For the most part I really enjoyed staying at Riad L’escalede Marrakech. As you can see from the pictures, our room and the whole riad was
amazing and well air conditioned, which was a major plus considering how
hot it was! It was nice to come back to the hotel to cool down and relax after
a long day of walking around. Two of the staff were really nice and friendly
and went out of their way to make our stay comfortable despite the language
barrier. We were the only guests at the riad at the time which was an added
bonus so we had the roof terrace all to ourselves if we wanted to relax. We had a taxi driver who live next door which was convenient. He was nice and friendly, took us everywhere we needed to go and would wait for us.
Now on to the not so good part of the stay. We booked the
riad as part of an all-inclusive deal with Voyage Prive and the deal was pretty
good….5 night stay, flights, transfers, breakfast for just under £300pp. Fast forward
to the day before our departure we were handed a bill and were quite shocked at
the amount! They had billed us for breakfast, a couple of drinks we had and the
city tax we obviously knew we had to pay. As the breakfast was included we were
confused as to why we had to pay for it. But get this, the manager told us oh
because you had breakfast after 10am or something that means you have to pay for it. That
made me so angry! If I’m on holiday, I don’t mind spending but let me know
beforehand what I’m paying for. The manager did not tell us any of these ‘rules’
or explain anything when we checked in. If you know you can’t speak English and
no other staff available can speak English either, why not have a booklet with
all the information readily available to give to your guests?! I mean it makes
sense to have that option because I’m pretty sure the majority of the guests aren't French or Arabic speakers.
On the day that we arrived it was in the afternoon and the
manager (who couldn't speak English btw) offered us complimentary Moroccan tea
which was part of the deal then offered us lunch. We thought that since we
arrived in the afternoon and missed breakfast, the lunch counted as our
breakfast. The manager brought us a full on three course lunch and we thought this
is pretty generous! Bear in mind we didn’t
ask for all this! By the time I got to the main I was already full and the food wasn't great either so I wasn't keen on carrying on eating but I just had a little
bit of everything to be polite.
If I had known we were being charged for it, I wouldn't have ordered all that or would have gone for something that I actually
liked! Like I said, I don’t mind paying but let me know what I am paying for or
give me the option to choose! Because we complained we got a small discount but
was still annoyed at the amount we had to pay. One thing I didn't get is why
they were charging everything in euros instead of using their own currency. We
had a glass of water which was so expensive and the amount they charged us was
equivalent to the price of a six pack of bottled water! Crazy right?! I won’t
even mention the issue with the wifi…this post is long enough as it is lol. I’m
sure Afeeyah will talk about it on her blog.
It’s sad that we had an enjoyable stay but it
got ruined with underhanded tactics to make money and failure on the management’s
part to do their job properly. Now if you ever end up staying at Riad L’escale de Marrakech just know what you’re paying for upfront.
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