Marriott Mena House, Cairo

We stayed at the Marriott Mena House and even though the head Bonvoy office in Cork completely messed up the original agreement (which caused us unnecessary stress), the hotel itself made up for everything. The staff here are honestly a different breed of human. I don’t say that lightly. Egyptians have this warmth and calmness that feels rare. They don’t treat you like a customer, they treat you like someone they genuinely care about, almost family like, with open hearts. As an autistic person who picks up on tone, body language and sincerity instantly, I felt safe and understood here, which is not something I say often about hotels. The food was lovely every day, beautifully prepared and presented, fresh, cooked perfectly and the service was always as if you were visiting your long lost Egyptian royal cousin and his people were taking care of you , which I appreciate massively because I get overwhelmed easily. The hotel itself feels like walking into a quiet palace garden. I can’t even describe how surreal it is to have your coffee, look up, and see the Great Pyramid right there. My brain still can’t process it. It doesn’t feel real. Something I’ll never forget. The pool is beautiful too, warm, spacious and peaceful. My son was happy and relaxed, which matters more to me than anything. This isn’t just a hotel stay. It’s one of those places that gets into your memory in a soft, comforting way. Despite the booking issues, I would come back here in a heartbeat because of the people. The staff truly carry this hotel. They made my experience feel grounding, calm and genuinely special. Highly recommend staying here.

This is a great resort if you are a night owl who requires little sleep. The view is amazing, as are the hotel grounds. Very accommodating staff. Breakfast was amazing. So why the poor rating? Each night of our stay there were large raucous parties going on. Some night had two weddings and no evening was quiet. One of the weddings (right in the garden area outside of our window) even featured late night fireworks. If you are looking for a restful spot to lay your head and recharge for all of your Egyptian adventures, then this is not the place for you. If you are looking for a great location to host an event (wedding, conference, party etc.) then this may be the place for you. Don't get me wrong, the place is beautiful, it is just that it is so noisy that we got very little sleep. In fact, when we mentioned this to a couple of local tour guides they informed us that this was a common issue with this hotel. I guess they don't market the noise levels.

The hotel had two very loud, large weddings two nights in a row. We couldn’t get to sleep until after 11 PM. The food and service were average. It was very expensive. Someone on the staff must have given our name and room number to another staff member or guest. Charges we did not make appeared on our bill. It was a hassle getting the charges removed that we did not make. Stay anywhere else if you are in Giza!

The outstanding aspect of the hotel is that you can sit outside having an excellent breakfast while looking out at the pyramids of Giza. Obviously get down early if you want an outdoor seat. If you’re a bird lover you will enjoy eating with the cheeky crows looking out for a snack while other birds are bathing and drinking from the water feature. The grounds were well kept and interesting. The room was good but not special for the price other than the view of a pyramid.

Understand this a mid grade Marriott property it is not at all luxurious. We chose this only for its location and at least thought it would be okay for our 2 day stay. The stay started off great and went downhill fast. Best part was the hotel having a representative to meet us and get us through customs extremely quickly. Problems started when we got into our room, they were paining outside and the fumes were beyond over powering. We had to change rooms and the next day they were still painting with the fumes in the hallway. At pool we had to move as far as possible because painting was still causing us headaches. For dinner we went to 139 restaurant epic disaster, service was awful, food tasteless and we requested a table outside and that request was not honored even though it was confirmed 3 months in advance. We had our laundry done expecting to it be done that day as we paid a 50% surcharge upon calling it took 30 minutes after the laundry service was closed to find it. We don’t recommend choosing this hotel even for the location even a mid grade hotel should be better than this. The staff tried too help improve our stay there were too many problems for it to improve.