Riad Babouchta & Spa — Hotel in Marrakesh Prefecture

TL;DR;

Good location breakfast comfortable and spacious room nice facilities overall

Bad some staff trying to scam us room towels not being replaced

Whole experience detailed below:

I will try to be as objective as possible with this review since this hotel had some very strong points, and some points that will turn it into a hotel that I won’t consider to stay anymore.

First of all, I hope that everybody agrees that a hotel must be always a safe place and a bubble for travels and tourists where you can chill, rest and scape for anything. But I will come back to this later.

Having said that, we had a nice welcome to the hotel, we were offered a shuttle from the airport at 15 euros, we rejected it, because I saw on TripAdvisor rides for 2-3 euros from the airport using taxis. At the airport it was almost impossible to get rides for less than 30 euros, we managed to get 25 (no one would take a group of 6 for less than 30). So we regretted not taking the hotel shuttle.

We arrived and received a welcome tea, we were able to relax for a bit while we settle the reservation, there was a toilet on the lobby which we could use to freshen up a bit. We left our luggage and went for lunch. First problem comes here.

First problem: we asked the guy at the reception at that time, a good place to have a good traditional Moroccan meal, that took us to a 2 star rated place called “L'oriental Restaurante”, we payed 20 euros p/p, for an average food, and on further days we discovered that actually food is quite cheap! Spending at least 10 euros or less p/p in some cases.

When we were back at the hotel, we finished the checkin and settle in our rooms. No complains, nice rooms, nice bathroom, all clean, comfortable bed. No complains. We were in the main building btw. Not one of the new hotel extensions.

Other observations, hot water took a little bit to come out, towels were not changed in 3 nights stay although beds were made and bathroom was cleaned. WiFi was so-so there are a lot of networks to choose from, and they tend to be unstable. Good and abundant traditional breakfast (liked it a lot).

We used other hotel services like the quads desert tour. Here comes the second problem.

Second problem: we wanted to take one of the tours offered by the hotel, we were told one price for a group of 6, and we left half the price as a guarantee or advancement. We left the hotel for our daily tour around the city, and when we were back, we were told by one of the guys at the counter that he made a mistake and that he gave us the price for just one quad instead of 3. I was puzzle because if one quad can take 2 people, how would he expect the other 4 people to enjoy the tour… 🤷🏻‍♂️ also the price that he told us made no sense at all. The other two quads according to the pamphlet was about 800 MAD each but he was asking for 400 MAD each, so now we knew something was off, after the restaurant scam, and many locals tried to scam us many times in the city we also thought of this as an scam. So after deciding as a group, we rejected the tour and ask for a refund. Of course, they guy said immediately that they won’t charge those 400 per quad extras, and that the price would be left as it originally was.

So having exposed the two main issues with the hotel, being scammed once, and they trying to scam us once again, I must say this is not a safe place. Which takes me back to my initial statement. If some locals try to scam me the whole day around the city, and then I go back to my hotel, and they try to scam me, then where the hell I’m safe? Where can I get good advice? For sure not here.

I rated 3/5 because I liked the hotel location, and quite everything, except for some details and for the staff of the hotel trying to make an extra unfair profit from us. So, on my opinion if you just use the hotel and not their services you will be fine. Clearly SOME of the staff can’t be trusted. Other members of the staff were really nice and I’m grateful for their friendliness...

First off a big thank you to Ibrahim, Bachir and Lhoussin for making our stay absolutely incredible despite all of the drawbacks and shortcomings of the riad and management. We stayed here 2 weeks ago, and just a week prior, they had opened up a new building across the alley with just 4 rooms in it. That is where we were put (a group of 3). Be aware if you are making a booking to specify that you want to be put in the main riad because the backhouse is nothing like the pictures shown. Our room had a broken window allowing anyone access from outside to unlock and enter our room. The other windows were not sealed completely so there was always light coming in. The air conditioning was dripping water all night onto the bed underneath. The bathroom is also smaller and completely different than the one in the main riad (that’s advertised). Similarly, the entire room itself was a lot smaller than the one in the main riad. You also couldn’t access the terrace in the backhouse since it was still under construction. There is no staff in there and you need to knock and wait to be let in between buildings while there are kids playing in the street. All services and amenities are in the main riad including breakfast, the terrace, and common space. There was no atmosphere in the backhouse, sense of community, or other guests you can interact with in a common area. Immediately upon finding out about our accommodation we spoke to Ibrahim who put us in contact with his manager because the hotel was fully booked and he could not move us to the main raid. The manager, a French woman, was never available on site but only through phone calls. I had to spend hours arguing on the phone to get compensation or to switch our rooms. She was rude, didn’t care for customer satisfaction or the fact that we were scammed and misled by putting us up somewhere other than the main riad. She thought saying “sorry but there’s nothing I can do” would fix the situation. She kept changing the compensation and had to call the big boss in France where she had many time zone issues to get approval to offer compensation. We ended up cancelling the last night of our stay and she begrudgingly refunded one of the three nights we did stay. What made up for this stay was how incredible the guys working there were. From always offering us Moroccan tea to chatting with us, helping us arrange for travel and outings. They were the friendliest souls and blew us away with their hospitality despite all the trouble management caused. After their long shifts they would sit with us, share stories and were wonderful company. They went above and beyond and we definitely made friends for life with them. We can’t thank Ibrahim, Bachir, Lhoussin and the other staff enough for making our stay in Marrakech wonderful. We implore the French lady and her boss in France to fix their management and advertise more truthfully what accommodation guests will be receiving upon arrival...

My departure day from Riad Babouchta and Spa was extremely disappointing, leaving me with a negative impression of hospitality and making me question whether I'd return to Morocco in the future.

They welcomed us with a smile and were kind throughout the stay so no complains here. Location is excellent.

We booked a triple room which is long enough for you to move around but in a triple room for three you only get two tiny bottles of shower gel and shampoo. This is not a problem as you can probably ask them and they will give you more. No towels replenished throughout the 5 nights stay.

Breakfast was utterly disappointing. I have never had such sad breakfast in my life and we only ate it for one morning out of 5. The terrace is neglected, sun beds dirty and in bad condition.

The biggest shock came to when it was time for checkout and leave for an early flight. I have been travelling for 10 years and was in Morocco in February too and have never experienced this in my life before. We left the riad and the keys in the room and walked to our taxi, 2 minutes into the drive I see a taxi speeding behind us, beeping, a man sticking out, looking distressed, chasing the taxi down. I informed the driver to pull over as I recognized the man. He was the staff member of the riad. After getting out of the car, he shouted "YOU LEFT WITHOUT PAYING". I could not believe it. Having booked it through booking.com with a confirmation of payment as it sends for all bookings, he told us that they havent taken the payment from our card. Having worked in hotels for 5 years, travelled for 10, I have never been given keys to a hotel room without my card being authorized or charged. It was unbelievable and I could not contain my disappointment. I rush our driver to go back, paid and left again for the airport. I invited him to sit in our car with us on his way back so he knows "we didnt leave without paying"

How could you let a guest in for 5 nights without charging their card? What if you could not find us? What if we had gone away to another town the night before taken a flight from there? What if we were on a budget and under the impression that hotel is paid and had no funds left?

Please get together and think about this before embarrassing your guest.

I wish you had told us, please come to checkout at the end as we have not taken any payment. As I have always done, I would come down the night before, settle my bill, thank you for the stay and leave on time to catch my flight.

If you think I am in wrong and it is not your problem, then I apologise but cannot sadly recommend this...