"We had a great holiday whilst staying a Jaal Riad (we returned yesterday, so now have the time to do a proper detailed review).
The building itself is stunning, warm, clean and welcoming. We arrived close to midnight along with a large group of people from the same flight. It did take a long time to get checked in as everyone was required to fill in detailed forms and pay the tourism tax of 200 MAD. We were given a list of the times for the restaurant, pool etc.
We had a 'Pool View' (room 1010) on the ground floor which was very spacious and the air con was welcome as it was still hot outside. The room was also clean and beautifully decorated, and you could tell it had been well lived in but treated respectfully by a lot of guests over the years. The bed was large with plenty of cushions and although the mattress is quite firm, it was comfortable. We were also pleased to have complimentary bottled water, towel robes and slippers in the room. The mini-fridge & safe are also free of charge.
There was a few issues with the room during our stay, but nothing that was a big problem per say, however I would like to note to the following to management: Overhead 'rainfall shower' didn't work (although the smaller handheld shower was fine for me as i'm 5 ft however, my partner at 5ft 10in found this really inconvenient), some drawers were broken and could not be used and the room needs a deep clean, despite being generally cleaned every day. A small clothes horse / clothing rack would have been very helpful to dry swimwear outside as the ground floor rooms do not have balcony railings.
The staff around the hotel were pleasant, often said 'hello' and the pool staff were great for constantly keeping the pool side tidy. However, we did find that guests who spoke French were given significantly more attention than other guests when it came to the breakfast & dinner service i.e. drinks constantly being topped up etc. We were only offered drinks at breakfast once and that was on our final day.
Guest services also needs more attention as we weren't given our check out time, details for keeping our room for longer on the day of check-out or any information regarding the tokens that require a refundable deposit for the pool towels (around £30 for 2 tokens) - this information would be very helpful on the sheet we were given at check in.
We also asked on two separate occasions for more toilet paper at reception of which they said room service would deliver to our room (although we were perfectly fine with taking the paper to the room ourselves) and neither occassion did anyone actually deliver any toilet paper to us...
The selection of food at breakfast and dinner was fine, and most of it tasted good, although a little repetative on choice. One thing that was a problem for myself was not all the food had allergen notices, a big problem for myself with Coeliac Disease (gluten free) which means I wouldn't be able to try a lot of the food offered without asking someone for the ingredients however, I'd be really concerned for someone with a serious allergy such as nuts. I also tried one of the fresh omlettes one morning to find the inside was still raw. It was also difficult to find a place in the restaurant to sit down and eat as plates would be cleared away however, no cutlery or glasses were replaced and there isn't an option to obtain cutlery yourself. A menu of the drinks on offer on the table would also be helpful.
The food at the pool bar for lunch was basic and needs improvement as there wasn't nearly enough available with guests constantly having to tell the kitchen staff there wasn't any food left and again there wasn't a single allergen notice for any of the food.
The pool bar was constantly busy and you don't have to wait long to get served as the staff were great with a decent range of drinks available however, the menu needs to be clear regarding what is and isn't included in the All Inclusive package as almost every guest assumed all options were available and the staff had to constantly point out which menu was All Inclusive and which was not.
The ladies toilet next to the pool bar needs fixed as it was constantly blocked and /or leaking.
There's plenty of sun loungers around the pool however the 'no reserving' rule for putting towels on the beds isn't observed so we often found ourselves and other guests wandering around to find one that was actually available.
The evening entertainment at the hotel could be improved, there was one woman who was a great vocalist and an evening where traditional music and belly dancing took place in the courtyard which was great however, on more than one occassion there was a man playing keyboard who was terrible and just hummed the lyrics to songs, we would have stayed in the hotel at night more often with an improvement on the quality of entertainment.
I appreciate the hotel is making strides with their environmental policies with information in the room and recycling points around the pool area and I'd like to see more improvements on this such as not using plastic straws and recycling bins in the rooms and hotel foyer as there was no indication that plastics from the rooms were being recycled. We did a lot of excursions during our stay and couldn't help to notice the high amount of plastic pollution in Morocco, we wouldn't want to contribute to that pollution further.
I noticed other reviews complaining about the noise from the flight path, we literally heard 3 flights before 9pm on a Wednesday night during the full week, so don't be put off by those complaints by others.
It does sound like we have a lot of complaints from our stay however, we'd like to see these as improvements as we truly believe Jaal Riad has the potential to be a 5 star hotel and we would stay again."
