The rooms and corridors of the hotel are very old and seriously in need of refurbishment. On top of this the rooms aren't properly cleaned with the bottom of the bathtub sticky!!! The usual toiletries are also not supplied - in fact all you get is liquid handsoap.

The reception staff are also extremely unprofessional. We had booked a triple room via asiarooms.com, but on the hotel's record it stated we had booked a double room. This caused a delay when we checked in which despite my showing them the booking receipt meant a great deal of time was wasted before we were provided with rooms. The next morning when we checked out at 11am, which provided more than enough time for the hotel to contact the agency and resolve the inconsistency between our booking and the hotel's record, the matter had still not been resolved. Instead we were retained for an hour while the reception kept calling various people (including, for no reason we could see, the driver who picked us up from the airport the previous night). In the end, the matter was only resolved when we started to make a fuss and insisted on seeing the manager who quickly dealt with the problem.

This was meant to be one of the better hotels in Aswan. I shudder to think what the others are like when this one is old, tired, dirty and has the most incompetent staff I have ever experienced.

Four of us stayed here for two nights at the end of a Nile cruise. Hotel is well situated on a hill overlooking the Nile and next to the excellent Nubian Museum. Within walking distance of the town also an hourly courtesy bus.
The staff are eager to please and don't go chasing tips.
Now the bad news, food was at best mediocre - tea and coffee were just warm as was the buffet and the scrambled egg cold. As the buffet was so poor we ordered from the Menu - Fish was tasteless as was the burger, chips were greasy and tasteless. Lentil soup was burnt. We eventually found something we liked - Spaghetti Bolognese which all four of us had for Lunch and Dinner. Don't buy pastrys from the Coffee show !
The hotel has large public rooms which are at first sight impressive but on closer look everything is fraying at the edges. The bedrooms are spacious but showing signs of wear. Water in the bath was brown.

We stayed in this hotel only one night before boarding On our Nile Cruise to Luxor. The Staff was very nice and helpful and the food was ok. The double room was decent and clean with a great view on the Nile river. There is a good size swimming pool that we didn't use but looked well maintained and clean. I would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone interested in visiting Aswan.

Stayed at the Basma over a local holiday and found it to be nice. Food was ok, rooms are a little 1970-ish, and it was a little querky - but nice. They seem to host big tour groups who are going or coming for the Nile Cruises - so large groups are arriving and leaving at all times - for just a day/night -and the front desk handles this well, but don't expect much else from them.
I had a spectacular Nile view - in a seperate annex of the hotel -which is up on the hill (no elevator) and it was a bit odd b/c it seemed I was the only one up there! There is a seperate small private pool up there too. (best place to see sunset over the Nile is up there). - But not handicap access- only by climbing several flights of stairs up the hill.
But a quite relaxing place - if facitlities were a little worn, there is a very friendly staff.