Last time I went to Marrakech I stayed in the Mogador, which was a nice hotel but a bit far from Jemaa el F'na Square and the fabulous souks. This time a group of us stayed at the Islane, which is a two minute walk from the square. I was rather apprehensive given some of the reviews,but was very pleasantly surprised. It is undoutedly pretty basic and the publicity photos of the bedrooms are somewhat 'enhanced', but the room was clean, the bed was really comfortable, the sheets were clean and the towels were changed every day. The corridors are rather dark as there is very little natural light, but if you wave your arms about a bit the automatic lighting does eventually come on. Do watch out for the rugs however - they have a life of their own and follow you down the corridors if you're not careful!
Given it's central location I was surprised at how quiet it was, the only disturbance being the call to prayer at 5 am from the Koutoubia mosque - which personally I found delighful and gave a real sense of being 'somewhere different'.
The terrace restaurant has fabulous views and although breakfast was not that inspiring (the usual Morrocan carb-fest) the meals we had there in the evening were rather good.
The staff were unfailingly polite and friendly, even when faced with some very rude tourists who I am ashamed to say, were British.
This hotel is not pretentious - it doesn't come with all the nicities some people seem to expect wherever they are in the world. However, what it lacks in facilities is more than made up for by its location and the friendly attitude of the staff. I will definitely stay there again on my next trip.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
