Al Moudira Hotel

We stayed here and the Winter Palace and personally thought the Winter Palace was hands down a far superior hotel with much cheaper rates. Overall the room was 'gilded', beautiful when you walk in and take a picture, but really falling apart once you try to enjoy the shower, rest in the bed, sit on the cushions etc. We booked in the Luxury suite for one night (which we were told was the nicest room in the hotel No.3, although we were given a room different to what we booked and instead of a majestic pictured bathtub given a small fountain and an old shower) as there was a big event in Luxor the day before and most of the hotels were sold out. Staying here felt like we were transported back in time, both in a special and terrible way. On the good end, the room décor was quite beautiful with arches, designs, a nice fountain in the center and a unique step-down shower in the room with high ceilings. But on the bad side, the charm ends with the general décor and isolated location, as the room features really need to be updated and the appliances are very old, such as the blow dryer that looked straight out of the 1950s, a very small old TV, very old AC units that were quite dusty, old telephones etc. The wifi was incredibly slow and unreliable and didn't work for us at all, even after they put a unit outside our door (as other reviewers noted, do not recommend staying here if you have a job that requires you to regularly check email or be responsive). There were so many other issues that were surprising given the highest prices in Luxor: the shower head had significant limescale/staining build-up, wouldn’t spray water normally and only the handheld part worked, the towels were over washed and stiff, the toiletries were really bad and a generic brand (they had left only 1 soap for ourselves and our son when we checked-in), the bed was pretty hard and uncomfortable and the mosquito net above the bed was filed with dead mosquitos and so dusty we had to just leave it up as a decoration. The pool also left much to be desired as it was so cold and dirty when we tried to go. The front staff was friendly and helpful with sorting out a taxi into Luxor etc. and the breakfast staff was nice, but the restaurant staff around dinner our first day was oddly condescending when we tried to order some sharing plates after checking-in hungry from our long drive. The food we had was bad, undercooked chicken skewers and margarita pizza which was somehow terrible (the smoked salmon was fine). The location and overall feel is quite peaceful and our bedroom was very unique looking for photos. The breakfast was also pleasant and the morning staff very nice. However, given these are some of the highest prices in Luxor (if not the highest) for hotels, I cannot really see why someone would opt for this over the Winter Palace (where we did not have any of these issues and paid much less for a much more comfortable room) or any of the other cheaper, yet higher ranking 5-star, options. The remote location also means there are sooo many mosquitos, like a complete infestation. I have never been so badly bit in my life, as was our son, even with repellent (and I will add, we stayed on the Nile in Aswan and did not have this experience).