Family palace hotel Cairo — Hotel in Cairo

The experience was really bad from check in, as there were issues with my room reservation. the hostel insisted that i did not book an attached bathroom. I find the room description very misleading as my booking only mentioned a private bathroom was included but this "private bathroom" was allocated across the hallway from actual bedroom! Eventually this was resolved by insisting that I speak with the hostel reservation manager. Originally I was asked to pay more ...||The room provided was basic, clean but there was no provision of bath towel, or even toilet paper! I had to make request with hostel staff. The worst part of the hostel has a kill switch and the minute you leave your room and return, your air conditioning unit does not power on. You have to manually ask the Hostel staff. ||Clearly, there isn't much trust that hostel guest will turn off the air-conditioning when they leave their rooms. Overall the atmosphere feels unloved and definitely not very family. I reckon, you can definitely find a better hostel in downtown cairo for a better price and condition. There is no lift to the 6th floor. so the lift bring you to the 5th floor which you need to walk up a flight of stairs. On my check out as the lift was misfunctioning I had to bring 3 luggages down 6 flights of stairs without any hostel assistance! Definitely...

I was very happy with my stay at Family Palace/Travel Joy. I was traveling solo and on a budget, but I was very impressed with the quality of the room/service. The family is very warm and welcoming. They helped with any issues I had, gave me great tips on where to go in the city, and welcomed me in instantly as a solo traveler.|The location was great, very accessible to tourist spots. You are right in the heart of downtown Cairo and can live like a local. There are street food stands, taxis, pharmacies, cafes, restaurants, and liquor stores nearby. |The only things to keep in mind that may put off some travelers: the lobby is a smoking area and air ventilation is not great, although the room's AC is perfect! Also, only two workers speak English well--you may catch some staff who are perfectly friendly, but may need to call Mostafa to translate. Also, the shared bathrooms are nice quality for a typical Egyptian home--that said, they use a bidet and do not provide toilet paper, and the hot water can be spotty. Of course, this did not impact my stay whatsoever. I loved this hostel but would like to point these things out, as I had friends in another room who were not as keen on these points.|Overall I would highly recommend this hostel! The breakfast is nice and staff are always happy to sit down for a cup of tea or...

Listen, I understand the whole "you get what you pay for" thing. But this place is disgusting. They call themselves "non-smoking"...which would be true if the entire staff didn't chain smoke and the smoke didn't come into all the rooms and bathrooms. There is a man and a very pregnant woman who sit in the common space and smoke around the clock. I'm not exaggerating...they NEVER LEAVE. So our room and bathroom just reeked of stale smoke the entire trip. Also, there are 180 steps to climb when the elevator doesn't work, which is pretty often. One worker is pretty friendly. It's in a great area of town for seeing real, non-touristy Cairo. Street food nearby is awesome. But there's no good reason for how dirty this place is. I would guess it's been a good 20 years since it's even seen a fresh coat of paint. Zero hot water for showering. We moved to a hotel in Zamalek for a few dollars more a night and the difference was amazing. Save yourself the misery and...