Royal Inn Residence

The central Cairo location was useful, with easy access to the metro and Uber, and a few staff members were genuinely kind. They aren't the ones I blame. The owner seems unable to manage the place. My 23-day stay was one of the worst experiences I've had. I mostly used the room for sleeping and keeping my luggage, but the hotel couldn't provide even basic two-star service. The room was hardly ever cleaned. I had to ask repeatedly, and it was done only about three times, after I insisted. The cleaners were slow, and I often saw them sitting at reception smoking and chatting. The same employee handled breakfast as well as cleaning, which makes no sense. Breakfast was very poor, and supplies dwindled near the end of my stay. It was a boiled egg, bread warmed in a microwave until dry and hard, a thin cheese slice, a nearly hair-thin slice of ham, little packaged portions of honey, cheese, and guava paste that seemed almost fake, plus instant coffee or tea. There was almost never milk, and bread showed up at 8:30 am, if it arrived at all. Once there was none, and an employee offered another boiled egg instead. Ridiculous. The two men taking turns as doormen spent the day smoking and watching guests. They kept pestering us with ways to make money, sometimes offering haircuts, asking for clothes or food, or asking where I was going and trying to sell me whatever I said I was buying. I know this can be part of local culture, but these two went too far and were constantly bothering guests. The building and room had other problems, too. The elevator looked very unsafe, with no interior lining, so the slab and pillars were visible. The stairs had rubbish, the lift was filthy, and staff smoked all the time except at reception. Reception is on the seventh floor, so going up just to collect or leave the key takes a lot of effort. The street noise came through as if it were inside the room. Cairo is so polluted that opening the window felt dangerous, though sometimes I had to because the ventilation was poor. The bathroom drain barely worked, and shower water rose to my heels or higher. That only improved on the second-to-last day. Sometimes late at night, the shower wasn't hot. They charged in dollars and resisted giving change right away. I eventually felt it was easier to leave the change as a tip for someone who hadn't helped me. The central location and a few pleasant staff were the only good parts of this terrible place.