Savoy Le Grand Hotel Marrakech — Attraction in Marrakesh Prefecture

Safety issue and rude and dismissive staff specifically Duty Manager Fouad Ait Ezzahi||My friends and I booked this trip to celebrate my 40th birthday from Friday - Sunday, and unfortunately, the experience was far below the standard I would expect from this "so-called 5*" establishment.||From the outset, there were issues. Prior to our arrival, I emailed to confirm that our room would accommodate three people and requested an extra bed. Upon checking in, I re-confirmed the presence of a third bed with the reception staff, who assured me it was in the room. However, our room was prepared for only two people, lacking the extra bed, sufficient towels, slippers, and cups etc. This initiated a frustrating series of calls to reception to request the extra bed. Despite repeated assurances, no one arrived for several hours. We had to physically go to reception at approximately 4:00 PM to reiterate our request. Even then, upon our return to the hotel between 10:30 PM and 11:00 PM, the bed had still not been made up. This was incredibly frustrating, as we had been travelling since 3:00 AM and were exhausted, with me feeling unwell. We were forced to call reception yet again before the bed was finally provided.||The following afternoon, we spoke with Duty Manager Fouad Ait Azzahi to express our dissatisfaction with the repeated attempts required to secure the correct room setup. He promised to take my contact details and call me back, a call I never received.||On the Saturday, we discovered that our room had been cleaned but the toilet paper was not refilled. This necessitated another call to housekeeping, followed by a wait of over an hour before I had to call again.||Later that evening, a far more serious incident occurred. My friend wanted to iron her dress for the evening, whilst plugging in the iron, it caused an immediate spark and smoke from the electrical socket. My friend bravely pulled the plug out to prevent a fire, risking electrocution in the process. She sustained a burn to her hand.|We immediately called for a duty manager. A different duty manager arrived, and we explained what had happened, showing him the burnt plug. Shockingly, he attempted to plug another device into the clearly damaged socket, which we strongly advised against to prevent further damage or injury. He took a photo and stated he would write a report and speak to the room director. Crucially, he never once inquired about my friend's injured hand, and we felt he did not take the seriousness of the electrical fault seriously. He simply requested a new iron for us.||The following morning, we discovered the replacement iron was also faulty. When we attempted to fill it with water, all the water gushed out, creating another potential hazard. Thankfully, it was not plugged in at the time.||On Sunday morning, having heard nothing further from management, we went to check out at 11:15 AM as we had lunch reservations. I requested to speak with Fouad Ait Azzahi again. I questioned the lack of communication since Saturday. He attributed this to Eid and the absence of general managers, stating that Sunday morning was his first opportunity to address the matter.||His proposed resolution was a late checkout and 30 minutes in the sauna. This offer was completely impractical and too late, as we had already packed and were at reception, ready to leave for our pre-arranged plans. We declined his offer and asked for an alternative solution. We specifically requested at least one night's compensation, given my friend's injury and her quick thinking in preventing a potential fire caused by your faulty equipment.||Mr. Ait Azzahi then made us wait for 45 minutes in reception. Upon his return, he delivered a dismissive rejection of our request, stating that the general managers had refused it. He repeatedly stated, "thank you and goodbye," offering no apology for the series of issues we experienced, showing no concern for my friend's hand, or acknowledging the severe fire hazard posed by your iron. When challenged, he became visibly angry, telling us to be quiet as he didn't want other guests to hear. He then incorrectly claimed that the compensation for late check-in was 15% of the price and asserted it was our choice to leave early, completely failing to acknowledge that his offer was inappropriate given our packed bags and existing plans. He refused to provide any contact details for the general manager and seemed solely focused on ushering us away.||It is a true shame that despite the hotel's lovely facilities, which I would have considered revisiting with my family, the incredibly poor service, lack of empathy, and absence of a genuine apology have left me with no desire to return. I remain deeply upset by the dismissive manner in which Mr. Ait Azzahi spoke to me, and the utter disregard for the significant safety concern involving the faulty iron and my friend's bravery in preventing a potential fire.||I expect a hotel of this caliber to prioritize guest safety and provide satisfactory customer service. This was not the case...

Where do we start ! So a worldly experienced traveller. Firstly this is not a 5 star hotel and is not linked to the Savoy London .

On arrival we were sent a taxi from the hotel to pick us up. It cost us £30 which locally taxis average 5-10 £ . The hotel is probably 3 miles from the airport.

The porter took us and our bags to the wrong floor as he was too busy talking to the other guests. After a 3hr flight late at night we just wanted to settle. We took our own bags back down to our room.

Our stay got increasingly worse! The front line staff are very kind but are not trained appropriately. Having worked in hospitality in 5* hotels it falls short.

The hotel is very tired and needs investment in all areas.One evening we book a restaurant and asked the concierge to book the transport. We gave him the address and he passed this to the taxi guy. We further clarified the address with a screen shot for the driver who said he knew where it was situated. He took us to the wrong restaurant and left us there without a booking.

We were stopped at the main entrance by an aggressive and intimidating security man. Who said that we could not bring in our bottles of water , as this was not hotel policy. He continued to shout at us in front of other guests, he then escorted us to the reception. We asked to speak to the manager , lovely receptionist were kind and appeared embarrassed.

My partner speaks Arabic and French and heard the conversation that took place. The receptionist were happy for us to have the bottles of water. 30 mins later the manager appeared he said it was fine , I asked for an apology from the security officer , he did so, then as the manager turned his back laughed at me. The manager was kind enough to offer a free taxi due to the past evening experience.

They provide 2 small bottles of water for the day and expect you to pay for water ! As there is no other water available , even in the gym.

The restaurant breakfast area is Chaotic, no order .staff take table settings from one table to the other which have been vacated.The coffee station for food and rubbish visible to guests is filthy . We only ate fruit as we were concerned from a hygiene perspective. If the owners are happy for their customers to sit in filth what are the kitchens like I ask !!! I was taught that your shop window needs to reflect the back of house , as this is part of the guest experience , says it all.

The cleaning / housekeeping staff last night were exiting there shifts walking in between dinners at the outdoor restaurant. Staring at the guests as they ate dinner! It’s like faulty towers but an expensive experience. There must be a staff entrance , as I know from my own work. If you are Arabic you get a completely different service !

The pool is in poor repair around the edges the cement and mosaic is coming away all around both pools

There are only towels available in the larger pool area and most have holes in them. All rooms have an interconnecting room so noise pollution from neighbours is heard often un savoury late in the evening.

Today for breakfast on the terraced area we witnessed the canvass Pagodas being cleaned with a brush to free dust. As guests were sitting trying to enjoy breakfast with dust landing in food and bathing furniture. It’s a complete joke ! We just laughed as it’s unbelievable.

Guests yesterday were freely smoking and vaping over the open air buffet . No signs to say no vaping near food. No segregation for none smoking guests either through out the hotel.

I met with the hotel manager and did a quick walk about to point out the varying issues. His response was you have some great ideas!! He said if there are no problems no business ! He also said they have mystery shoppers , I responded with they need to be sacked lol.

However lovely front line staff trying so hard most are students. Supervisors and higher levels dismissive and lack of accountability and blame every thing on the culture.

My recommendation to not be taken in by the wonderful website images etc . Ps the spa is not...

This is not a 5* hotel, at a push a 4 but what really let's it down is the attitude of the majority of the staff which massively brings down the * rating to a 2. First impressions count - ours was unfortunately very poor.... The reception area needs an urgent sprucing up as everything looks 'tired' and old, not at all as the photos on the various websites try to depict. The pool area was lovely as was the restaurant where the breakfast was served. If only this attention was given to the rest of the hotel. We were greeted by a glum receptionist who checked us in - not making us aware of any of the hotel facilities that were available nor a courtesy map of Marrakech. She said that the rooms that we were allocated with were 'new'- they were not! On seeing the rooms we were again disappointed as they were nothing like the pics we had seen. Whilst quite spacious, the furnishings were old fashioned, the rooms weren't properly cleaned. Greasy finger marks were on the toilet roll holder and around the bathroom mirror. The floor was dirty. Basic toiletries were provided however these were not enough for both of us in the room. No shower caps or vanity sets that you would expect from a 5* hotel however our main gripe was the fact that there were not provided with bathrobes which was clearly indicated on our hotel voucher. We notified reception of the lack of bath robes and insufficient toiletries and another very rude receptionist told us that the bathrobes were only for suites and not available for our kind of rooms despite me showing her the voucher which clearly stated the hotel would provide is with these. We asked to speak to a manager, and she said that would not make a difference as we were not eligible. On day 2 we were able to get hold of Murad - the guest relations manager (Joke). He insisted that he would rectify everything immediately (give us bathrobes and toiletries) and to make up for our initial bad impression he suggested that we could have a complimentary late check out when leaving which was great as our flight was at 7pm. His exact words to us were that “everyone deserves a 2nd chance” – I can see why they would employ someone like him as he was great with his words, if only he followed them through. No toiletries or bath robes were received. Day 3 - again no additional toiletries were received - we had to go to the Carrefour market next door to buy shampoo and body lotion. Asked concierge for a cab - waited half an hour and enquired about the taxi to be told they forgot! No bathrobes received. Day 4 - having bumped into Murad at breakfast who sheepishly gave excuses for the fact that nothing had been received by us. He said he would again deal with the situation immediately. 4 cleaners knocked at the door asking if we had a problem (why it took 4 of them is a mystery and could have been quite intimidating to some). I told them again about the toiletries and the bathrobes. One of the cleaners then rang the housekeeping manager and passed the phone over to me. The manager told me we were not eligible for the bathrobes. I explained that Murad had assured us that we would get these, but she said it would make no difference what Murad said as they had no bathrobes to give. Toiletries replenished. No Bathrobes. The list of things goes on and on: Threadbare towels , super cold pool water , loose tiles on the ceiling of the indoor pool,fridge not working, rude receptionists . Pen marks all over the headboard of the bed, slow waiting staff by the pool, sockets that didn’t work, breakfast was delicious however foods at breakfast were not labelled and you didn’t know what you were eating especially to label things that contain nuts as my sister has a serious nut allergy. On our last day we went to a Hammam, on returning to our rooms at 1.50pm we found that our entry keys had been deactivated despite being assured by Murad and Fatima that we had the rooms until 2.30pm! A catalogue of errors – this spolit a much-awaited family holiday after Covid. Husna at breakfast was however fantastic 😊 As for...