is a nice full-service hotel, and I just wish the customer service matched the grandeur of the hotel.