Riad Nerja — Hotel in Marrakesh Prefecture

List of things we were supposed to have:||Toiletries? Not even a bar of soap||Hotel restaurant? 2 tables downstairs on a patio area inside, no menu's.||Cable TV? No TV whatsoever||Towel menu? Same towel all week, could have sand papered with it.||Pillow menu? Just 1 extremely lumpy uncomfortable pillow||Bar? Alcohol? Only for the alcoholic owner!||Bell boy service? My sides are hurting from laughing at this!||Local bars? None, it's a Muslim country.||Wi-Fi didn't work.||Ironing set? What?||Carpeted floors? Thread bare old rugs||Adjustable air con? Not adjustable, kept on very low and in 38 degrees heat? Not exactly comfortable||Safety deposit box? None, not even a lock on our door!||Car hire? Didn't see this or the bicycle hire||24 hour security? We needed it, all the fighting and arguing going on between the owner and his son late at night! One afternoon 3 extremely large black men shouting and threatening with the owner, we were quite scared, couldn't understand what they were saying, we stayed in our room.||Air con in public areas, the only public areas were the rooms, all 5 of them and the tiny patio area called the restaurant with 2 tables, no air con, uncomfortable breakfast time.||Fireplace? Didn't see one but not exactly needed.||Hotel safe? Not known||Currency exchange service? Wouldn't have trusted it, already conned paying too much tax at arrival of the place.||Clothes dryer?? 1 piece of string on the terrace, about 2 ft. long!||BBQ and grill facilities? We did find it but i wouldn't have put food on it unless i wanted to die which by this time i had lost the will to live anyway, extremely rusty and dirty!||Library? I saw 1 puzzle book||Non-smoking area? People were smoking anywhere.||TV lounge? Not seen||Hairdressing salon? Where?||Babysitting service? I would not leave a child there! ||Golf practice? What? ||Solarium?||Massage and spa treatments? Would have been nice!||There was just the owner, his son and one lady at this property!||Breakfast was bread, butter (margarine) and marmalade every single day, alternate days you did get strawberry jam instead of marmalade, really pushing the boat out there.||Got conned out of £40 for a trip but the biggest scam going is the one me and my friend had on the very first day there!||We were scammed by a group of people in the high street, we were trying to look for an ATM because we had been fleeced of all our cash the night before paying for a trip that never happened and no money back either and paying the very high tax for such a hell hole.||They almost dragged me and my friend to the 'very famous' leather tannery there in Marrakech.||In such heat and not being used to it and needing water desperately we were trudged through the streets of Marrakech narrowly missing all of the scooters, motorbikes, horses and donkeys, poor things, tongues hanging out of their mouths through thirst!!!!!||We kept on having to stop as neither of us are youngsters any more, we felt sick and dizzy but they just kept on saying 1 more minute, it's just round the corner, it never was.||Finally we get there and the smell of dead animals was so bad they give you a bunch of mint to put under your nose, it was disgusting, basically by the end of the tour me and my friend had been scammed thinking we had just brought 2 leather holdall bags for £70 but when i looked at the receipt the next day it was actually £700!!!!!! That was my bank account emptied, i paid for my friend's bag too as her card didn't work! That was the end for me, we just went back to our prison cell with no windows and cried.||They spot all the new tourists that turn up, they start talking to you in the street, the questions they ask you are...............................Is this the first time for you in Marrakech? ||How long are you here for? Where are you staying?||Of course now we see why they ask those questions, we were there for only 5 days (thank god), the tannery tour only happens once a week, perfect, we can't go back and have them about it the following week and that was our first day as they knew.||By this time they know you are English, all English people are rich, apparently! Well not any more!!!!!!!!! Never been rich in the first place! I try to get by on carer's wages, need i say any more?||Me and my friend saved for 8 months for this trip and we both needed a break desperately, we could pay for the holiday monthly which was even better so you can imagine how upset and disappointed we were.||I understand that some people would like this kind of thing but if we had known what it was really like in the first place then we wouldn't have gone or wasted our money on such a scamming place and all the things that were supposed to be there on the facilities list, why lie about that! I'm still so angry about everything.||We spoke to some other 'in-mates' the next day and they said they were sorry we hadn't spoken before as they saw on YouTube the biggest scam in Marrakech was the leather tannery!!!!!!||Why isn't this made more known to everyone?! Well hopefully people will read this review and hopefully will avoid this scam.||The owner said he would take us to the tannery too so he is in on it too!||Personal hygiene wasn't the greatest either, when we first got there it was 11pm and we were both so hungry and being diabetic i wasn't feeling so great so we asked where we could get something to eat and he offered to make us an omelette which we thought ooh yes that would be nice but as he carried on fleecing all of our money he was coughing, spluttering and sneezing into his hand.................we changed our minds about the omelette!!!! Luckily i found a melted bar of chocolate at the bottom of my bag and we shared that for our dinner:)||It wasn't really a cheap holiday as our friends had been to Marrakech a few months before in August, they went somewhere really nice, a proper hotel, near the beach, 10 days all inclusive and they had a lovely time and we spent more than them and we went for 5 days, thankfully it wasn't any more, so please please please, i beg you not to go here, on the day we left, best day of my life, we saw some new arrivals and the poor woman was sat in her room crying saying she can't stay there for one night and that they couldn't move her for a couple of days, my heart went out to them.||Also the other in-mates we started talking to told us they woke in the middle of the night covered in these little black bugs!!!!!!!!!!||We also saw a cockroach at breakfast, the cat was playing with it.||It was most definitely a slum area, the ride up to it in the taxi was extremely high walls covered in graffiti, it was a maze of little lanes here there and everywhere and the same going out of the other door to go to the market square, all a complete maze, we got lost many times, lots of people asked if they could help but we had already learnt about that one, they would help you to your door and then ask for money, so we just had to stay lost and hope for the best.||Taxis ripped us off too, being English of course, it's impossible to hide it:)||There were tiny children on their doorsteps holding their hands out for money, the youngest one we saw was maybe not quite 3 yet, awful.||So anyway, i hope i haven't sold this to you because i wouldn't want anyone else to go through what we did unless, of course this is your thing.||And to top it all off we came home with the virus and bad cold that everyone else had there, sneezing and coughing everywhere with not a tissue in site!||I'm now off of work because of it and losing even more money................................Happy Christmas...

Got a taxi to go to the hotel and we were told by the driver he cannot go all the way there and we needed to walk for 10 minutes but if we phone the hotel they should come and meet us and carry our items of luggage. I thought this was strange why he could not go there but then realised afterwards why. It was a narrow pathway, an isolated alleyway which vehicles cannot go through. I called the hotel number, but it was the wrong number! It wouldn't ring!

As we pulled up to what looked like the slums of the neighbourhood we followed our Google map (GPS as they call it, and thank god we bought a sim card with data). The path was like a maze. Some local kids surrounded us. Asking us where we are going, and they can help. We refused. But they stuck to us like glue as to them we were a walking atm.

As we walked in the heat I had this dreadful feeling that I cannot be walking to and fro like this in this dangerous area for the rest of our stay and being followed everyday day by the local kids. Nor did it look safe coming back to the hotel in the evenings as I didn't see any street lights. The place looked like the slums. Still, I thought I might get surprised. Don't judge by looks.

The kids guessed we were going to that particular hotel and started guiding us when we didn't need their help. We reached the end of the pathway to a big door. It looked so ancient and didn't look like a hotel. My heart sank. Boys pestered us for money, and we said we had no cash, and they offered to go atm with us. Knocked on the door, and it felt like we were entering the London dungeon. Everything was so dark and gloomy. We went in and down some steps that looked like a basement...

The man whoever he was was nice. We told him about the phone number and he was saying oh it has been changed and he will give us the right number. He told us to take a seat on the sofa, but the place looked so dirty and stained. I looked around, and I just wanted to cry. It was unhygienic and smelly. It was the worst hotel I've been to. I didn't see anyone else at the 'hotel'.I told my partner in my language that I ain't staying here. Let's go. My partner told the man I felt scared here and we couldn't stay. The man tried to persuade us, but I was adamant that I wanted to leave straight away. It was nothing like in the pictures. I guess they used old pictures of the hotel on the website when it first opened up, which is misleading because it certainly does not look like that now. Also, those who put more than 2 stars... I'm sure they are reviewing the wrong hotel???

Needless to say, we briskly walked back down to the same path, discussing plan B and happened to see a cab drop off a passenger. Quickly negotiated a price without sounding desperate and rushed to another hotel, which was x10 better and in a very good location close to all amenities.

It was a bad start what seemed like a nightmare however Marrakech was fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed the...

So the owner is a con man and his co worker are together drunks, they do nothing to help you, only interested in ripping tourists off….. they have no facilities available when you ask, no hairdryer or iron…. On our last night we were awoken at 1 am to the joys of the owner and his assistant fighting down below with a huge 12 inch kitchen knife showing there privates to each other in some sort of male intimidation, felt really unsafe and the other guests had only just arrived that afternoon….||||It’s is situated in the dirtiest of places, full of poo and piss everywhere, it stinks like one massive toilet everywhere you go, motorcycles skim you down these tiny alleys, full of locals who will pickpocket and try to get money off you…..||||Dirty cats everywhere strewn these alleys and it’s virtually impossible to navigate as it all looks the same.||||No one spoke English it’s either French or Arabic, the place is not cheap for such a trampy place either, everyone wants to rip you off….. ||||||We would never return to this hell of a dive and I can’t warn you enough to avoid these places you will want to leave straight away and I wish we had, if your wondering why we booked such a place then the answer is we didn’t, we chose a wowcher surprise holiday for £199….||Please don’t ever do this because it will be the biggest surprise holiday of your life for all the wrong reasons……..||||Please 🙏 don’t go to these back streets...