Trip Report: Le Meridien Pyramids: 2 May to 5 May 2008

My wife and I redeemed our SPG Platinum 50% off point redemption gift at the Le Meridien Pyramids over the past weekend. We had a really good stay and I thought I'd add to the trip reports on the property here.

Arrival
Our flight got into CAI at around 02:00 AM. Needless to say not the best time to arrive at any airport, so we were a little tired. We had arranged an independent tour company to handle our pick up at the airport and we were off. We arrived at the hotel approximately 45 minutes later (the roads from the airport to the hotel aren't the best). Our first impression of the hotel was the show of security upon arrival. Before our tour van was allowed to enter the hotel property (physical barriers), a man took a mirror and did a cursory walk around the van while a second man took a dog around the vehicle as well. We were given the all-clear and into the hotel property we went. A porter quickly grabbed our bags and we entered the hotel through a metal detector (our bags were not searched). We quickly realised that the security at the hotel, while quite a show, was just that. I routinely alarmed the metal detector but the alarms were never resolved. Not that I condone profiling of any type, but basically that's what they did--if you were what they perceived to not be a threat, they let you walk right through, otherwise they would do a patdown, etc.

Check-in
Check-in was a little slow, but nothing awful. It was 3:00 AM at this point afterall. We were on a point reservation and were upgraded to a non-view suite. We were also informed that we would be entitled to complimentary breakfast (more on this later) and would have access to the Royal Club (we never actually used it, but I understand it has free beverages, including alcohol, and was open most of the day). Following check-in a porter escorted us to our suite and gave us a guided tour of the two room suite.

The Room
We had a view of the local streets of Giza--nothing spectacular at all. That being said, the room was nice. I would have preferred a view to the suite, but the extra space was nice to have too as we did plan to spend some time in the hotel. One part of the suite had a couch, TV (CRT style), desk, and mini-bar, the other part had a king size bed (two twins joined as king), chair, TV (CRT style), and the bathroom. The bathroom was on the smaller size, but had a decent enough shower.

The Grounds
The hotel has a decent size pool, complete with views of the pyramids, a ton of restaurants (one Egyptian, one Tex-Mex, one Meditteranean which are only open for dinner), a general restaurant open 24/7, and then some bars, pool lounges, etc. They also have a 24 hour bank that did currency conversions at what appeared to be decent rates. They also had an ATM and a number of shops. We at at the general restaurant, the tex mex, the med, the pool lounge and one of the small sandwich shops. Breakfast averaged about 12 GBP for two, lunch 20-30 GBP for two, including a beer each, and dinner between 35 and 60 GBP for two, including a bottle of wine or a few beers. None of the food was spectacular, but it was decent enough. There are a few restaurants outside the hotel, but we didn't venture out (although we were told it was perfectly safe).

The hotel is a very short ride (i.e. a few minutes at most) over to the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. I am not sure whether it would have been walkable. Given the small cost of cabs and tours, I'd recommend just doing that.

Service
The service reminded me of service on a cruise. Treat you like a king while you were there. Whatever you want they'd try to accommodate and were always overly friendly. My only real complaint about the service was the Managers. They treated their employees like crap. We observed one manager physically inspect each of the waiters shoes (in public) while reprimanding them. Ten seconds later he came over to us with the fakest smile asking how things were. We left a comment with the hotel on this point basically pointing out what we observed and leaving a naive comment saying the staff should be treated as well as the guests. I realise labor is very cheap and many people want to work there, but the staff we encountered were wonderful so I can't see what this guy (and there were other incidents like this) could have seen that they did wrong.

The only other issue we had was with our bill. We were told breakfast was included, but they said it was only if we ate in the lounge. I don't know why we didn't eat in the lounge, but when we checked in, I clarified the free breakfast and they said it applied to the restaurant too. It took a while to get a manager who ultimately agreed to waive the cost of the continental breakfast, but to charge the difference for the full breakfast. It was like 2GBP per day for the two of us, so we said okay. It was probably a decently fair resolution to the matter.

Overall though, I'd recommend this hotel. It is about a 30 minute drive into Cairo, so if you have tours at the museum, river boats, etc., you'll make that drive a few times, but I liked the hotel and enjoyed having the backdrop of the pyramids as we spent our final day lounging at the pool.