Hôtel Astrid — Hotel in arrondissement de Sidi Belyout مقاطعة سيدي بليوط

By sheer serendipity, I discovered this little gem of a hotel in 2007 on my first visit to Morocco. Ever since Astrid Hotel has been my home away from home. I have been staying at this hotel almost every year, except for the pandemic years. |The hotel is in the heart of the Casablanca, yet situated in a very quiet area. (Initially, it may be difficult to find, being on a narrow one-way street.) This family-owned-and-managed hotel is obviously not a five star hotel but offers all the comforts and honest, respectful treatment that the guest needs and expects. Rooms are clean and quiet and the breakfast is quite adequate, served in a pleasant Moroccan setting. The reception staff, headed by the ever efficient and helpful Omar, are all friendly and speak English and French. One can truthfully say that the people in charge of Astrid Hotel strive to serve and make an honest living at it to the full satisfaction of their guests. |One additional point: the hotel guests, if they wish, can arrange with the management for the airport pick-up and drop-off of a reliable taxi service. The price is amazingly much cheaper (almost 50% cheaper) than trying to bargain with taxi drivers when exiting the airport. Simply put, the hotel does not add a surcharge for arranging this very important service, unlike many exploitative other hotels in most cities around the world. You pay the driver directly the fixed price that the hotel had negotiated with a dependable taxi-driver as a service to its guests. (The taxi ride takes about 45 minutes.)|In short, I highly recommend this unpretentious, reasonably priced hotel in the heart...

We don’t like to write bad reviews so we hope that if anyone from Astrid reads this they take it constructively. ||Pros: the desk staff did try to be helpful. They seemed friendly although we struggled with communicating.||The desk staff let us cancel our three-night booking after the first night without any charge. ||Cons: the bedding was faded and musty. It was hard to tell how clean it was. The shower was dirty. The air conditioning was broken. There was no remote control for the TV. There was no information in the room about the hotel and its services. The beds themselves were uncomfortable and the hotel generally felt unsafe and dirty. There were banging noises throughout the night and the walls were thin. Don’t be fooled by the photos - even the sign outside has completely faded. It felt like the whole place hadn’t been renovated in 30 to 40 years and that there was a skeleton crew running it (and probably not doing any cleaning). We had booked for three nights but checked out after the first night. It was one of the best decisions we made in Casablanca. ||There are plenty of other choices at slightly higher prices that are ten times better. ||Casablanca is a noisy and chaotic city. We would suggest choosing somewhere where you can get some peace and...

This hotel is a charming, hidden gem in a great location of Casablanca. We were walking distance to Mohammed V Square that has a beautiful fountain, the United Nations Square, and the souks are a short taxi ride away or a brisk walk. We also walked to Hassan II Mosque from here. The value for the price is fantastic at this little hotel. Our room had a sweet balcony overlooking the quiet street. The hotel lobby is beautiful. It has an elevator for those who have mobility issues or if you don't want to walk up the beautiful winding staircase. They offer a breakfast if you wish to enjoy that before your day out. The room is comfortable and well equipped. It has a lovely shower with a rain head as well as a hand held shower head if you wish. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay and would be happy to stay again on our return. I give it a 4 out of 5 because the bed could be a bit more cozy with a mattress topper but over all it was...