Hotel Playa Dakhla

The bedding didn’t seem very clean, maybe the machines aren’t working properly. The service was kind and the food was good. It’s nicely situated in front of the sea. An okay hotel.

The restaurant crew were lovely, and the food was fine, but I’d avoid this place. I was sick and needed somewhere quiet to recover away from friends. I booked a double room through the Booking.com app, which listed a TV, bath, and Wi-Fi, and arrived more than 24 hours after booking only to find it wasn’t ready. It had two single beds, which staff pushed together. Under the bed was a disgusting amount of dust, dirt, and dead cockroaches. They didn’t clean it. There were also stains on sheets that felt about 30 years old. There was no bath, which I’d wanted to cool off my fever, just a dirty shower with water pressure like an asthmatic blowing through a straw. No towels were provided either. There was no air conditioning, though I know it wasn’t advertised, and anyone wanting comfort in the desert may want it. The most frustrating issue was the advertised airport shuttle, the main reason I chose the place. They said they didn’t offer any shuttle. After I showed a staff member the free airport shuttle listing and a long back and forth, he agreed to arrange one and said they’d take care of it. At dawn the next morning, a new crew member hadn’t been told, so I had to arrange my own taxi at 6 in the morning and stop at an ATM to withdraw money to pay the driver.

The back rooms are like small suites, compact but nicely laid out, though they get very hot overnight and made it hard to sleep. The plugs are high on the wall, unless you use an extension cord in the bathroom. It’s a lovely little hotel, and the covered top-floor terrace should be wonderful when it’s done.

The food quality was decent, but the service at Playa Cafeteria was exceptionally poor. We waited two hours for chicken pasticcio and were served minced meat pasticcio instead. The waitress didn’t apologize. The staff’s lack of accountability and respect overshadowed the positives, and customer service needs urgent improvement.