"I am a well seasoned traveller and I always try to give an honest and objective review. Sadly the lows far outweigh the highs at this hotel which is a shame as it could be so much better with not too much effort.
Firstly this absolutely isn’t a 5 star. The facilities, the service, the food, etc - nowhere near. A 3 star at best so please manage your expectations.
Secondly, there is a lot of construction happening at this hotel which we were not forewarned about. We thought it was on the outskirts but it’s not. It’s good for long term prospects but bad for current guests. There is a large cordoned off area directly next to the only heated pool that has jack hammers going literally all day, every day - even on Saturday and Sunday. To try and disguise this the animation team belt out nightclub grade dance music over the top from 10.30am onwards. The heated pool is also tiny and full of people chatting or doing the aqua aerobics so no chance of a swim. The other two pools are beautiful but completely unusable as they are Baltic temperatures. The indoor pool is a 10 minute walk and is lovely, warm and peaceful but so chlorinated it turned my jewellery black within three minutes and sits on your skin and hair even after multiple showers. Didn’t try the spa so can’t comment.
The hotel itself is nice in places, but very tired with broken flooring and parasols and dirty cabanas that are falling apart. I had told the hotel in advance we were visiting for my husbands birthday but they made no effort whatsoever, not even a glass of wine in the room or a ‘happy birthday’.
The rooms are a good size with very comfortable beds but the sheets aren’t ever changed, just the bed remade daily. You get three coat hangers each so bring extra. Our kettle had a horrible mouldy smell when boiling so we stopped using it and the cups are miniature so bring a travel mug. You only get a teabag in the room, no milk or coffee, etc and no decaf options anywhere so you’ll need to bring your own. You can ask for milk at the bar.
Our shower didn’t drain, leaving it in standing water - very slippy and dangerous. We informed reception but nothing was done. The showers have no doors and so the entire bathroom is soaked afterwards and the shower water can either be lukewarm or hot. Very unpredictable. The toilet is in a little room past the shower so can’t be used when someone is in the shower and the whole bed and bathroom is only separated by dividers so there is no privacy if you’re in the loo. Body soap was empty and not refilled until day 5 of our weeks stay. We even took the pump out and left it on the floor of the shower to indicate it was empty at one point but they just put it back in. It’s this lack of attention to detail that is so very infuriating and demonstrates how little they care about actual guest experience. When we arrived we didn’t even have any towels so we had to ask for them.
We had emailed prior to arrival and asked for a quiet room and were instead placed directly above the restaurant so we could hear the tables being dragged around underneath us from 6.30am onwards and loud music until 10.30pm/11pm. Then one night at 3:30am and the next night at 5.00am staff appear in the courtyard we overlook, dragging tables about and cleaning the food stands whilst having a good chat, making a right racket. The hotel just don’t care which is the underlining theme at this hotel.
Also the food isn’t great. At dinner there are always 6 tagines, a fish option, a dry and tough chicken thigh / beef option, some vegetables and a potato option. Then you have salad stuff and pasta/noodles. As a gluten free customer I really struggled. There is zero allergen labelling anywhere and no specific gluten free options. Breakfast is just eggs, fruit and yoghurt for me as otherwise it was cereals, semolina soup (?), rubber sandwich meats and bread. One day we got there over a full hour before service ended but they still refused to replenish the eggs that were my mainstay. That was a hungry day. The plentiful puddings are nearly all cake based so I just opted for a mousse of which there was at least one every meal time and was quite nice. You can go and get wine or beer from the chap at the small bar for your meal and there are self service soft drink machines. There are coffee machines, again with the miniature cups but they aren’t always working.
The bakery has lovely looking desserts but zero gluten free options. They do amazing coffee though. It’s delicious! And the young girl that works there is just lovely. It’s worth going just to see her smile! She couldn’t be more pleasant and helpful and she was the standout member of staff throughout our stay.
After reading previous reviews we made sure to always arrive at mealtimes as soon as they opened to avoid lukewarm food but to no avail. Nearly everything is lukewarm, undercooked and under seasoned. They have warming plates under the food but don’t seem to use them.
The other issue is that after dinner at 7pm the entertainment then doesn’t start until 9.30pm and there’s absolutely nowhere to go and sit and have a drink. The bar / reception area has only very limited seating, nowhere near enough for even a half full hotel so you can only go to your room. There was no outside heating or fires so that’s out. And theres nowhere to walk to outside the hotel to pass the time so it can get very dull. The only English tv channel is the news… bring an iPad and download some box sets if you can. Or football is on virtually all the time which my husband was pleased about. Me, not so much…
The only bar serving booze during the day is outside and has one member of staff. You can be queuing for 25 minutes for one drink, it’s very poor and guests were getting very frustrated. The wine though is surprisingly nice and very drinkable. Didnt try any spirits or cocktails so can’t comment. They also have golfing guests arriving at the outside bar en masse after finishing a round which can clog things up even more.
You can pick bottled water up everywhere, at the coffee bar, at dinner, etc so no need to buy any.
You can book the free shuttle into the medina via reception but the last one back is 6.30pm - after that you have to get a taxi. The medina and the souks are mostly selling imported tat from china, football kits and fake designer jewellery and handbags, not much authentic or artisanal Moroccan work. The government artisanal centres that are supposed to sell local authentic crafts again just sold imported leather goods, some still in the cellophane from china. It was a real let down. Various men tried to scam us including an uber who tried to charge us 5x what the fare was. Have your wits about you and don’t trust anyone. Everyone just wants to get money out of you.
All in all, I think for what we paid this was a poor value hotel and there are far better choices. I feel jet2 should have told us about the construction work in advance and let us have the choice to switch as I definitely would have. And until they iron out all the problems I absolutely wouldn’t come back. There’s too many other hotels doing it far better for the same price. All in all a very disappointing stay for what should have been a special occasion."
