Empire Beach Hotel — Hotel in Red Sea

DON"T STAY HERE THEY MAY PHYSICALLY ASSUALT YOU AND CHARGE YOU FOR DAMAGES YOU DIDN'T DO The stay would have been fine except that they are running a scam to cheat guests out of money. I don't know if Americas are targeted b/c of the USD but most guests are European. We went to check out and there was no issue. We were outside waiting for our uber when they front desk man says we can't leave for our flight b/c they need to check the room for damages, 5-10 minutes. I told them there were no damages. A few minutes later, we're still waiting for our uber and they're like you broke a window, ABSOLUTELY did not. They try to say well maybe if you had left the deck door open the wind broke it. We didn't use the deck, the chairs were filthy so you couldn't sit out there. We try to leave. Both the front desk man and the little security man physically try to block us. Then they start grabbing our bags and demanding we wait to see. Our uber arrives and they tell the driver not to take us. We try to get another taxi, they also tell that driver not to take us. They're screaming and yelling at us. More guys are showing up and boxing in my friend who is a male. They were not as physically aggressive with me as I am a woman but did grab at me multiple times. The manager comes down and is insisting we go to the room but we're going to miss our flight. I finally just say fine. They show me a picture (that was probably taken weeks ago of a crack) and I"m like what window is it. I go to the room. There are 4 massive windows with curtains, we only bothered to open 2. The one further away from the deck door has a massive crack in it. I don't think superman could have made this crack, we certainly didn't. I told him we didnt do it. They insisted we did and had to give them 50$ in cash, not credit card (b/c they know they're being fradulent and just want USD). I told my friend to just walk away but there were now 5 or so guys in the lobby surrounding his bag so he couldn't get it. Many of the other European guests were disturbed by their actions. My friend finally gave them the cash. We were scammed! We tried to file a police report but the police wouldn't help us either.

Beyond that, some of the pictures are fake. There is no beach front, you have to walk to their sister resort. The rooms are very low quality, dirty/dusty floors but very large. The bathroom is low quality and didn't really have warm enough water. Staff was very helpful and friendly. Food was below average but edible and the buffet was almost always open. The beer was fine but the liquor tasted like nail polish remover and was not drinkable. Wine is not included with the all inclusive. Wifi only in the lobby but...

Would be a 2* or possibly 1* hotel in the UK, hence the low price, which is easy to see when you arrive. The hotel was built in 1973 and there is nothing that isn't cracked, broken, chipped, loose or generally falling apart. No joke. Cups, sun loungers, fridges, doors, mirrors, taps, you name it. I had a chair collapse on me in the restaurant (I'm 87kg) and if you think the bathroom in your room is bad, you wait until you see the toilets around the public areas 🤣

The cheap all inclusive deal also attracts the largest international collection of morbidly obese people in one place I have ever seen.  Topped off with drunk shouty types (usually English speaking) already intoxicated at 10am, so overweight  they actually can't get off a sunbed without assistance before being escorted back to their room too drunk to walk. It turns out that a few of them live here over the winter so it's quite possible you'll hear the very loud rantings from one of the family lead by the 'whoop-whoop' Granny. I was asked by some Russians if she was mad and some Dutch if the family had Tourettes to explain the constant swearing 😂

Whilst a couple of the staff look at you with utter contempt when you ask for something,  most of the staff make the effort to engage and be helpful. On the positive side, the entertainments team really do their best to put on a show in the evenings as well as little things to engage the guests during the day but beware or the common trick of the entertainments team getting you to do a review online about them, when actually you are leaving a review for the hotel.

The sand from the pool to the beach is meticulously raked each morning and I saw a gardener gently caress a small flower as he was watering his plants in the grounds (shows seriously they take their jobs).

Pool team also do a great job keeping one of the two pools clean and the kids love the water slides.

Buffet in the main restaurant is good, varied choice and all very tasty, though I could see why some would say it's a bit repetitive and lacking flavour. It's likely on your first night the 'friendly' manager will try to sell you a 'special' meal and entertainment in the small side restaurant, without mentioning the extra cost. And when he did tell you, he was not so friendly after you say 'no thanks, we're all-inclusive'.

I used to enjoy the TV show Benidorm, never thought I would be in it 🤣

Outside the hotel there are some bars nearby, ranging from EGP60-80 for a beer. A walk through the non-tourist part of town is an eye opener, though the Hurgada city area is a little cleaner and the place to go for bars and restaurants is the Sheridan Road. We were advised it was a...

Well, where do I start? I like to be positive, so I will start with the staff. Most of the staff were friendly and helpful although Ahmed one of the bar staff was just plain rude and arrogant. The entertainment team were definitely 'tryers' and were so friendly unless you caught them when they were not working, and then they would just ignore you. The pools are small, I wouldn't like to go here in high season as I can imagine there would be no sun loungers as there were not many people there last week and some days you had to find a lounger. The pools are clean, and the lifeguards present love the children and watch what they are up to. The rooms are incredibly tired and need gutting. There is a fridge in each room and a TV and hair dryer, all of which work. The beds were incredibly comfortable, and we slept really well. The rooms are cleaned to a high standard. However, we were only given 1 bath towel and 1 hand towel between 2 adults. When you arrive, you are given beach towel cards so you can get fresh beach towels each day from the hut by the sea if you can get the guy off his phone long enough to oblige. The food was OK, very limited. Chicken, beef, and fish and one vegetable dish, rice, potatoes, and pasta. It's pretty much the same thing every lunch and dinner time. The smallest buffet I have EVER come across in an all-inclusive resort. The alcoholic drinks are all local and are pretty rank. The cocktails are their version with whatever squashes, not juice they have available. Nothing is 'on tap' all come in plastic bottles Inc the alcohol, the beer comes in cans, which they pour some into a glass/plastic beaker depending where you are drinking, wine of any kind is not part of the all inclusive package and you have to pay a supplement if you want wine. The evening entertainment leaves something to be desired, and when the 'act' is over the DJ puts on music which is completely inappropriate for children and they really don't care if children are present with song lyrics like 'suck my d!@k' and the words f&@k etc. One lady had a go at the DJ because of this, but it didn't change the type of music he put on. Overall, I wouldn't go back here, and I wouldn't recommend it either. The week before we arrived there was a fire in the apartment block to the left of the swimming pool, there were no smoke alarms or a working fire alarm, people on the second floor were tying bed sheets together so they could escape the room safely. This was a cheapy holiday that we booked last minute and no wonder the hotel was cheap because you wouldn't want to pay much for...