Club Paradisio Zalagh Resort & Spa

Welcome to Hotel ALCATRAZ! Don't stay or even consider booking it. The place felt like a tropical prison. We complained and the police were called on us. We were made to feel unwelcome, and I felt stalked and harassed by staff and management. It seemed like you couldn't complain or make friends without trouble. My family and I had what felt like an epidemic of food poisoning. We were running to the toilet or sink, and had to pay over £100 for a doctor to give us clean IV fluids for the worst sickness and diarrhoea we've had. The food was disgusting, cold or uncooked, with no labels, children's options, or allergy advice. Half the time we were searching for clean cutlery, plates, tables, and glasses. Drinks were limited to watered-down vodka, gin, or whiskey when they hadn't run out, served in dirty 150-200ml juice glasses hand-washed in contaminated water. Straws were reused too. They even poured a shared can of beer into a 150ml juice cup. There's one open bar for two hotels, no sky bar lounge, just a storage area for broken items. The reception bar was overpriced, charging £15-£25 for a spirit and mixer, and ice cream was locked away. There was no bottled water from 11pm to 0830. The pool was dirty, very deep, and had cockroaches and insects floating in it. Cats wandered around and left messes throughout the hotel. There were no pool beds like the photos showed, only broken sunbeds without cushions, and the poolside was so slippery you had to shuffle around. They charged a £20 deposit for each orange, ripped pool towel. I worried about things being stolen from my room, which had no safe, and felt I had to carry all my belongings around. Customer service was bad, with rude reception staff, management I didn't trust, and an excursion rep I called Rocky Balboa. Staff were fired in public over relationships between guests and reps. Arguments and fights between staff and reps happened less than a metre from us, putting us in the middle of it. The rooms felt like cells, with broken beds, dirty towels, no toilet roll or toiletries refills, and showers in the dark. Ants and cockroaches were in our unclean room. We were told we'd have a pool view room, but when showers were blocked, the pool view seemed to be inside the room. At night we had no cold drink, since our room either had no fridge or one that didn't work and had a sticky brown liquid inside on arrival. We needed medical help, and I felt we had to rely on a holidaymaker who was a doctor, nurse, or first aider. There was no medic or ambulance service available quickly. When we needed hospital stitches, we had to use our own towels, bedding, and wet wipes to try to stop the bleeding. This was the hotel from hell. The staff need training, the cleaners need to be sacked, and management might as well be the cats running around. I honestly thought we were being pranked and a TV presenter would pop out and say, “You've been framed.”

We had a great rep, Mehdi, who was friendly, accommodating, and really looked after us. He showed us affordable excursions and helped with the extra guests in our room, the cockroaches. I don't think we would have had such a good time without him. The welcome wasn't great. When we arrived, we were told to wait several hours for our room. The reception staff weren't rude, but they weren't friendly when explaining the hotel facilities, and they overlooked the fact that we'd paid for early check-in. The all-inclusive meals were a real letdown. We didn't enjoy breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and nothing was labelled, so choosing food was guesswork. There was one bar for all-inclusive drinks, with little choice and watered-down alcohol. The activities seemed nice, and I can imagine my children enjoying the poolside games, but the pool was so deep I wouldn't have been comfortable with them there. The rooms were nice and clean, but the cleaning staff kept taking the towels before we'd used them and took ages to bring them back. It was annoying after the first night and never improved. I wouldn't return to this hotel, and the experience hasn't made me keen to visit Marrakesh again.

The pools and other advertised facilities were disappointing. The outdoor pools were freezing, and the indoor pool and jacuzzi cost extra despite being in awful condition. The children's club was a disaster, with run-down facilities, no organized activities, and reports of inappropriate staff behavior that made me unwilling to let my children go. People smoked inside, including staff, even though the hotel was advertised as smoke-free. Our all-inclusive dining was poor too. Food was always cold, choices were very limited, and quality was subpar. Staff seemed to give paying guests better food and service. The snack bar was run-down, the bars were closed, and staff were rude and unhelpful. The room problems started at check-in in December: there was no heating, phone, safe, kettle, or basic hotel information, and we were freezing at night. The next morning, we were told the whole floor had engineering problems and offered other rooms. Those rooms hadn't been cleaned, and I had to show housekeeping how to clean them properly. Even then, they were rundown, with blocked toilets, broken showers, and no working heat. Housekeeping was unreliable, we had to keep asking for towels, and we caught staff going through our cupboards. This was a shocking stay. The hotel is poorly managed and run-down, and didn't deliver the service or quality it advertised. I'd tell people to look elsewhere; they'll only be disappointed.

Mehdi, the holiday representative, was efficient and patient with us, and treated us really well. The room wasn't warm enough and wasn't very clean, but the service and food were okay.