Great atmosphere at this riad, if a tad underlit/rooms v small. Our room was unavailable for the 1st two nights due to an electrical problem. The French owner acted as though she was doing us a favour,giving us a bigger room for 2 nights, but we would have preferred one or other. She became more unfriendly as the days went by-perhaps because we didn't avail of the evening meal on offer. On the last day, as we sat on the roof terrace, she had a HUGE row with,I think, her partner, and there was screaming, sobbing and door slamming for all the world to hear. Not very professional. It's a shame because it is a great situation, and charming building. No hot water in second room shower, but we could cope with that were the management welcoming. Her husband/partner was charming as were the local staff. I don't imagine she would be easy to work for! I would stay elsewhere next time, but at New Year prices are high so that had a bearing on our choice.

Good things:
1. Location is very close to the city centre (approx 5 mins walk from Al-Fana square) and easy to find
2. The moroccan staff especially ILham is exceptionally helpful and polite and makes fabulous Tajine and Coscus (15 euro per meal but a lot nicer than restaurant's food- definately worth tying at least once!)

Bad things:
1. I had to pay full amount in cash on my arrival and I wasn't allowed to see my room before a full payment is made.

2.The french lady who manages the Riad has a very bad temper both with the staff and customers. One day I was surprised when she told me to go to my room only because I spoke to Elham briefly regarding a meal. She thought I was distracting the staff. Even if this was the case she could have said it in a nicer way.However her husband Stephen was very polite and helpful but she seems to be the one in charge of everything.

3.Whenever I wanted to eat in the Riad, The french lady had to decide on the day and time when I should eat beacause she thought that the staff was busy with other things of higher priorities which clearly wasn't the case.
4. The rooms were very small, the blankets weren't clean and there was a smell of dampness in my room (the superior room-Btisam). The rooms are quite different from the photos.
5. Most of the room services mentioned in a long list simply do not exist, e.g. No coffee or tea in the room, not even a kettle, the safe wasn't working,and one day a female guess was looking for a hairdryer but there wasn't one! no Wi-Fi, No Hammam, No massage..etc.

6. In one occasion I invited a female friend for dinner in the Riad. We sat in the lounge for 30 minutes only and we left the place as soon as we finished having our dinner. The french lady kicked up fuss because she thought the girl might come with me to my room!

Will I go back to this Riad? Definately NOT.

Dr Al-Nakib
England

I miss this place SO MUCH!!! Me, my partner and another couple travelled to Marrakech in October 2010 and had booked 4 nights at the Dar naima with the intention of moving around the city a bit for the rest of out 10 night stay. This ryad is such a charming place, it is centered around two courtyards with a roof terrace at the top. The blue patio, one of the two courtyards, even has two pet tortoises wandering around the place! We loved it so much and after reading a few unfavourable reviews of other ryads that are in the same price bracket we ended up booking the rest of our stay here, it was such a stunning place to be and you can't beat breakfast on the roof terrace so we figured we would stay!

The rooms we were already in weren't available for the rest of our stay so Latifa kindly booked us and our friends into a succession of different rooms and only charged us the base rate (bargain of the century) we had to spend one night of our stay in a neighbouring ryad as there was no availability on that day but she sorted it all out for us and put us up in an amazing suit at a bargain price as we had to go to the trouble of moving. I will write a seperate reveiw for that one as it was truly the most amazing place I have ever stayed in, especially considering we went on a serious budget with the intention of staying on hostels.

The Ryad itself was clean and well kept, the showers were a bit pants except for in one of our rooms where it was a bit like a pressure washer but you don't have to pay extra for hot water (which sounds stupid and obvious but is a real thing in ryads in Marrakech, seriously look it up, you can expect to pay 10dh for a hot shower in some places!). It's location couldn't of been better.

The ONLY thing that annoyed me, and subsequently stopped me from sleeping (hence the poor sleep quality rating), was the prescence of cockroaches. Not reams and reams of them but the odd one or two which have a nasty habit of turning up on your pillow at night... nice! Having stayed in a few of the rooms (Fairouz and Btsiam, our friends had three or four others and we stayed one night at the other ryad) I can safely say that they appeared mostly in the rooms surrounding the yellow patio as opposed to the rooms surrounding the blue patio, which appeared to be mostly cockraoch free. But really, they are a common problem in Marrakech, they are in every building and they actually head for the cleaner residences apparently so they must be doing pretty well, its just unfortunate that the only encounter I personally had with them was at night, in very close proximity to my hair.

We will never forget the time we spent in Dar Naima, the lazy mornings on the roof terrace, the endless pots of mint tea... Bliss :-) and you couldn't want for anywhere better situated for exploring the city. Yes ok, if you have loads of money to spend there are better ryads with better facilities but if you want an authentic experience, at a bargain basement price in a ryad where you can run around the city all day and not have to treck miles to get back to and still enjoy stunning views of the city from the roof top, breakfast served to you every morning, a clean bed to sleep in and lovely staff then you can't beat it.

And don't for goodness sake go to Marrakech and stay in a generic hotel. It would be a fairly pointless exercise when there are such beautiful ryads out there that are cheaper, nicer, cleaner and in easier reach of the city.

Overall the location was good - right in the Medina. It was easy to find after the first few times of going to and from the center of town. Marakesh itself is a beautiful city - easy to navigate in comparison to Fes. However, the rooms in the Riad are small and look NOTHING like the ones in their photos (especially when thinking about size). Our room had air conditioning which is a must in Morocco - or at least a fan, so be sure to ask your Riad before you book. The room could have been cleaner and the staff much more helpful. Breakfast was nice and sufficiant to get you through lunch, but nothing grandeous. The sheets could have been cleaner as they had someone's hair when we got there. Overall it is a basic, no-frills Riad. The bathroom was clean and so was the shower, I was just shocked with the size of the room, so be prepared. I was expecting hairless sheets, but we made due. The water preassure was non-existant in the shower. Overall it was tolerable and the AC made it even nicer in the evenings and after coming back from a long day of exploring. It's good if you're looking for something basic and inexpensive - just to sleep when you come home. The location is also great. Be wary of the airport transport: he was late picking us up from the airport and he dropped us off OUTSIDE the medina walls. It's tricky to find from outside, and he doesn't offer to take you in. You can (and will) get a guy with a little rolly cart that will come by and put your bags in his cart and take you right to the door...HE IS NOT WITH THE HOTEL. There are tons of these around. Make sure you arrange a price with this guy first before letting him load your bags in. We thought he came with the hotel and the 15 euros we paid for the transfer (you'd think right?). No. So arrange a price. Also, don't get the 20 euro per person dinner - it's not worth it with all the AMAZING food stalls at night in Jmna del Fna. Great experience you can't miss - all for about $5 per person as opposed to almost $30 at the hotel.