My wife and I stayed at Hivernage Hotel 3-10 Dec 10. We booked and prepaid via Lastminute.com. The location is excellent, on the edge of the Hivernage district closest to the old city. Unfortunately the rude staff and lack of five star services and facilities cause us to strongly recommend against staying at this hotel.
The hotel is rated as five stars, the same as the Sofitel and the Es Saadi across the street. This rating has to be taken with a huge grain of salt. Several comments remark on the tiny pool area, which is completely shaded from the sun by the building's own V design and tall buildings to the north side. There are no lawn or garden areas for the use of guests as there are with the other neighboring hotels. Noise - the windows are NOT soundproof by any measure and the hotel is on a busy intersection; traffic noise continues all night.
Our problems began immediately upon arrival in Marrakesh, when our bags were lost by Air Moroc. We were given a folder with a claim number and contact phone number and told to give it to our hotel, and were reassured the lost baggage department had a good relationship with all the local hotels. We gave the folder to the receptionist at the Hivernage when we checked in. I particularly asked them to check with the lost luggage department as my cell phone had not registered with the local cell phone net and I could not receive any direct calls. When I asked later that evening if any news had been received, I was told my bags had not arrived. The next day when I asked again I received a somewhat different answer. Instead of being told the bags hadn't arrived I was told they couldn't get an answer at the contact number provided by the airport, and they would keep trying. Late that afternoon my phone suddenly decided to register with the local network and I got a SMS saying my bags were awaiting pickup. My wife and took a taxi to the airport at our our expense to claim our bags. I'm now convinced the receptionist never even tried to contact the lost luggage department, as the timing of the SMS indicates our bags had to have come in on a later flight the same day we arrived. If we had left it to the hotel, we would never have known our bags were awaiting pickup.
As for the hotel itself, our first impression was that the junior staff were eager to please, but that the supervisors (easily identified by their dark suits and cell phone pressed to their ear) couldn't have cared less. We had no reason to change our opinion during our stay.
We booked one excursion during our stay. When we booked, the receptionist couldn't find the right booking form and asked to check back later. When we did, we were told we were confirmed, no problem. The morning of the excursion I decided to confirm with the receptionist that everything was OK. It was good that I did, as they had 'forgotten' to mention I needed to pay the driver in cash for the trip, when I thought it was being charged to the room. I had to literally run to the Sofitel across the road to use their ATM to get the money to pay for the excursion.
The breakfast in the restaurant looked attractive the first day, but quickly paled. While there was a fair Continental breakfast arrangement, the most promising feature was a omelet station; unfortunately the omelet chef never seemed to be at his station, except on two occasions when I already had a full plate of cold meat and cheese.
We ate two evening meals in the restaurant and found it very good. Again we noticed the waiting staff doing an excellent job while the black suited managers stood around ignoring everything. We attempted one lunch in the restaurant, on their buffet day. We were seated and given menus, but then ignored. After 20 minutes we gave up and went across to the Sofitel for an excellent meal on their poolside terrace. In fact, we ate at the Sofitel three times and the Es Saadi Resort once; each time receiving far better service than we received at the Hivernage.
The ultimate problem arose on our last day when we checked out. Since our flight was at 0540 in the morning, I wanted to settle up the night before. When I went to the reception at 2100, I had to insist that I really wanted to pay then, not at 2300 (after all, we wanted to get some sleep). The receptionist insisted on my checking our Minibar consumption for the day, and then fussed about the exact type of bottled water my wife had drunk (the in-room price list only had one price for water listed) and revised the bill up from 115 DH to 155 DH. She booked the taxi for the next morning and told me the fare would be 100 DH, which struck me as odd as I already knew the 'official' nighttime fare was 150 DH.
The next morning when when came down at 0300 the clerk on duty told me we still owed another 57 DH for room tax. He relented after both my wife and I demanded to know why it hadn't been included when we paid the night before, but not with any grace. The taxi driver tried to demand 200 DH for the trip to the airport.
Given that the Sofitel and Es Saadi cost very little more, and provide far more value for money, I can't recommend this hotel. If it were listed as a three star, it might be more honest.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
