"Visit from UK.
We enjoyed our 3 night stay but I believe the hotel is not 5*. More like 3 plus. Well, the hotel itself is 5* but our room was not. Arrival: absolutely beautiful and clean entrance/reception area. Grounds are beautiful. Check in was no problem and friendly staff. I took £500 in cash and exchanged this at reception upon check in without any issues. Please don't do what I do. I take credit card all over the world but on this occasion I did not. I preferred to use cash but the hotel placed a £300 hold/deposit on my debit card. I only took my spare savings debit card so had to quickly transfer money across . My fault but make sure your debit card is loaded with extra cash you won't be using for this if you are only bringing cash from the UK and don't want to take Credit card. Anyway, all fine and had assistance with luggage to the room. The room was nice and spacious but a few points: No do not disturb sign to use, no bin in the room except bathroom, separate toilet was very uninviting ( tiles looked dirty and toilet/area just looked old) it's nice to have a comfortable area to do your business in a 5* so this was definitely not, no iron in room even though stated there was, switch sockets were silver and looked dirty this could have been marks from cleaning but should be polished before new customer arrives and finally the shower was large with hot lovely water but again the tiles had splash marks that looked dirty, should be cleaned before new customer. So from experience room was 3*. Tiny balcony with nice view towards pool, used common sense and moved the table in between the two large chairs otherwise you could not move . No issues at all for us but just a point. Breakfast was lovely without complaint.
Service: First impressions count! Our first afternoon we sat by the pool near the back for an hour. Lovely weather and like others we fancied a beer or cocktail. Two male waiting staff walked by more than 10 times without saying anything (considering it was service only!) we decided to be our British selves and walked along the pool trying not to look irritated and approached the bar area. We were stopped in our tracks so we simply said can we get a drink we are sitting bottom of pool, husband said no issues we are at bar now and we will just get own drinks. The bartender didn't want to assist and pointed us away to 'another bar' perhaps he thought we were sitting at the pool behind but had he listened he would know that we had simply been sitting 45 minutes without being able to get a drink. Anyway, senior staff came over took order and told us politely our drinks would follow to where we were sat. They did arrive about 15 minutes later but that first impression was not great. Just let us buy our drinks at the bar and apologise offering table service next time but seemed a fuss on. That was the only issue, seems minor but not 5* service. Location: 40 minute lovely walk to the square. M avenue, LE 6 restaurant 10 minutes walk. We never used taxi and walked everywhere( Our preference when travelling) . Check out: I wanted to give a good hour and half as that's just me, this allows time for queuing and a slow check out. No queue 11:45ish and lady receptionist very friendly and asked how trip was, what we had done. Paid tourist tax in cash using left over dirhams so all good. Card hold was cancelled and we did repeat this back and a receipt followed. No issues. As we left the file festival was on so front of hotel was jam packed with Police and taped off, no issues at all and felt completely safe throughout whole trip. The presence of security and Police is nice to see for us."
