Iconic hotel, disappointing service

Having my own history with the fabled Mena House in its previous incarnation as an Oberoi, I chose to come back to the property for the first time in many years to bask in the Pyramids at what I thought would be the best spot for it.

It doesn’t get better than this: the hotel is literally at the foot of the Giza Plateau and main entrance to the last Wonder of the Ancient World. An easy, five-minute walk gets you right up to the ticket counter and up to the Pyramids and Sphinx. The hotel enjoys spectacular views of the Pyramids from its expansive grounds and many rooms, and it’s truly incredible to be in the presence of such magnificence as the Pyramids.

The surrounding residential/commercial area of Giza is a madhouse of thunderous traffic and tourist touts, so it’s best to stay in. The rest of Cairo is a thirty-odd minute drive away, while the flashy malls at 6th of October City are about twenty or so minutes away.

Cairo International Airport is approximately one hour and ten minutes away by car.

The Mena House consists of two buildings: the historic Palace wing built in 1869 and the newer Garden extension. The Palace is currently closed for a multiple year-long restoration and renovation, while the Garden wing has been modernized over the last few years.

The main entrance and lobby is in the Palace, and is a spectacular welcome to the area. Hotels just aren’t built like this anymore: everything from the gilded ceilings, gold patterns, brass chandeliers and furniture inlaid with mother of pearl sets the scene for something beautiful and otherworldly. While a little TLC wouldn’t go amiss, the vintage details take you back in time and you actually feel like you’re sometime else.

Check-in was relatively easy, with a welcome drink of karkadeh [chilled, sweetened hibiscus tea]. My Platinum Premier Elite status with Marriott was acknowledged and I was informed of an upgrade from a deluxe garden view room to an executive room with Pyramids view. I was then taken to a golf cart outside the entrance, driven over to the garden wing and escorted to my room.

As previously mentioned, all the rooms in the Palace are closed for a restoration and renovation [I stayed there in 2006 and they needed HELP back then, so goodness knows what the state of affairs is in there right now]. Fortunately, the rooms in the garden buildings have all gone under the hammer in the mid-2010s and are now in very good shape.

My room was extremely spacious at over forty square meters. Decorated with dark wooden furniture and floors with upholstery in beiges made for a clean, contemporary atmosphere. Black-and-white vintage photos of Cairo, the Pyramids and Mena House dot the room. A king-sized bed dressed in white linens with firm mattress and thick pillows was perfect as I prefer a firm sleep. There is a couch, coffee table, two bedside tables, a circular table and two chairs. The air-conditioning is individually controlled and very strong - perfect for someone who likes a room close to the sub-zeros! There is a big balcony with two chairs and a table with a spectacular view of the Pyramids and hotel grounds.

The bathroom is a three-fixture setup with sink, bathtub and toilet [Turkish-style with a built-in knob and nozzle spraying water at your behind]. There are two towers of two drawers each, as well as small glass shelves for counter space. Toiletries are Marriott-standard, provided by Acca Kappa.

Wi-fi is free and included for Marriott Rewards members and those who book direct through Marriott’s official channels. Coverage across the hotel was very good and the speeds were great.

I was informed at check-in that Platinum guests receive breakfast in the Executive Lounge, but can also enjoy complimentary breakfast at the main restaurant. Seeking a wide variety, I opted to only check the restaurant out during my stay. As expected, the breakfast spread was in buffet form and extensive, with several islands offering everything from cereals, cold cuts and cheeses to falafel, foul and potatoes au gratin. An egg station is on offer with cooked-to-order omelettes and other egg-based dishes.

We had lunch in the main restaurant twice, and while a buffet was available, we chose to order off the menu. Options were decent and included soups, salads and international main courses as well as some from a now-closed Indian restaurant in the Palace called the Moghul Room [formerly a legend in Cairo] - although the lack of any Egyptian choices was no fun. Ordering both international and Indian, we found the food to be of good quality but absolutely nothing to write home about - which was especially disappointing as we were excited to try options from the famous Moghul Room.

We had access to the Executive Lounge, located adjacent to the pool. If offers breakfast from 7 to 10:30 AM, afternoon snacks from 12 to 3 PM and evening snacks and happy hour from 6 to 8 PM. I didn’t try the lounge breakfast, but the ‘afternoon snacks’ consisted of jars of macarons and brownies. The evening spread was more comprehensive with salad greens, cheeses, a hot corner with skewered meats, breads and some desserts. Evening drinks consist of local beer or red/white wine. A fridge of carbonated drinks and bottled water is available and open all day.

The hotel has a spa with gender-segregated lockers and sauna/steam room, as well as a mixed Jacuzzi and gym. Treatment rooms are available with your typical selection of massages and scrubs. There is a large, lovely outdoor pool in the back of the garden wing [the old pool was located in the front of the Palace with a view of the Pyramids but was removed to make space for an events lawn, water feature and the newly-built main restaurant - boo!] with lots of loungers in a three-tier setting, as well as changing rooms.

The hotel offers business facilities in the form of a business center with printing facilities, and is very popular for larger events as weddings and conferences. There are meeting rooms and ballrooms, but the new events lawn in the front gardens below the Pyramids get a lot of traffic. We experienced a major event during our stay, replete with laser lights and soft music into the night but we got lucky; previous reviewers have complained about weddings boom boom booming into the early hours.

Facilities are great but as service is what ties an experience together, the sub-par service our group experienced over the course of our stay was ultimately the hotel’s Achilles heel and is enough for me to rank my experience as an overall 3 out of 5. I emphasize that while it is unfair and unreasonable to expect St. Regis levels of service at a premium-segment Marriott, the Marriott name is synonymous with a level of professional consistency that simply did not exist at this hotel.

While the staff are ultimately well-intentioned, their total lack of coordination paired with total blundering made for such detriment to our experience at the hotel that I and other members of my group sought to simply minimize any interactions with the hotel team. Some examples include the following:

• At the breakfast buffet, we had asked for freshly-squeezed orange juice instead of the juice offered at the buffet and had some delivered to us. When one of us asked for a refill, we were brought the normal juice and upon asking for it to be freshly-squeezed, the waitress instantly responded that the hotel had run out of oranges and that fresh juice wasn’t available. Five minutes later, another waiter brought us glasses of freshly-squeezed juice. Hmm…
• My friend tried ordering a cosmopolitan off the poolside drinks menu. Twenty minutes later, she was told that cosmos weren’t available because the hotel didn’t stock cranberry juice, so she asked for a vodka shot and some pomegranate juice [which she had at breakfast earlier that day]. Ten minutes later, the waiter brought out warm vodka in a tall glass and a side of pomegranate syrup, with the explanation that no pomegranate juice was available at the hotel. When I let him know that we had it at the main restaurant that morning, he seemed genuinely confused at the prospect of having to make contact with the restaurant for it, then disappeared for ten more minutes. When he returned, he said that the juice wasn’t available. Needless to say, no drinks were had by the pool that day.
• One night, we asked a waiter at the lounge if we could order drinks from the bar other than the wine and beer on offer and pay for them. He grumbled that it wasn’t possible and if we wanted drinks from the bar, we should “just go to the bar and order it” ourselves.
• While at the lounge, we had inquired about the option to order food off the room service menu and have it delivered to lounge. The attendant looked at us and said “But other people will see you eating room service.” This was such a puzzling response and while some hotels allow for room service to be delivered and others don’t, we never got a solid response to our request and sought to not pursue it.
• Another night at the lounge, I was offered ‘anything I wanted’ due to my pescatarian diet, so I asked for some shrimp [which were offered the first few nights on the lounge buffet by the salad greens]. The same lounge attendant from the above scenario came out and said it wasn’t possible to make some this particular night and gave no reason why, but said “if there’s anything else you need, let me know.” Piling this simple request onto the previous failure to order room service, I had the impression that any request would be too complex and thought that it wasn’t worth asking… until another attendant who usually worked the pool came by, asked if I wanted anything and when I asked about shrimp, he had the kitchen put together a huge platter of grilled shrimp and tomato pasta and delivered it shortly thereafter, no questions asked.

Across the board, we found the overall service to be slow, inattentive and got the vibe that nobody really cared, that a creative and non-sensical response was better than an attempt to remedy a particular situation. This being said, there were some staff members who genuinely tried to deliver and they deserve to be recognized for their actions: Wagih, Amal, Rana and Safaa from the 139 Pavilion always greeted us with energy and tried to meet our requests, while Magdy from the pool/lounge always greeted us by name and ultimately said ‘yes’ when his colleagues would say ‘no.’ Tarek, the hotel's Director of Marketing Communications and a Mena House institution, is a gem and a total asset to the property through his courtesy, devotion and passion to and for the hotel. Thank you, you wonderful people.

The name ‘Mena House’ conjures up a romantic image of bygone grandeur in the shadow of the Pyramids and while the physical property itself upholds that allure, it is ultimately service that distinguishes a great room from a great hotel and the Mena House just doesn’t make the cut.

It's difficult to cloak a recommendation under a blanket 'yes' or 'no.' If service is a make-or-break for you, then the overall recommendation veers no. If you can overlook all the discrepancies in favor of patience and a solid room at a legendary location, then tuck in.