Found the Riad to be a very pleasant home form home in Fes.

I can see a grain of truth in many of the negative comments, but overall I'd recommend this as a place to stay. As elsewhere in Morocco it helps if you speak a bit of French or Arabic, and at this hotel it may pay off to book a suite or at least a nice double rather than the cheapest room.

bed comfortable, room quiet, great views of Fez medina and the hills / mountains. spectacular first courtyard - for decor and style it takes some beating (it makes the building housing the Batha museum look very ordinary indeed in comparison).

The staff were generally very pleasant - yes the (female) manager was initially a little keen to sell us an excursion or a guide, or dinner in the hotel, but after we'd declined on the first couple of days there was no more push.

It's just inside the Medina, 10-15 mins walk to Bab Bou Jeloud, Talaa Seghira, and R'Cif - very handy, especially once you've figures out the routes.

It felt like a safe location but I would be a bit hesitant recommending a solo female traveller to walk home here late at night - ask your restaurant to get someone to escort you home. At least until you can find your way through the maze that is Fes medina.

Spa facilities - if you were booking expecting these to be included you are in for a bit of a shock, they can add quite a bit to your bill if you indulge in steam room / pampering / jacuzzi.

Things the riad could improve:
- plumbing / bathroom did smell a bit of drains on some days - a bit more cleaning/bleach might help please
- breakfast is a bit pastry/carbo heavy and would benefit from the addition of some fresh fruit

We stayed here for 4 nights. The Riad is a mixed bag to be honest and there are some good and bad points worth mentioning:

GOOD POINTS:

1. The view from the roof is excellent and it was wonderful to spend most evenings up there admiring the view - you can see most of Fes and the mountains etc and it really was beautiful. This view was the best thing the Riad has to offer. Fes is MUCH nicer than Marrakech and the views are much better.

2. The breakfast was tasty, homemade and included in the price - although it was mainly just carbs and there was never enough food offered. Would have been nice if they had done a buffet style breakfast or served much more food. One of the smallest breakfasts we've ever had in anywhere we've ever stayed although the presentation was nice.

3. The central area of the Riad is nicely decorated and wonderful to look at - there are even small birds which live inside and swoop down every now and again and sit next to you whilst having breakfast which is quite magical.

4. Most (but not all) of the staff were helpful and friendly - we ended up tipping alot of the staff.

5. The room had air conditioning which worked and the TV had a couple of free english movie channels which was great.

6. The location is close to the edge of the Medina and is easy to find from a Taxi.

and now for the bad points...

BAD POINTS:

1. The Riad smelt absolutely disgusting in many places - the pool area and the bathroom in the room smelt terrible, dirty and unclean. The place really needs to be completely disinfected and properly cleaned. We had to keep the window in our bathroom constantly open just to survive the terrible smell.

2. The rooms and bathrooms were never properly cleaned. The staff would ONLY fold the same dirty bedding back onto the bed and didn't even brush the bedding clean. This was extremely disappointing and surprising - we have never stayed anywhere where the bedding has not been cleaned or replaced - we stayed there for 5 days, and in that time we had to use exactly the same bedding, pillows etc. throughout our stay. The bathrooms smelt really dirty and the walls and floors were never properly cleaned. The bathroom desperately needs to be completely disinfected . The cleaning staff would not even replace the soaps, shower gels after cleaning the room - even when the soaps had completely run out. Every time we had to go down and ask the management staff for more shower gel or soap which was shocking.

3. The lift was faulty and did not work properly!! Our room was very high up (several narrow steep flights of stairs) and we relied on the lift to get up and down from our room. The lift would randomly not move and the doors wouldn't open. We got stuck in the lift at least 15 times and each time the only way to get out was to get help using the alarm button - not a very pleasant or relaxing experience I can tell you!! It is not an option to carry a suitcase or heavy luggage up and down from the rooms without the lift, so this should have been working. The female manager knew that the lift was faulty and didn't seem to care that the lift didn't work - there was no sense of urgency whatsoever to have it fixed.

4. The female manager was terrible, rude and clearly didn't care about anyone staying at the hotel at all. We also saw her dealing with some other people and she was rude with them too. We have no idea why she is in that job or is running the Riad - she was very unfriendly and totally undeserving of being Manager. She also couldn't speak or understand much english, despite the fact that some other staff below her could. It's worth noting that in contrast to her, the other staff were very friendly, helpful and accommodating.

5. The dinner was very expensive and totally overpriced (even by UK standards). We didn't enjoy the dinner as we found the food to be extremely bland and completely lacking in flavour. Probably the worst most bland Tagine and Cous Cous I've ever had - We've had much better tastier Moroccan food in the UK.

6. The breakfast was far too minimal. Although it was tasty, there was hardly anything there to eat - they seem to be penny pinching at every opportunity which was disappointing given how much they charge to stay at this Riad. We really would have appreciated more food at breakfast time.

7. The wardrobe in our room was faulty and the doors couldn't be closed properly.

8. This Riad is actually very expensive - the final price was about 1/3 higher at checkout than we thought it would be as they ended up adding extra tax per person per night ontop of the booking price made online. I think the pricing system is very misleading as the total final price listed on the booking is NOT the final price you pay when checking out. Every other hotel we stayed in in Morocco did NOT add any extra tax to the price of the rooms so it doesn't seem very fair or reasonable. We only paid the agreed online booked price for every other hotel in Morocco when checking out - this Riad however seems to make alot of extra money by charging these taxes seperately - you have been warned.

For what you pay to stay here you'd expect it to be top-notch. However, we were rather disappointed to find it was far from it. The furnishings are beautiful but general maintenance needs some improvement (our shower didnt work, we moved rooms (tried to charge more) and the lock was faulty). To do anything other than sleep in your room or swim in the pool costs extra and is very overpriced. We were also frustrated to be told by staff that it was not safe to walk into the medina from the hotel. The staff spoke very limited english and were quite unhelpful with restaurant advice (other than we should eat there!). Disenchanted.

The Riad is excelent but the price is over his quality. Especially for the extras: dinner, spa ...
Ex. 1 coffee 5 euros!!!!!