RIAD DAR ALFARAH

From the initial booking through to departure, the staff and management provided a warm, friendly and helpful welcome! The facilities are excellent in a good central location but I would recommend taking the Riad's offered Airport collection service - (about Euro 20 for four adults). The food is wonderful and the rooms are well appointed and spacious. Local knowledge freely shared and a Medina map was most useful. A day trip to the Atlas Mountains with driver/guide Munir was fantastic even although a thunderstorm meant an early lunch and the wise decision not to pursue the walk to the waterfall. 'Walk' is a misnomer as the slopes at the start appeared steep and rough with the 'bridges' being crude and of dubious construction!! With the extra time available, Munir took us to several distant places high in the mountains where the scenery was incredible. The transport was an extremely comfortable, air conditioned Minibus

To start the Riad exceeded all the basics- really spectacular location, comfortable rooms and amenities, food was fabulous and the service was exceptional. Our room was decorated in rose petals leaving a romantic ambience and the pool was so nice in the mid afternoon heat. The people were such a joy to meet and all were so warm and welcoming! I had thought that would be all. However, the manager saw we needed a little bit of advice with our trip and ended up putting us together with a driver/ guide so we could maximize our time and see everything. Mounir became the best part!!! He literally helped make our journey perfect. He took the time to listen to what we wanted to see, made extra stops that were off the "tourist" route so we could experience more than we had even imagined. On top of it he was a great person and very funny. I highly recommend him, so much that I literally created an account just to leave a review, as I think he and the riad deserved the praise!

This is a really nice Riad. Situated in the old city and on walking distence of the big square and souk. The staff is really friendly. Excursions can be arranged at site. We had a beautifull family room with good airco and nice bathroom

Just wanted to say a big thank you in particular to the staff at Riad Dar Alfarah, they were always available for anything we needed and in particular to book trips and restaurants. A really lovely Riad with a super comfy room in an excellent location for walking to the centre of the medina but situated on a quiet street. A note for future visitors to Marrakesh though- it's expensive- seek out smaller cafes off the track for meals and generally avoid eating in Riad's purely due to the cost rather than quality.. although we had excellent food everywhere we ate we spent a lot more than we intended over the 3.5 days! We had a very busy few days but the Riad was always lovely to come back to and sit upstairs on the terrace in the afternoon and evening.

To be fair, I need to first describe the good things about this hotel. The staffs are very friendly, welcoming and helpful. The decoration is ask nice. The photos online were very well photoshopped. Unfortunately it ends at that. We booked a 4 night stay and after the first night, we asked the manager to change rooms because the tub has mold, the water does not drain and very slippery (you may easily slip so be careful. Also you might catch fungus or something worse if you have a cut) and the water turns form hot to cold, hot to cold. The other room had a very funny, weird smell...not sure what it is... The manger said no problem, promised everything will be fixed the next day and wanted us to be happy and everything will be taken care of. The next day comes, they were only able to change one room out of the two and the room we changed to had no hot water after the first person took a shower for 10 min. Still the drain does not work work as you can see in the pic. Other than that there were just little unpleasant things the hotel promised to do but didn't do. Breakfast not in time, no luggage help when promised. When finally by the 3rd day the problems were not fixed so we asked for either a discount or we wanted to check out. The manager said we can check out but to our surprise, he asked us to pay for 4 nights instead of 3. The manager said we are the one who wants to check out so too bad for us. His attitude was firm and non negotiable. He said nobody ever had any problems at their hotel and no one left such reviews so essentially our complaints were invalid. That was the most absurd statement I ever heard from a almost 5 star rating hotel. That was clearly not acceptable where a room cost around $200 a night and you get mold in the tub and no hot water. This is something you would expect in a 2 star hotel or youth hostel. Hotels in Marrakech cost from $50 to $5000 per room and this hotel I believe is worth only $70-100 per night at the most (for the courteous staff). You are able to find so many more Riads nearby within 5 min walking distance w better quality at a lower price. It's too bad our experience was horrible. I am writing this so people can be aware that if you come here and there is a problem, they will NOT solve it for you even though they promise they will. (Just like the other reviews on how Amex is or accepted when clearly they tell you they do through email.) and to pay by visa or mc here they charge an extra 3%. To write an extremely good or bad review, one must be very happy or very upset. In this case, we were the latter. The problem w the hotel was not the main issue, it was more the attitude of the manager and the non willingness to solve the problem with empty promises that left the worst impression of the people in this country. The bait and switch tactic is poor business conduct. The reply of the management to this post later would probably the same as what the manager said to us "there is a max hot water allowance per room and we are sorry you have problems because we never had any complaints and don't know why you have this problem." This really is an example of the bad part of our Moroccan experience where people just want your money and then don't care about anything else. So sad. Better stay away if you want a more pleasant Moroccan experience. P.s. The internet speed can only allow u to read emails and text. It's not possible to watch any videos.