Palm Plaza Marrakech Hotel & Spa

I found the stay easy and dependable, and felt the price was justified. The hotel was well maintained, with clean, quiet rooms set up for comfort and amenities that were easy to access. Staff handled things professionally, and the service was consistently on point. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting a hassle-free stay.

The setting is spectacular, and on paper it has everything you'd expect from a five-star hotel. In practice, it's not worth more than four stars because the staff seem unable to understand what tourists expect. Why serve the same things five times? Why not allow coffee by the pool in the morning? The Wi-Fi was unstable in both the room and pool area, and we had to go in person to the spa to book even while standing at the front desk. I also had to beg for an outlet to plug in a computer, and one drink was 90% ice. It looked great on paper, which makes the experience unfortunate.

At check-in, we were asked for a marriage certificate, something I understand isn't required under Moroccan law and that wasn't mentioned when we booked. It felt discriminatory that only Moroccan guests had to provide one, while foreign guests weren't asked. Reception wouldn't take responsibility and told us to cancel or book a second room, even though they were the ones refusing to check us in. After a long, unnecessary discussion, they finally agreed to refund us. I've stayed at hotels around the world, so this was especially disappointing from a supposed five-star hotel in my own country.

The hotel itself was okay. The trouble was the way the payment was handled during our conference stay. We were told to pay in advance by wire, then on arrival they said the transfer hadn't gone through, despite the receipt I had. They asked for my credit card at reception, and the issue still hadn't been sorted by the time we left. The whole booking and payment process was a shambles, and it felt clearly dishonest. A fraud!