It has been 15 years since I've visited Alexandria and when I finally decided to spend a couple of nights there with my family, I decided to go with the well established name of the Windsor, but boy what a disappointment we had.
At the moment of the reservation, we have requested two Superior Seaview rooms on a high floor that were confirmed, but upon check-in at 4 pm we were told that the only two rooms left were on the first and second floor, but we didn't make a fuss out of it.
When we turned to our room at around 1 am we went directly to bed,but we were woken up by the sound of the air-conditioning that seemed as heavy drilling (which gave us a headache) in addition that it stopped cooling the air and shortly after, foul sewege smell began coming out of the bathroom which made it impossible to sleep. I work in the hotel business and know that nothing could be done at 2:30 am especially if the hotel is fully booked as they mentioned upon check-in, so I calmly asked to speak with the resident manager (who is the most courteous person in the whole hotel) and explained the problem, so he told me that we would change to another room if the problems cannot be fixed. They first offered to move us to a smaller room, but they gave us an upgrade afterwards, but unfortunately there was a problem with the airconditioning as well, so after I mentioned it at 10 am, they told me that it would be fixed. We then returned to the hotel at around 6 pm to find that nothing has been done and I've waited for 3 hours for a repairman to fix the ac (not to mention that the reception staff seemed upset and answered rudely when I continued to ask for the repairman!), so they told me me go out for the evening and when I come back everything would have been taken care off.
When we returned at 1pm, the resident manager appologized that nothing could be done to solve the problem and that they have booked me in another hotel about 2 km distance and that it's all been taken care of (which in my field means that the stay is complimentary due to inconvenience!), so we prepared our luggage eventhough we were exhausted and drove to the Metropol Hotel which is of the same chain to find out that we have to pay the full price for the 6 hours of sleep that we'll be using since we're leaving early in the morning. I refused this kind of treatment, so I asked to speak with their General Manager who didn't want to speak over the phone but preffered to talk face to face. After waiting for 40 minutes more, he arrived and we began the discussion, he denied that a problem ever existed in the first room and after explaining to him internationally what the normal procedures are, he simply said: ' I have to collect my money!' After an extra 30 minutes of discussion, I told him that eventhough it's not fare at all but since my mother was so tired, I'll pay the rate of a standard room (I didn't request a Junior Suite and quite frankly don't care about the upgrading, since they moved us that late at night) and he tells me OK, so the rate for two nights will be... I couldn't beleive myself when he mentioned these words; to make me pay for a night when there was a hygenic problem that could lead to allergies and said that it was ridiculous, so after an extra 15 minutes of discussion, he agreed to the payment of just one night (how kind of him!). When we went up to the room, the TV remote didn't work, so i asked the reception to bring me some batteries and after 20 minutes waiting, I told them to forget about it and to notify their GM that they cannot solve this small problem, let's immagine air-conditioning or sewege that late!

In conclusion, my advice is not to be fooled by the name as the management has changed and obviously keeping their reputation doesn't concren them anymore!

We stayed in this hotel for two nites in March 2007. great hotel! room were huge and great, the staffs were amazing and helpful. location is pretty central to everything. breakfast was good too. I definitely recommend this hotel.

The two of us really enjoyed it.Old English elagance , bay views,tapestries hanging ,excellent staff,food,good location. Noise came from corniche mainly due to the egyptian drivers love of talking to each other by their horns [part of the atmosphere ]. This is not your 5 star chain hotel that could be anywhere its old world elegance, the lounge is memorable ,we would go again!

Nice little hotel with excellent lobby and old elevator and the staff were very nice but..... the hotel was so noisy that we had to check in to another hotel. We tried 3 rooms but all of the doors and windows are old and have not been sealed so all the traffic noise from the corniche came straight in the room. It was like being on the road. The staff tried really hard to help but in the end their only solution was for us to put cotton wool in our ears - which we had to on the 1st night but it didn't make any difference. They really had very little understanding of the problem and seemed to feel that we weren't closing the windows properly. Definately do not stay here until they replace the windows and doors!