Hotel Tombouktou — Hotel in Fez

SCAM ALERT, DOES NOT CARE ABOUT BOOKING RESERVATIONS, DOES NOT FEEL SAFE, SCAM ALERT! ||||So we visited Fès as a group of four students. We got cheap flight tickets ad cheap booking- hotel Tombouktou (or so we thought... 😡)||||We arrived at midnight to the very dark and shady enterance of the medina. Taxi ripped us off with the "I don't have change" trick and as we got to our hotel (Tombouktou) the owner said he was fully booked for the night and can't accept us... Although we had a reservation on booking! So he decided to "do us a favor" and he took us to a hotel across the street. Both the owner of the new place and him told us that this hotel is more expensive and "better", and was double the price for a 4 beds bedroom. We told the Tombouktou manager that this is not acceptable but he was very unfriendly.. and told us he will accept us tomorrow and that we have to cancel our booking because that's their "policy" ? .. We had no choice but to accept to stay in that hotel across the street, because it was nearly midnight. The room was cold and they promised us hot water but there was none.. So the next day we checked tripadvisor and people actually had to spend the night outside, so.. I thik we were actually lucky... We woke up early and found another place on tripadvisor called Riad la bauge de kenza, they accepted us and were very friendly, had hot water and private rooms and was about the same price as the hotel across the street of Tambouktou - where the manager will scam you if you will arrive at night (I have a feeling its a power play they do if you arrive late because you litteraly have no other option than accept if you don't want to stay on the streets scared of being robbed. ||||So book somewhere else or you will end up paying more than you planned for a place that doesn't feel safe and is generally not worth it.. Rather go for a more expensive on web but the same price in reality, in the...

We got what we paid for. Cannot expect too much for budget room.

No belongings were stolen. No bed bugs. Hot shower is guaranteed. Air conditioner is functioning when he is in a good mood.

Be aware of bees and cats when you eat breakfast at an outdoor terrace. Better eat up breads before bees start their job on marmalade.

You may have a tough time in rainy days as rain is leaking from ceilings in some rooms in the third floor. As the third floor is tilted greatly, water in the corridor flows in room #5. You have to borrow plenty of bathing towels to minimize the flooding damage.

The hotel asked if we needed a shuttle bus service from the station to hotel by email. We thought it’s much secure than taking a rip off taxi only to find that they just arranged a taxi and we had to pay directly to taxi driver.

The hotel emailed me the cost of shuttle bus service is 200 MAD. When my Morrocain friend asked them on the phone in Arabic the price was down to 60 MAD. Taking a taxi near the train station to hotel costed me 30 MAD a few days later.

As for tourists it’s not convenient to stay in this Oued Zhoun area. The public transportation is only bus #10. Taxis, restaurant are good at ripping off the tourists. It’s much better to stay around blue gate outside of the Médina. Some taxis around blue gates are honest and reliable as they use taxi meter. The restaurant offered reasonable price for local food (40 to 60 MAD). Here in Oued Zhoun restaurant charged you 80 MAD for food worth between...

Being a not so intelligent and risk taking female american I decided to spend four days alone in Morocco and of course risked staying in a shady place because well, I'm cheap. This place is that too, it's cheap. With that said, the people were very helpful and kind. They did not scam me in anyway (but then again I reserved everything online in advance and they could not charge me for anything but what was on my printed receipt). Breakfast is free, but if you have other meals than they should charge you. This seems obvious to me, but maybe not to the others who are giving reviews? I didn't feel like my room was super sanitary, but this place is cheap. It's a hostel in Fez for heavens sakes! I know that all the bedding that we had was washed before we came and the bathroom was.. not the best. But it was private and got the job done. Also, the help was just that, very helpful. They can't speak French or English super well, but they have become great mimers. They really do try. If they couldn't communicate with me they found someone that could. When I showed them my concerns for safety at night, they tried to introduce me to other hotel customers so that I wouldn't have to be alone. Overall, I got what I payed for and I really didn't mind this place at all. It was a cultural experience, not a cruise, and that's what I...