Where to start?
Checked in at The Philippe with Tour Group. Gf and I were given a twin room which was "changed" into a double. Due to length of phone lead the telephone HAD to remain on the bed (we needed early morning wake-up call). Table in the room had to be moved so that one of us could leave the bed...but that meant the table covered half of the doorway to the bathroom.
We managed to get a room change.
Second room was even worse. Again, small, but, after putting on AC, we managed to get three separate streams of water dripping onto the floor from the ceiling. Took over 45 minutes for a third room to be found...which ended up being the first one again. It was then midnight so we gave up and stayed in it...after re-arranging most of the furniture.
Into bed, and, sheets aren't big enough. It appears that the hotel has no double sheets at all...they simply use single sheets across the bed...and across the body only...your feet dangle out the bottom right underneath the fur-type over-blanket.

Service in this restaurant is absolutely terrible. Other members of the group had to ask for toilet paper four times before it arrived.

Avoid.

We checked one piece of luggage in their secure storage room – when we came back it was gone. We filed a tourist police report for our insurance and the hotel manager lied to police trying to cover-up the hotel’s error. It turned out the bag was taken by some tour group and ended up in another part of the country. We had to pay to get it shipped back to us in Cairo. The hotel would not take any responsibility and we had to pay to get our bag back. Do not stay here.

All I have to say is that from start to end it was a nightmare.

We arrived with our booking voucher, only for the receptionist to claim that he doesn't know anything about our booking through quick rooms. We payed for the night assuming it would be cleared by the next day, where we spent an entire day on the phone trying to sort it out. Still no resolution or contact between the two, Philippe hotel say that we must pay or leave. Our credit card did not work abroad so we had no way to pay for it other than using our spending money- therefore we were stranded in a country with a completely different culture to our own.Thanks to an amazing Thomson tour rep,Gabriel, he convinced Philippe to let us stay till the end of the week and to then pay after,if it was not sorted. However, we decided to pay them there and then with our spending money. Next day, they show us a booking slip they had, with both our names on it through a local company "Wings Tours", and claimed that they couldn't work out the liam kevin hall and cassandra rowan melaniphy on that was infact us!! No other cassandra rowan hall booked in that night i am sure! After all the stress, tears and despair they caused us they then said they would refund our money, altough we had been staying in a superior room so we had to pay extra for that-icing on the cake!!

Whilst we stayed at hotel, there was a powecut purely on our floor, a smoke alarm went off twice I believe, our bathroom shower or toilet constantly leaked leaving floor wet, and our "superior" room over looked an attractive shaft and was dark all day round! A tray with food and dirty plates was left in the corridor for an entire day! The restaurant was always empty when we dined, although the food was very nice. It did consist always of soup, main meal either pork or chicken and melon for desert. Breakfast was not desirable!!

The good aspect of the hotel was that it is in a good location for going to the museums and to the temples, and is along the corniche. However the road it is placed on is next to the calleche drop off point so stinks of horse manure and wee is on the road, so watch out! Beware of the shop owners on the street and never fob them off by saying you will look another day because they do not forget! Swimming pool is nice in the late afternoon but so it would be in any hotel in which you stay I am sure. Really lovely, hardworking

We adopted the hotel mercure around the corner, which had huge pool, lovely restaurant and is also placed along the corniche near the attractions but away from the stinky horses.

So in a nut shell my advice is stay well clear! This really was a horrific experience and can't explain the stress and upset caused. It isn't worth the risk of this happening to you, as you can find much nicer hotels, such as the mercure, for not much more of a cost if you search the right websites!

By the way, Luxor is amazing!

The Philippe hotel, Luxor, Egypt - marvellous hotel though small in comparison to most.
May 2008
The Phillipe wad a marvellous hotel, the staff very friendly and generous. The food was far better than expexted and the range of dishes varied tremendously. The costs for the evening meals was never in excess of £10 which covered 2 starters, 2 main courses and fruit and drinks. The staff would place your table wherever you wanted it outside next to the rooftop swimming pool and were very attentive. The same must be said about the room service which was always delivered within 10/20 mins equally tasty and very apettising!!
The reception staff were very good and had a very good grasp of the English language and went out of their way to assist.
We upgraded rooms to a balconied one which overlooked the main street at the front of the hotel - it was smaller than the original room but of superior quality and had been completely refurbished withremote control air conditioning. There was no bath but the shower was large and we had hot water any time of the day!!
If anyone is looking for a very cost effective package to Luxor i can fully recommend this hotel for its closeness to all the major sites including the temples and museum, there is a side Nile view from the balconies of the superior rooms. The hotel is very clean, the staff very helpful and the food better than any ive stayed in previously in Luxor!!
I must also mention Jolleys a travel shop in front of the Winter Palace who arranged a 5 day cruise for us from Luxor to Aswan, including all excursions, 5star full board for less than £150 per person. The trip was fabulous, the guide phenomenal and the whole experience beyond our wildest dreams. We recommend this to anyone going to Luxor. We will be having a 7 night cruise next time we go, hopefully in November.
To sum up if you are looking for a hotel that is very inexpensive, clean and rated by ourselves far in excess of its apportioned 3 stars we can recommend the Phillippe!!! We will be staying again in November.
Frank & Dot May 2008