Here is the letter I wrote to Egyptian Tourist Authority regarding the hotel:

In the morning of October 17 in Aswan, I made a payment of 150EGP to the hotel where I was staying, Hotel Marhaba, for a day trip to Abu Simbel. The trip was to leave Aswan at 4:30am the following day. At 9:00pm that day I was informed that the driver had cancelled the trip and I got my money back. I tried to make alternate arrangement but it was already too late. I got up at 3:30am the following morning to arrive at the place where the Abu Simbel convey was assembling and asked to see if anyone would take me. The tourist police at the site was also helping. But eventually no one could take me. I went back to the hotel at 6:00am to ask them to arrange for me to get on to the second convey, which was supposed to leave at 11:00am. I also asked them to arrange for a flight. After much negotiations and finally at 11:30am they didn’t do anything. I asked them for compensation and they refused and told me I could report to the tourist police, which I did. I filed a report with them and left Egypt without seeing Abu Simbel and wasted a day in Aswan.

In addition to that, I also would like to report to you of the bad practice of Hotel Marhaba in Aswan. I arrived on October 16 at 10:00pm after a 17 hour bus journey from Dahab to Luxor and a 3 hour train journey to Aswan. I went to the hotel asking for a room and I was quoted US$45 per night. I negotiated it down to US$40 knowing that the official rack rate was US$70 per night (as it was posted at reception). The hotel was empty and I thought US$40 would be reasonable. I asked to see the room; the room was satisfactory and I left my luggage in the room and went down to the reception for paper work. At that time the staff told me that the rate was in Euros. I was too tired to argue or leave at that time and I took the room. I didn’t report this to the tourist police but I think you should know about it and hope that something can be done to prevent this from happening to me and other tourists.

I spent one night at Marhaba, in between two weeks of heavy travel throughout the country.

Impressions: The hotel was much bigger than I realized - with many floors and an enormous number of rooms on each. The management was very friendly. The room rate was good. And...there is free internet - a major perk in this part of Egypt. Also, the roofdeck is cool - with cushions set up to take in evening views of the city.

The room: The bed was comfortable, the room was enormous, with a TV, AC, a private balcony with a great view of the Nile, and a big bathroom. The bathroom was very, very clean. Marble floors and counters and nice soap were added perks. I slept great as well. The room itself could have been a bit cleaner and it did have a bit of a mildew smell to it...despite having marble floors. Overall it was good enough, but nothing more.

The restaurant: Lunch was terrible. BUT, breakfast was great: fresh pastries, juice, coffee, cheese, jams and honey.

Stayed here for two nights with my fiancee in March 07 for US$60/night in a double room. The hotel is more awkward than bad but I would suspect there is better value to be found.

Our large room had a nice, big patio (shared with one other room) overlooking a park and the Nile, but the blaring techno music from the adjacent market was a bit annoying at night and cancelled out the advantage. Fortunately, all was quiet the night before we headed to Abu Simbel at 3:30am and we never heard any noise from inside the hotel. The room has satellite tv and a fridge but was the most poorly designed I've ever seen, completely wasting its ample size. I counted 14 corners in ours. No wall went straight for more than 6 or 8 feet and there was a support column right between the desk and the wardrobe. The bathroom is equally difficult. The tiny tub and lack of a shower curtain means you will probably get water everywhere, and you will also have to wait 15-30 mins for hot water due to the individual water heater in the room. The cleaning staff went out of their way to fold the towels in a creative design for us, but really the room wasn't very clean.

The location is very convenient to the train station and the friendly, helpful staff were kind enough to let us check in early (arrived at around 8:30am on the overnight train from Cairo) and check out late (after returning from Abu Simbel around 1pm). It is a bit far north along the corniche but the walk isn't too bad, and there are no shortage of cabs or caleche's to take you where you want to go. The rooftop bar doesn't serve alcohol but views are nice. Breakfast buffet is not very good, but there was someone to cook eggs to order. They accept credit cards without an extra charge, but the machine wasn't working when we checked out so we had to use cash.

TIPS: Talk to Hakeem in the tourist office before doing anything in and around Aswan. He provided us with lots of really invaluable help.

You can book a day-trip to Abu Simbel through the hotel, but you'll pay EP100. You can get the EXACT SAME tour, riding on the EXACT SAME bus, from one of the smaller cheaper hotels for about half that, depending on your bargaining skills. Even if you don't book the tour through the hotel however, they will still prepare a complimentary, basic breakfast box for you.

We stayed at the Marhaba for two nights. Got a suite for $60 CDN per night.

The view was great! The room huge. The terrace/balcony amazing.

The only downfall was the bathroom. The tub wasn't large (but there wasn't enough hot water to take a bath anyway), and there was no shower curtain. There was not enough room to move around comfortably in the washroom. It should have been placed off the livingroom area rather than the bedroom.