Hotel Club SUNGO by Pickalbatros – Marrakesch

"The hotel was reasonable and at the most a 3 star. Message to the manager, if you wish it to be luxury and 4-5 star it needs major improving. 1. The staff, some were kind but as mentioned there was a huge lack of training, confusion and a bit chaotic at meal times. 2. The food itself was basic at the most. There needs to be more emphasis on quality, cooking and management need to be a lot more high standard for food quality. If you want to charge more, then think about the quality of food as people are away from the centre and want freshly cooked cuisine especially with children. If they sorted out the food issue I would rebook for next year. Until the management take this feedback seriously we definitely wont be retuning. 3. Sewage smell by pools and some pools left dirty. More quality again needed for cleaning staff, seems like top of the chain poor hotel management who are not delegating to lower level service staff. The managers are getting paid but not doing a good job. 4. To make it an excellent 4 or 5 star a huge amount needs to be changed, I went with extended family and usually we book 5 star but people had a lower budget so we booked this. This is definitely not a 4 or 5 star hotel compared to the Emirates Turkey or even Egypt, small wins would be, hire extra cleaners and have a rigorous system, overhall the menu completely and add good quality dishes asap, hire more staff who can accommodate at meal times. Seems like the hotel needs a lot more cleaning and service staff."

"First, this is not a 5 star hotel, period. This would be a low end 4 star hotel anywhere else, if you have this in mind you will have a good experience. Hotel is fine. The building layout is awesome, you can get from point A to B on the other side of the hotel mostly out of the sun (through corridors). Pools are everywhere, animation team is good without being too intrusive/inconvenient. Also, the hotel has a really nice feature with the back facing rooms - if you want a calm and more quiet time, you have the room pool (shared with 8~ other rooms or so), if you want a party time you can go to the regular ones. Aquatic park pool was a bit on the dirty side, and I also rode one of the attractions and didnt seem safe at all. As a matter of fact one guest had a blacked out eye because of it. There's always fresh water laying around in fridges, bar service is kind and never got to wait too much for nothing, though they have a bee/wasp situation that's completely out of control (pool bar), also the pool bar tends to have a hideous bad smell. Cleaning staff is amazing and competent (asked for extra pillows, extra bed for kid, they were really fast and professional). Restaurant staff as well, and speaking of restaurants we only got tired of the food on the 6th/7th day, until then the rotation was enough to make us enjoy it. Food is hit or miss, you'll get awesome tender meat on one day, rock solid beef on the other. Taste is always nice though. Moroccan restaurant is by far the best, but also the smallest/without outside tables. Also, most of low level employees seem to lack guidance a proper training, while senior ones are truly arrogant and bossy, even with guests. Shuttle service to the city center is really nice, but on the shuttle back the A/C was off. Speaking of shuttle services, when we asked the hotel for a taxi to the airport the service was shockingly bad. Driver drove the whole 30 minutes sending messages on his cellphone, not looking at the street, doing dangerous maneuvers and the car had no functioning A/C. Kid's club is ok, staff is hit or miss, we've found amazing people there, and also a babysitter always scrolling on the phone without paying any attention to the kids (one time a kid actually had a minor incident and she didnt had any idea what happened, even gave the parents a completely false information on the incident). We were also HEAVILY pushed to give the hotel a 5 star rating, this was really out of the blue and shocked me. This is also why I am giving it a 3 star and not 4, fishing for reviews is really unacceptable. As a matter of fact I had to fight myself to not give the hotel a 2 star review because of this - they even want to photograph your phone with the review (which I did and then deleted because I was caught completely off-guard). The biggest downsides were :AC on the room obnoxiously loud; smell on the pool bar; septic tank smell/sewer smell on the rooms from time to time; low number of toilets with diaper change for kids; strong licor with white brands/poor quality overall; bad quality bed sheets; workers handling food with bare hands after scratching the nose; main pool is falling apart, tiles everywhere, cut my feet once. The best: pool variety, room cleaning, staff kindness, tasty food, overall layout, price, shuttle to the city, decent music for a resort. Would come back because of the price, but if all the things remain the same on my return would def. be my last time. 3 out of 5."

"I was so anxious before coming here. I’d read so many reviews saying it was in the middle of nowhere, the food was awful, the hotel wasn’t very nice and that we’d be bored. To be honest, I worked myself up so much that it was causing me real anxiety before the holiday. From the moment we arrived, all of those worries disappeared. The transfer was smooth, check-in was quick and welcoming, and the staff greeted us with traditional Moroccan tea and treats. We only waited around 5 minutes before being shown to our room. We stayed in a connected Deluxe Suite for our family of 6. The room is clean, spacious and refreshed every day. Of course, if you’re looking closely there are a few small maintenance jobs that could be done, such as some grout in parts of the bathroom, but it doesn’t affect the cleanliness or our stay in any way. The pools and water park are clean and well maintained. One of my biggest worries was that the children would get bored, but we’re now on day 4 and they haven’t been bored once. We split our days between the pools, water park and activities, and there’s always something going on. The entertainment staff are fantastic with children and adults alike. They interact with everyone, have a laugh, and really help create a lovely atmosphere. The only negative I’d mention is the wasps around the pool bar area. They can be quite persistent and unfortunately my little boy was stung. However, the staff were brilliant. They immediately called for the nurse, made sure he was seen to quickly and even helped us get drinks from the machines when the wasps were particularly bad. We’ve also booked a camel ride and the process was incredibly easy. Again, the staff were so helpful and happy to answer any questions. As for the food, it’s exactly what I’d expect from an all-inclusive hotel. Me, my partner and our four children have found something we enjoy at every meal, and trust me, some of us are very fussy eaters! There’s always pizza, chips and familiar foods available, alongside plenty of Moroccan dishes and other foods to try. The only thing I would have liked is more of a traditional cooked breakfast, as there isn’t really a full English option, but there are cereals, pastries, continental options and plenty of choice. Overall, this has been a really pleasant surprise. Is it perfect? No. But it’s clean, welcoming, family-friendly and the staff genuinely work hard to make sure you enjoy your holiday. I definitely wouldn’t say “never again” – in fact, I’m really glad we decided to give it a chance despite some of the reviews, and we’ve had a lovely family holiday."