Riad & Spa Esprit Du Maroc, Marrakech

2020 - 02

Pure Disappointment

Preface: I assure you my review is mostly objective with a few of my own experiences and opinions (which I provide rationale for). I was so upset by this place, I needed to write this review to warn people who are considering staying here that this riad may spoil your trip. It is long, but this review will tell you more about this riad than any of the websites can. I have divided my review into subsections for practicality.

Rooms:
We stayed in Oasis (See attached photos) which is a small room somehow classified as “superior”. On arrival, we were immediately disappointed with the size of it. When we asked for a bigger room, Sylvie threw her arms up in the air, made a big fuss, lied to us about our room being one of the biggest (which anyone can clearly see from the website it is not), and refused to change our room at all during our entire stay even though we know for a fact that at least one other superior room was vacant all three nights of our stay (Not always the same room was open all three nights, but she had many opportunities to move us to a larger room if not the first night, she could have the moved us the second or third night, and she did not do so.)
This had me quite angry so I did my own research from the website and after doing a walk through of the place and identifying the names of every room, this is what I found:
First, I have no idea how they decide which is room is to be priced as standard and which is to be priced as superior- supposedly based on room size, but not all superior rooms are same size, and most standard rooms are the same size as superior rooms- if not bigger. It would be fine if they didn’t charge more for superior rooms, but they do, and the basis for what makes a superior room a superior room is not consistent between the rooms they consider to be “superior”. The only superior rooms actually large enough to be considered superior are the rooms named: Menara, Bali, Pacha, Pacha, and Volubilis.
One of the rooms classified as standard is also larger than half of the of the rooms classified as superior, this large standard room name is Koutoubia.
My advice: Unless you can specifically ask for: Menara, Bali, Pacha, or Volubilis when booking a superior room, don’t throw away money booking a superior room. If you book standard instead, you will literally get the same size room as half the people who book superior size rooms, or an even bigger room than superior as the case with the Koutoubia room.
Furthermore, the rooms surrounding the courtyard with the fountain is ridiculously noisy during sleeping hours due to all the foot traffic being above the kitchen and front door (which has a doorbell that isn’t ever turned off). Good luck having a lie in if your room is located in this courtyard.

Hospitality:
On arrival, we were given mint tea we did not ask for and later charged for it; it is actually not a nice welcoming gesture as one may assume. If you don’t want to pay for it, you are within your rights to refuse it. Breakfast is basic continental style- fruit, bread and pastry with spread, yogurt, coffee, and no hot items unless you are happy to pay for overpriced eggs- and only until 10am.
If you’re thinking about indulging in the spa, they will only take cash payment up front before booking any spa services for you. (Money laundering much?)

Location:
This riad is very difficult to find even when using Google Maps (and my husband and I are experienced travelers). When you finally find and go down the correct obscure alley, there is a long succession of turns with dark corners and alcoves. If you are female, I can say with 100% certainty that is unsafe for you to walk alone when leaving and returning to the riad, even during daytime hours as there is little daylight reaching these pathways.
My husband and I were harassed one evening by young thugs. These men told us that the busier streets were shutting down for prayer. We told him, “This is the only way to get to our hotel.” He asked where we were staying, we lied out of suspicion and told him a riad close to this one. He tried to take us down dark dodgy back alleys, but after one minute of following him, we turned around and left him because it didn’t feel right. The man then turned around and proceeded to chase us and demand we pay him for showing us the way when we never asked him to. At that time, his friend conveniently showed up and also demand we pay him cash, which we refused and by then we were back to the main road thankfully.
Summary on location of this riad: Dark corners, bad area of town. Constantly having to watch your back. Only close to souks and not much else. Worst part of the riad is location.

Accuracy:
This riad isn’t as pretty as it appears in the photos on the official website and on all the travel sites. For examples, the dining room furniture looks completely different in reality and there are no lying down lounge chairs by the pool. The amazing photos of vibrant glowing lights in the pool courtyard at night- yeah they don’t turn all of those lights on, and it just doesn’t look like that at night. The photos show an inviting pool but in reality, it is very small and no one swims in the pool because it’s freezing.
To be fair, it wasn’t like the worst place I have ever stayed. The rooftop terrace is a dream and a nice place to take a nap in the middle of the day in the sunshine. (However, the rooftop patio furniture is covered with all red cushions; no white cushions as pictured on all the websites, which does take away from the luxury I think.) There are fresh cut roses all throughout the riad which I loved, even a few in our room in a vase near the bed. On arrival, our bed had rose petals in the shape of a heart which I appreciated. The bath is luxurious and deep, but hardly big enough for my husband and I to take a bath together without folding our legs in front of us (and the shower head was placed low on the wall making standing showers difficult and messy as there was no shower curtain.)

Conclusion: You will most likely be disappointed and feel ripped off! I do not recommend, in fact AVOID! Not worth the trouble of staying in a bad area of Marrakech, and not at all worth the prices they charge.