Bet el Kerem Guesthouse — Hotel in Aswan

My friends and I stayed in this guesthouse for 3 nights and participated 6 activities with them, and some of the activities were tailor made. We booked the accommodation in May for December and started discussing the activities two weeks before departure. Ellen was the main contact person before arrival. During our stay, Abdel was there but Ellen wasn’t.

Here were some setbacks we encountered during our stay: They forgot to pick us up at the train station which was previously agreed. After texting with Ellen on WhatsApp, the driver arrived 35 minutes later. They made this mistake up by serving us a free lunch on the same day, and we were satisfied with the meal. The driver didn’t speak English and both Abdel and the driver were not clear about our itinerary. Therefore, almost after every stop, the driver had to call Abdel to confirm with us, and then Abdel would speak with the driver. The driver didn’t want to wait for us outside of the attractions. We had to tell him how long we wanted to stay here before getting off (which we think it is very difficult for the first-timer) and then he would leave. There were some times that we finished the visits early and then we had to call him, or he was late. We ended up waiting for the driver to come back in many stops, and this made the flow extremely influent. We were forced to tip the boatman by the driver. To be clear, we would be more than happy to tip if we have a wonderful experience. However, all the boatman did was to bring us to the island and return, which we thought was already included in the payment. We complaint this to Abdel the same night, but he told us it was out of his control. When we asked Abdel if a tour guide is included for the camel market tour (their website said yes), he took it as we required additional guide, so he booked a non-refundable guide for us without our consent. We learned that the guide was already booked from Ellen on WhatsApp. However, we were just on the phone with Abdel earlier and he did not check with us about booking this guide. After explaining our concern with Ellen, she agreed to talk to Abdel about the misunderstanding. The next day before we departed, Abdel was not aware of our conversation with Ellen and when we tried to call her, she was unreachable. We ended up still paying for the guide that we didn't book. Additionally, we wouldn’t recommend this guide. Compared to another guide we saw in the market, we only received 1 to 2 minutes of introduction and the information was pretty similar to what you would read in the guidebook or on the internet. After the camel market tour, we wanted to clarify with Ellen and asked her if she could call us back. She got back with the message “I don’t know why…What is the problem? (...)”. At this point, we were very disappointed by the service and did not feel that they wanted to solve this issue or talked to us.

Here are some suggestions if you want to book a tour with them: Get an Egyptian number with data. You will need it when communicating with Abdel, Ellen and the driver. Make the itinerary clear, including the departure time, pick-up and drop-off points. All their tours start from their guesthouse. We didn’t know this before so on the second day, we asked the driver to drop us in the center to have lunch from the morning trip, and we figured we had to return to the house by ourselves to start the...

We have stayed in the guest house for two nights in early Feb 2020. ||||Facing the hill of the Tombs of the Nobles, the guest house is situated at the southern edge of a Nubian village. It has a lush garden in the front that evidently takes a large effort to maintain in the climate and rather stands out in its surrounding environment. ||||The house and rooms are clean and well maintained (other than the locks in the doors to the rooms that insistently test one's skill and patient to open). With simply equipped but adequate bathrooms, the rooms are nicely furnished, quite and comfortable. ||||The roof terrace is a very special place overlooking the hill and the city in the east bank afar. Tastefully decorated with a blue as the base color, it's comfy and homey. It's where the guests rest (with free coffee, tea and other fruity drinks) and dine. ||||The breakfast and dinner offered in house are specially wonderful - it's a home-made gourmet with quite a few touches of a great chef who mixes various styles however retaining the local style as the main theme. ||||The great chef is no one other than Abdel, the owner of the guest house, who is open, friendly and helpful, a proud Nubian with a deep root in the local community. He is very capable making one home in his guest house!||||The guest house is just a 5-minute walk to the ferry which takes 5 LE to cross the Nile to the city center in the east bank.||||If into it, one can walk around the surrounding village neighborhood that appears rather plain and basic, observing the folks going about their...

Our family of 4 (2 adults, 2 teens) spent 2 nights at this guest house.||Our first night we arrived around 8pm and even though we’d booked the family room we were relocated to another house- a short distance away- from the main guesthouse. ||In this house we had 2 bedrooms, each with their own bathroom. ||The rooms were clean. The bathrooms were ok but awkward (with the shower spraying across the entire room). However it felt a bit isolated.||The next morning we relocated to the main guesthouse. We were given a delicious breakfast on the rooftop. It was really great.||||In the main guesthouse we moved into the family room: 4 beds and a bathroom...only the bathroom was separated from the room by a shower curtain - kind of weird & awkward. We all agreed to use the main bathrooms for our stay!||The sheets and towels were clean. Again the breakfast was delicious. There’s a ping pong table where Abdoul will challenge you to a match or two!||Getting to the guesthouse is quite easy. It overlooks the Tombs of the Nobles. The ferry takes about 5 min,and costs 2 Egyptian pounds. From there it’s about a 5 min walk.||||I really appreciated the friendliness of Abdoul and his philosophy at the guesthouse. He insisted we feel at home and provided fruit, water, tea, coffee...