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The Santana Cairo. The Santana is located in what would have been a nice and peaceful street had there been no building construction across the road. The construction wouldn’t have mattered if it was done during the day, but at times they were still doing it when we went to bed at 9 o’clock sometimes even later.

Upon arriving at the Santana our first impression was it looks a little run down but it is descent. On our first night we were escorted to our room by a hotel employee. As we entered the room smelt a little musty and was hot so we put the A/C on. After putting the A/C on we tried to adjust it and were unable as the adjusting knobs had been removed. The A/C was set for fan only and was unable to adjust it to cool. We contacted reception and told them about the A/C and they advised us that they would send someone up to fix it. After having to wait two hours I then took out my own utility pliers and adjusted it myself. No one ever showed up to fix it. The A/C was very noise, not only ours but the room next to us had their A/C on and it was very loud.

The last room we stayed in 308, the TV was missing the remote control.

Our tour guide requested wake up calls for the entire group. In the first room we only got one wake up call instead of two. In the second room we stayed in we were unable to hear the phone ring as the ringer volume was very soft and could not be adjusted to be any louder. In the third room we didn’t receive any wake up calls and the phone worked perfectly.

Although the room could accommodate four people there were only ever two towels and two glasses, every time house keeping made the room they only ever left two towels and two glasses. So we had to ring reception everyday and ask for more towels and glasses which usually took at least 30 minutes to come. Although the hotel knew that we were arriving the fridge was never on for our arrival.

After having just travelled 18 hours we just wanted to have a shower and sleep. The shower had very little water pressure making it difficult to shower. There were two elevators in the hotel; both were hazards as they were unreliable because the kept breaking down .We could hear the repairman hammering late on one night. I did not feel safe enough to use them.

The carpet was disgusting. I had a shower and walked out onto the carpet and within a matter of minutes my feet were black from the carpet. It looked like it hadn’t been clean for quite a while and was torn around the edges.

We were booked in to rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors; we never got to stay in one of the remodelled rooms on the 4th and 5th floors, although we did see the one my daughter and her husband stayed in.

On our last breakfast at the Santana my wife asked for an omelette when she walked in... 25 minutes later when we had to leave we still had no received the omelette as the chef kept disappearing to answer his mobile. My wife got up and said something in a furry and one of the waiters said they would make it now and bring it down to her in reception. We ended up getting the omelette 40 minutes after initially asking.

In the last room that we stayed in room 308 we were unable to get in on first arriving as the key would not turn in the lock. We went down to reception and they sent someone up to try and open the door. The hotel employee hit then kicked the door before opening it. We had no trouble opening the lock for the rest of our stay (4 nights) until our last night it happened again. My daughter who was staying in another room rang reception and notified them of what had happened they said they would send someone up in 3 minutes. 10 minutes later we were still waiting, so our tour guide rang reception and they told him they would be up immediately. Another 10 minutes later no one so our tour guide went down to reception and said “Look my people are standing outside there door trying to get in. You haven’t sent anybody up yet.” Reception said that they hadn’t heard about the situation yet. Reception then picked up the phone and ordered for someone to go to room 308 to fix the door. Our guide then asked how reception knew it was room 308 if they had not yet heard of the situation the hotel staffs came up and tried opening it but were unable so they sent for repairman. The repairman didn’t have the right equipment to open the lock the first time so he had to go and get more tools. 45 minutes later he was still trying to open the door. So we decided to go and get some pizza. As we were leaving he opened the door and said he would change the lock but never did.

The overall stay at the Santana hotel was below average. Only good thing about it was the beds were comfy, the location was good (close to shops and takeaway) and the downstairs restaurant had great food although a little pricey.