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.

If you are considering staying at the Marhaba Palace for more than a day, then you may want to keep in mind these pros and cons:
Cons:
1) The room we stayed in had its own hot water heater in the bathroom. This may sound like a luxury, but it is an enormous hassle. If one person in the room takes a shower, the other will have to wait quite a while until the small (maybe ten-gallon) heater heats up just enough water for a somewhat miserable shower.
2) The "bathtub" is the size of a very large sink.
3) Don't expect a double bed. If you are a couple, you will get two twin beds. This is not uncommon in hotels in Egypt, but be forewarned.
4) Cleaning staff was kind enough to leave dirty rags and cleaning supplies on the table in our room.
5) Some guidebook says that the hotel has a great breakfast buffet. If the worst fuul (mashed fava beans) and laban (cheese yogurt) you will ever have and stale breadstuffs served day after day is great, I'd like to know what constitutes a bad breakfast buffet.
6) Outdoor pool was dirty and unusable.
7) Elevators often don't work, although they are attractively kitschy with frosted hieroglyphs on the shiny metal interior.
8) Really far down the corniche; therefore not very convenient to tourist sites.
Pros:
1) You will be impressed by the views of the other side of the Nile with its sandy heights into which the Tombs of the Nobles were sunk. The Aga Khan's mausoleum tops this massive hill and is especially beautiful as the sun sets behind it.
2) AC worked quite well.
3) Staff was friendly and helpful, but this is not uncommon in Egyptian hotels in my experience.

In all, this hotel is not indicative of the best Egypt has to offer, but neither is the town of Aswan.

I don't understand why this hotel was given high ratings. True the location is great- with Nile view and also right infront of the Aswan market, as well as being literally a stone's throw from the train station.

Despite booking a room with a double bed, we were offered a room with 3 single beds. The bathroom was tiny- especially the shower, that had no shower curtain. The staff were friendly and tried to be helpful, but the disarray in the place was obvious. The elevator simply never arrived, and would only magically work for the bellboys. The one evening we ate at the hotel restaurant, it was empty and the AC was turned on once we sat down. The food was mediocre, and it was unpleasant to swat flies as we ate.

I don't think 3*** would be an accurate rating for the hotel, but then in Egypt 3*** seems to imply 2***. There has to be a better value for the price in Aswan. Stay here if you must (it's bearable- relatively clean, comfortable enough beds, AC, tv) but everything is simply "just tolerable". When we stayed there in early 5/2006, there seemed to be alot of renovation going on.

ps: if you're taking the 4am convoy to Abu Simbel, the hotel provides breakfast boxes to go. Just ask.