Hotel Club SUNGO by Pickalbatros - Marrakech

"We recently stayed at the Pickalbatros Sungo Club on the outskirts of Marrakech, and it was very much a tale of two halves — genuinely impressive in some areas, but with room for significant improvement in others. The Rooms — Excellent The accommodation was a real highlight. The rooms are exceptionally spacious and beautifully presented, with a comfortable, modern feel throughout. Housekeeping visited every single day without fail, keeping everything fresh and tidy. It’s a small thing, but it makes a big difference to the overall experience and is exactly what you’d hope for from a hotel of this calibre. I do appreciate this was not everyone’s experience at the hotel and some people had issues with house keeping. One thing the hotel did was let us keep our room until 1pm on the day of check out. This was a small gesture but helped us massively as we were not being picked up until 4.20pm. A definite tick in the box for a positive customer experience. The Facilities — Brilliant Where this resort truly shines is its facilities, which are genuinely world-class. The centrepiece is a fantastic water park that kept guests of all ages entertained for hours. Beyond that, there are multiple pools to choose from, a full-size football pitch, padel courts, and a very good gym that is well-equipped and modern, a great kids clubs— a great variety that means there is never a shortage of things to do. If you’re travelling with a group or a family, the activities alone make this place worth considering. The Food — Needs Significant Improvement Unfortunately, the dining experience was where the resort fell short, and for a property marketed at four stars and above, this is hard to overlook. Every evening meal — including in what are advertised as à la carte restaurants — is served as a buffet. That alone is disappointing, but the real issue is the complete lack of organisation at mealtimes. It is genuinely chaotic: queues go unmanaged, people push in freely, and guests are regularly left to source their own cutlery and drinks. It feels more like a budget canteen than a premium resort restaurant. A particularly serious concern is the complete absence of food labelling. We were travelling with someone in our party who has a severe nut allergy, and it was genuinely stressful trying to work out what was safe to eat. Nothing on the buffet is labelled with ingredients or allergen information, which is not just an inconvenience — it’s a real safety issue that the hotel needs to address urgently. To give credit where it is due: when we explained the situation at the bakery using Google Translate, the chef was wonderful. He came out personally and prepared a fresh batch of pastries made without nuts so that our guest could actually eat something. That was a genuinely kind gesture and showed that individual staff members care. There are staff that really care and a special shout out to Aziz at breakfast who was brilliant and a credit to the hotel. Drinks & Bar Service — Long Queues and Shortages The bar situation also needs addressing. Queuing for drinks was a regular and frustrating experience, with waits that were far too long for a resort of this size. On multiple occasions the ice cream and beer had also run out entirely, which was a recurring disappointment, especially in the Moroccan heat. One thing to keep an eye out on is there are so many bees due to the drinks. There is nothing the hotel can do about this but it is something to be aware of and we found that if you left them alone they were not aggressive at all. Some additional information which may help. Free Shuttle to the Medina — The hotel offers a complimentary shuttle bus into the Marrakech medina and back, which is a fantastic perk. However, you must book your place in advance, and be warned — it will not wait if you are late back to the meeting point. Make sure you know exactly where and when to return, or you could find yourself arranging your own way back. Beach Towel Deposit — A deposit of 100 dirhams is required per beach towel, which is returned to you at the end of your stay. Just make sure you keep track of your towels throughout the holiday to avoid any unnecessary stress on checkout day. Tipping Goes a Long Way — If you do tip the staff, you will notice a marked improvement in the level of service you receive. It is entirely your choice, but a little generosity does seem to go a long way here and can make a real difference to your overall experience. Overall The Pickalbatros Sungo Club has the bones of a brilliant resort. The rooms and facilities are genuinely impressive, and individual staff members showed real warmth and initiative. But the dining experience needs a serious overhaul before this hotel can truly live up to its four-star-plus billing. Sort out the food and drink operation, and this place would be very hard to beat."

"I wanted to leave an honest review after our stay at Hotel Club SUNGO By Pickalbatros. We stayed for a week late May Monday before Half term officially started for UK kids. The day after we arrived the temperatures shot up to 36 degrees and climbing. We initially booked due to the competitive price, compared to similar places in the Canaries it was very cost effective, £1700 for 2 adults and a nearly 6 year old. On arrival the reception staff were very organised and we were shown a ground floor room to the left side as you looked at the main animation pool. Room was fine, a little on the small side with the extra single bed for our daughter next to us, there was some dodgy grout work in the bathroom but please remember this is NOT a brand new hotel, I think (myself included) that there is some confusion on this, the hotel is not newly built but had a ‘bit of a refurb’ there are elements which still feel tired but they have tried to freshen up where they can. We found the food ok for what we needed, the selection was good but personally I feel this became repetitive. The main ‘international cuisine’ eatery was very much like a school dining hall, but we expected this. We liked the Moroccan buffet restaurant the best. The desserts were amazing kudos to the pastry chef! The hotel was very quiet we pretty much had the pool opposite the gym entrance at the back to ourselves right up until Thursday 21st which was great. We didn’t use the waterpark, the heated pool at the front of the hotel was very busy and too hot in my opinion. On the second day we didn’t received towels in our room and despite calling reception and going in person still no towels arrived, it took my husband asking to find the maids trolley on a second visit to reception and saying that he would go and get them himself to actually get the towels to shower that evening. The following morning we also became aware of an ants nest in our bathroom, I mentioned to reception who said they would send someone to sort, by early evening this had not been sorted and my daughter was freaking out and she didn’t want to use the loo (none of us wanted to walk in the room without flipflops!) I also found a dead cockroach behind my daughters bed… At this point I went to reception and explained I would like to change rooms as no one had sorted and I was losing faith after the towel issue the day before. The genetleman offered my a choice of 3 rooms, we changed to a larger room on the first floor which was much better and had no ants. Overall we enjoyed our stay, would we go back? No we would not. As the place started to fill with more people as half term kicked in, it was apparent that there was some tummy issues going around (Electrolytes and Pepto Bismal could be spotted on a table at breakfast) with some grey faces. This in itself is my idea of hell, having experienced a dodgy journey home from Gran Canaria last February when so many guest came down with a S & D bug. That said the grounds are beautiful, well tended lawns, trees and shrubs, lovely people (shout out to the chap behind the bar at the Sports bar who made my daughter different mocktails each night) animation team excellent. For us it was a cheaper than normal getaway so we kind of took it for what it was, it certainly is not a 5 star Turkey All Inclusive, but it isn’t professing to be a 5 star. There is room for improvement on the whole."

"My family and I (11 of us in total, ages ranging from 11 - 70) returned this morning from a weeks holiday in a Deluxe Family Room. Firstly i'll start with the Positives:- The room was fantastic, one of the best hotel rooms we have stayed in, lots of space, modern, huge comfy beds and huge balcony with nice patio furniture. The animation team were excellent and there was always something do get involved with, lots of games, sports and activities etc. The sports facilities were excellent, the football pitch, padel court, volleyball court were first class which is unusual for a hotel. The Gym was excellent, top of the range equipment and plenty of it, spacious, clean and state of the art! The changing rooms were also very good. I didn't use the spa personally but it looked very good. Negatives:- The main buffet was average for a hotel but i would say below average for a "so called 5 star hotel". I didn't feel there was enough selection, choices were limited and repetitive. The Asian restaurant was much the same. No a la carte restaurants onsite which again is VERY unusual for even a 4 star hotel! Drinks were particularly poor, beer was ok but soft drinks were poor and it was often not cold and served in plastic disposable glasses. They served the beer in wine glasses on times too! There was also a daily occurrence where there was no beer available and you get sent from bar to bar in search until in the end you give up! Very poor indeed!! On arrival at the hotel very late after a long day and night of travelling, staff were not at all friendly or welcoming, no drink was offered, it wasn't a good first impression. Lastly, and the worse thing in my opinion was the rooms were not cleaned or towels changed at all unless i phoned reception to complain and then they would send someone, even then they only changed the towels and made the bed, no cleaning was done. Again for a so called 5 star hotel this is not acceptable! All in all we had a good holiday, as there were 11 of us we made the best of it and had a few good excursions. This hotel is not a 5 star hotel, i would say even a 4 star is being generous and on that basis i would not return, however if they did make some improvements it could definitely be."