Hivernage Hotel & Spa — Hotel in Marrakesh Prefecture

Staff are very helpful, the hotel is clean and secure. It is also within walking distance to the Djemmna el Fna main square.

ROOM: We stayed in room 310 for 5 nights. It has a balcony opening onto the pool. The building is a large V-shape, and this room sits between the apex of both sides, so the room is a very odd shape. On the first night, I got electrocuted by a hanging lamp; the staff fixed it immediately!! When we used the hairdryer, the plug started to smoke. Really weird! Room service is quick; options available in the mini bar are limited and as expected, overpriced. There is a Carrefour supermarket about a 10-minute walk away.

POOL: It’s tiny and faces away from the sun because the hotel building is so high and close together. We did jump in a few times as we are used to cold-water swimming. It would be freezing (late October) for most people. There is a bar that serves beer and gin and tonic at the poolside.

SPA: We didn’t use the spa, but there is a small gym upstairs to use with bikes, treadmills and weights.

FRONT DESK: All very helpful; never too long to wait to be seen. There is an airport shuttle (15 minutes by car / 300MAD) if you need it and staff will arrange taxis and directions. There is a small bank immediately outside that will change currency and has a cashpoint.

RESTAURANT: The downstairs restaurant has two identities for breakfast and evening dinner.

For breakfast, there is a good choice on first impression, but it lacks a live chef making omelettes and eggs. There are flies everywhere on the meat and cheese; easily sorted with nets!! After 5 days we got really bored with the choice. The lazy nature of buffet style means staff and guests use their hands to pick up bread and food etc. Gross …

In the evening, the downstairs section of the restaurant has a great atmosphere. There was a live singer on the one night we visited. The menu is the same as what is on the room service menu.

MySky bar is on the rooftop. It offers stunning views and a different food menu. Wine bottles from Morocco start at £30. International wine from £50 for a standard Pinot Noir. We dined here on the first and last night of our stay. There was a Halloween party (of sorts) on the rooftop bar.

🚨 The rooftop bar does blare out music until midnight on every night we stayed.

OTHER THINGS: The lift is too small. Staff use it too, and sometimes you end up at -1 level and see the staff entrance, delivering food and towels etc.

It is close enough to the street, so you will hear sirens, blaring motorcycles and horse carts.

There is also a sushi bar and bakery on the ground floor we only discovered on the last day. 😔

We didn’t use the bar, hair salon or sauna facilities. There is some space on the ground floor to sit and wait, but I’m not sure if there is any space for business/laptop work etc.

As ever, every hotel in the world should provide arriving guests with a short tour of facilities as well as delivering baggage to your room. I am in two minds as to whether we would stay...

Of my 2 weeks in Morocco and after many hotels in many cities, this one wins for worst hotel. In no way is this a 5 star hotel. 2 stars for the hotel location being near the Medina. Everything else was disappointing. For our 3 night stay, the music was loud til past 1 am each night. Other guests we traveled with said their side of the building was quieter so it’s up to luck.

Our toilet broke and stopped flushing. We saw water coming through the walls next to the closet. The one star for service is for the maintenance man who was the only pleasant hotel staff member who came to check on the toilet. The front desk failed to answer the phone, and we had to go down to request assistance each time. The hotel is super stingy with water compared to the other places we stayed such as Sofitel which delivered bottles and snacks to our room without being asked. When we asked for water by calling the front desk, we waited for half an hour and it never came. We had to go down to request it again.

The spa and gym staff were incredibly rude and unprofessional. They were on their phones, not dressed like hotel staff, and lounging or on the treadmill. The equipment was very lackluster and the sauna isn’t on unless you request it to be turned on which then requires a waiting process. The waiting area has snacks covered with flies. The towels are laid out so you can’t tell which are clean or dirty. There are no gym hours listed anywhere. There are open used bottles of water in the gym.

The breakfast was edible but there are no eggs made to order unless you request it and even then, on my second day I requested eggs twice and sat for an hour and a half and they never arrived. They took away my hard boiled eggs before I had a chance to eat them to add further inconvenience.

For dinner on the last night I asked for wine and was given a beer. The steak I ordered was extremely tough. My hands hurt from sawing through it for the chewable pieces.

When we asked for help at the front desk for a taxi, the man at the front of the building told us to cross the street (treacherous) and the taxi person quoted us 100dirham for a 10 min drive. We walked back to the other side of the street and found our own ride for 50 dirham which is closer to reasonable.

There’s no elevator security so anyone can really enter the building and floors. The room door doesn’t shut by itself and even when shut I had to open and close it 3 times to make sure it locked since closing wasn’t enough to lock it. The lights in the bathroom flicker like a haunted house. The mattress is so stiff it feels like sleeping on cardboard, and the blanket is so heavy you cannot opt to only use the sheet when the weak AC makes it too warm. The decor is literally falling off near the elevator and due to the moisture the rooms...

My stay at this hotel was undoubtedly the worst experience I've ever had in my life.

From the very beginning, my entire holiday was marred by a series of disappointments and inconveniences that left me thoroughly unsatisfied.

One of the major issues that plagued my stay was the relentless road work that seemed to be underway around the clock. The construction noises, starting as early as 6 in the morning and sometimes lasting until 1 am, were impossible to escape. While I understand that this might have been beyond the hotel's control, it nevertheless contributed significantly to the disruption of my vacation.

Adding to my frustration were the room conditions. The soundproofing was inadequate, as I could hear every slight movement, including the scraping of chairs. To make matters worse, I was repeatedly awakened by an alarm being snoozed every day from 7 am to 10 am. I had hoped for a peaceful vacation, not an early morning work routine.

The constant intrusion of music from the skybar and restaurant further exacerbated the noise issues. The fact that the music played well past midnight, only to be followed by the early morning roadwork, made it nearly impossible to get a good night's sleep.

Upon checking in, I was dismayed to find that there were no essential amenities in the room. The absence of toilet articles, coffee, and towels indicated a lack of attention to detail on the part of the hotel staff.

The restaurant experience was equally disappointing. Despite heading down for breakfast between 9:30 am and 10:00 am, I found that the buffet was often depleted and lacked variety. Additionally, the language barrier with the staff was apparent, as I had to repeatedly explain my preferences for eggs and beverages due to their poor command of English.

My visit to the salon/spa for a pedicure was yet another letdown. The service felt rushed and lacked the care and attention I expected. In fact, I would have been better off doing it myself.

All in all, I left the hotel with a sense of profound dissatisfaction. The various issues I encountered were substantial enough to deter me from ever considering a return visit. This experience not only ruined my holiday but also left me longing for some uninterrupted sleep...