Palais d'hôtes Darsor — Hotel in Marrakesh Prefecture

Overall I think this is a wonderful property and would gladly return in a heartbeat. There are some clear benefits of staying with Darsor and some drawbacks that needs to be addressed but nothing that would materially impact your visit. I wouldn’t class it as a hotel in the traditional sense, rather Darsor offers a bespoke service to its patrons simply due to the size of the property.

Darsor is located about 10 minutes walk from both the new city and old. The hotel is modern with Nespresso machines, 40” flat screens, a balcony, free WiFi in room (I note the website says this is not the case), air cooling/ heat units and duel sink units (for couples) in each room. The best part is that as the hotel only has 7 rooms it pays much attention to each individual guest. I have to give it to Soukaina and Ahmed for their attentive service and not once forgetting my name.

As with the home feel you are required to press a buzzer every time you wish to enter the property and there is no reception per se and this homestead feel translates to guests not only being confined to their room but also the social space in the reception. the hotel does not have a traditional reception rather when you arrive you are given a welcome snack while the hotel checks you in in the back office. A point that was interesting was when I went into the balcony I managed to lock myself out of the room as I was not informed that the latch on the door was self locking.

Breakfast changes everyday and is usually a rotation of jams (my stay included strawberry, apricot and fig), croissants or pan au chocolate, a plain crepe, toast and either a cheese or plain omelette. Unfortunately food would probably be the biggest let down as it very quickly shows it does not match the standard the rest of the hotel is at. This translates directly to the welcome snack and room service as well (I paid €20 euro for 6 mini sausages, a fried egg and small ramekin of roasted vegetables with toast). Although I do not feel this is a limiting factor of a bad cook and excessive overpricing rather the constraints of what a domestic kitchen can accomplish in 15 minutes and I did order last minute rather than plan ahead for a tagine to be made for me.

The bed is something of a focal point in the room I stayed in when comparing to other hotel rooms I resides in as it was over 6 foot wide and 7 foot long and had 4 pillows and 6 scatter cushions and was a pure pleasure to sleep on.

It is my understanding the hotel is still being finished as it is only been open for about a year - what this means is that some taxi drivers do not know where the hotel is, the roof terrace is not complete (but from my trip, when open it will be amazing) with sun beds and space for a bar, carpeting is not trimmed down on the first floor. But once complete this hotel will...

PS. this would be a very long review because I loved the place so much!

The Palais is the best stay I've been to so far. If you want tranquility and homey feelings then this is it. It wasn't peak times when we visited so there were only 1-3 guests. It's not an extravagant hotel nor a typical riad. It has rather the pleasant feeling of home. Please take the door by Rue El Mahjoub - don't think this is said anywhere but they have two entrance.

Kamal, who was quite hands-on and nice, accommodated our check-in. He offered us mint tea during our arrival and while waiting for the check-in process to be done. A nice guy indeed. We were also welcomed by Darsor the cat 😸 (he comes and go)

It may be a bit of a walk to the Medina but likewise - I was thanking myself I did not stay anywhere close to that bustling place. It's not too far from the square and it's 10-15 minutes walk to the Gueliz area (where the mall is).

Another person we appreciate so much is Mustafa, he was on the night shift and we mostly saw him. He's a great young lad and hardworking person, we were quite impressed by how he interacted with us (he tries his best, always smiling and offering anything he could do). We said we were not going to have our breakfast as our tour is coming but he insisted even if he had only 15 minutes to prepare it.(Thank he did because our tour was a hike and we would have been starving!) He kindly offered us too that we can let him know if we're early so he can serve the breakfast earlier. His service I must say is such a stellar one that this would keep guests coming back (I for one). If I could think about it another way, we made a friend.

The room was the "presidential suite/majorelle" which overlooks the pool area. Clean and spacious! For the price, I'd say it's better than the Riads by the Medina.

During off-peak season, there's only 1 person managing the place (based on our experience), this is acceptable as there would only be 1-3 guests. Sometimes the staff would be in the basement for other tasks so just shout away if you really need them (like we did) and they would come to you. Otherwise, great accommodation! I would stay here again when I come back...

Clean hotel with very helpful staff. A hammam was offered in the presentation but when we arrived it was not working(!) and during the day there was a lot of noise from the basement from the (re-)construction of it! Our "presidential" suite was not very practical with two chairs and a table that couldn't be used in any practical way as the room wasn't big enough for that; and a large glass wall between the bedroom and the bathroom/toilet was not practical at all and very odd to say the least! However, the worst of all was the cold in the hotel. During our weekly stay the heating system was working extremely bad and on top of that we had three days without any hot water. For anybody who has been in Marrakech in January it is easy to understand what it means. The rooms ice-cold and no way to have a shower! The common space where we had breakfast was ice cold too. The staff were really kind and tried to do all they could to help us. Breakfast was OK although a bit repetitive but we always had the possibility to ask for fresh fruit or an omelette which was served with a smile. We were three couples travelling together and all trying to have the owner do something to compensate us for suffering the bitter cold and lack of hot water. It seems that the owner doesn't live in Morocco; probably she is just happy to receive the proceeds of her investments without giving any thought about what is happening in the hotel. All three couples were sending emails to her without any answer whatsoever to our complaints. With such an arrogant attitude, CHOSE ANOTHER HOTEL! This was truly a very...