Debdon,
I've only been to Sharm in December but both times in both hotels the pools were more or less unusable. The sea water was 28, the airtemp was about the same, but the unheated pools were freezing. I did not see them in use once.
May be worth checking reviews for the time you wish to go as there would be no point in paying over the odds to get a swim up room if you can't use the pool!
I priced some stuff for a BIL yesterday and used portland direct to compare against thomson.
The portland direct website process is not good, I got prices but no options for adding flight meals, sitting together etc and no idea as to whether they were included.
The thomson site did offer the choices but came out £60 dearer for 2 with everything included (Baron Palms resort).
The other thing to note is that if it is your first time in Egypt it would be worth investigating the Egypt forum. There are a couple of very active threads that would answer most queries you can think of.
One thing that springs to mind as you may or may not have considered it, is the snorkelling, if you are heading to Sharm.
May be preaching to the converted but some hotels have a jetty from which you can drop in on world leading Coral and fish - literally.
However some of the hotels are better situated than others. that is the sort of question the forum can answer.
I knew of the diving but did not appreciate the snorkelling aspect until I took my first dip. Some "older" people told me they chose to return to that hotel rather than the great barrier reef as they could see more and with simple step of the jetty access.
I returned to a different hotel the next year with Thomsons, but while the hotel was better, had a heated pool for one thing, there was an 800m walk out to sea along the jetty and that still left you 50m short of the Coral. I still find it hard to credit that from sitting on the beach one had over a mile walk if you wanted to snorkel - didn't see that in the brochures! On the other hand the beach side cooked to order Pizzas were fantastic.