Russian authorities have blamed the problem on hotels double-booking the rooms, while Egypt accuses Russian tour operators of exceeding their reservation quotas.
On Thursday a spokeswoman for the Russian Tourism Industry Union said that during the past month, owners of Egyptian hotels have been re-issuing reserved hotel rooms to other tourist operators.
However, a spokeswoman for the Egyptian Tourism Ministry, Hala el-Khatib, said the problems were isolated cases and that both sides are responsible for the situation.
Russian tour operators have been selling more tour packages to Egypt than their quotas of reserved hotel rooms, counting on accommodating tourists in free rooms, she said. The problems arise when several tourist companies fill their quotas.
Until now Russia has never any complaints against the Egyptian authorities, and the recent problem has only affected customers of the smaller tour operators, she said.
"Large Russian tourist operators have no such problems as they strictly abide by contracts and do not exceed their number of reserved hotel rooms," she said.
Zoheir Garranah, Egypt's tourism minister, has been informed of the problem and has ordered all owners of Egyptian hotels and tourism companies to stick to contracts signed prior to the start of the tourist season, she said.
The spokeswoman rejected allegations that rooms reserved for Russians had been intentionally resold to other foreign tourists.
"The Russian tourism market is one of the most important for us; we have always welcomed Russian tourists, and hope they will continue to enjoy Egyptian resorts in the future," the spokeswoman said.
According to the Egyptian Tourism Ministry's data, the number of Russian tourists to the Arab country in September this year increased by 45% against the same month in 2006. Last year Russian tourists accounted for one million of the total nine million foreigners visiting Egypt.
