Hotel Riu Tikida Garden

"We have just returned from Tikids Gardens after 7 nights at this hotel This was our first time in Marrakech, and we were pleasantly surprised by the hotel as well as Marrakech. The staff were always smiling and always went above and beyond with customer service. The room was of a good size with a balcony overlooking one of the pools. It was cleaned on a daily basis, and although the furniture looked used you shouldn't expect anything else unless you want to pay a fortune for 5star luxury. The food was of a good standard and plenty of Moroccan flavours evident. There was very little English food, which is was ok for us. The All Inclusive drinks package was plentiful, especially for a Muslim country. Our wine glass was constantly topped up during the evening meal . When you asked for water at the bars you were given one litre bottles. The TUI staff were very helpful in booking excursions, and very knowledgeable about Marrakech. We booked a trip to the waterfalls which was well worth the amount paid as well as a half day history trip around the Medina. A walk round the Medina was an experience, and a must do, don't worry if you get lost as the local shop keepers are always willing to help and not pushy trying to sell their stock. If you go to the main square, avoid the snake charmers and guys with monkeys as these are a scam. Overall we had a lovely holiday, and are planning on returning to both Marrakech and this hotel."

"The hotel itself is very good with excellent service. Rooms are excellent and cleaned daily to a high degree, only problem for me was the beds were hard. There are about 5 pools in the complex but we preferred the quiet pool, no music or distractions. There are pool attendants at all the pools who go out of their way to ensure you have all the comfort you require. Only blip is the towel station. If after laying on your sunbed for the greater part of the day and you wish to change your towel the person at the towel station has no clean ones available. Why they did not get more towels when their store was running low is beyond me. One thing, the water is not heated in any outdoor pool, only in the indoor pool. There are 2 restaurants and a pool drink/snack bar ( which we did not use as there was lots of flies around). Breakfast is served in the main restaurant ( which unfortunately resembles a canteen) and is varied and quite good. Lunch on the other hand lacked variety and food was never hot. Dinner was delicious and was served in a different restaurant. The difference with lunch and dinner we could not understand. Check in is a breeze if you are a RIU member. Entertainment was very good, when they had entertainment, otherwise we got a bit fed up of Bingo in whatever form they used. The hotel itself has an excellent app which you download. if you had any problem at all you god send message on the app and it was very quickly and efficiently dealt with. An excellent addition to any holiday, congratulations Rui on that on. We used it twice and was astounded how quickly our problem was sorted. The hotel itself is located in a very run down area, not ideal for looking around the local area."

"Hotel was lovely and the pool area was beautiful. The reception area is beautiful and the bar area has lots of seats and lovely decor. The pool area was beautiful with plenty of sun loungers, we did visit in February and the hotel wasn't full, so probably busier in the summer months. Pool bar was great, good selection of drinks, the gym was ok and there were lots of activities and classes around the hotel. Room was lovely. Bed was comfortable and great channels on the tv. Staff were amazing, the whole hotel was spotless. The only issue the whole time we were there was with the spa. We booked a couples Hammam and massage. Reception staff in the spa were not very helpful or approachable which made it awkward booking as we wanted more information on treatments and they didn't really want to speak to us just gave us a spa menu which didn't have much info. We arrived for the treatment and had the Hammam which was amazing, then were taken back out to use the loungers while we waited for the massage, then someone came and got my husband and he pointed to me and said it's a couples massage, the therapist said yes someone else will come for her, I waited for more than 20 minutes then eventually went and asked someone if I would be called as it was a couples massage and we specifically asked for the massage together, 5-10 minutes later someone came and got me, I was taken into a dark room with no light on, the therapist then turned on a light and I was in a double room with 2 beds and a curtain down the middle, this was the main light on, no oil burner on, no candles it was very strange and the room was freezing. The massage therapist came back I said where his my husband and she said yes soon, then she started the massage, I had to say twice I was cold and she still didn't heat the room, we paid for two 60 minutes massages, i get massages regularly at home and I can say that there is no way that the person massaging me is a trained masseuse, at points she was actually poking me with one finger, it was very strange. Then all of a sudden the massage ended, light turned on and she walked out, I was very upset to the point of tears as this was for an anniversary and cost a lot of money and was really awful and not what we paid for. I was taken back out and my husband was waiting, he was upset too and had asked several times where i was, my massage lasted 35 minutes and we had paid for 60. We went to the spa reception to ask why we didn't get what we paid for and the staff were extremely rude and told us to come back as they were going for lunch we explained we came back later and were told again come back tomorrow and we explained we were going home the next day and they didnt care or want to help at all. We had a lovely holiday in an amazing city but have to be honest the last 2 days of the holiday were over shadowed by the worst massage and spa experience we have ever had and considering it cost a few hundred pound it was very disappointing that the staff were so rude and unprofessional towards us. I really expected more for a TUI blue spa. I would stay again but I definitely wouldn't use the spa I would book an excursion to a spa in Marrakech."