The arrival was pleasant. The receptionist initially sweet. When we came back in the evening and wanted to take a shower, the bathroom flooded. We then noticed the bathroom was slimy, moldy and dirty. You had to stand on a dirty moldy wooden plank among murky waters since the water did not drain well. We complained to the receptionist and she gave us keys to another room. The bathroom there was the same-a little cleaner but moldy and flooded when we took a shower. In the first room skylight is too bright and its right over the bed. In the second room, at 8 o'clock in the morning someone was doing construction work right under the window on the wall right at our heads. Breakfast was nice. Beautiful hotel.

I really cannot believe that there are people who could find anything negative to say about this place. My husband and I just finished a five-week holiday in Morocco, Italy and Spain. Dar El Batoul in Rabat was by far my favorite place. We stayed only four nights and I find myself still wishing to go back "home" to Dar el Batoul.

The staff met us with traditional mint tea, and in our rooms were dried fruit and nuts to welcome us. The place feels like a magical wonderland-- NOT your typical touristy hotel. In fact, you could stay inside the four walls of Dar El Batoul for your entire visit, and still feel as if you had experienced Morocco; and better yet, it is Morocco from that past... Truly unique.

The rooms may not be of 5 star quality if you are only looking for modern ammenidies like fluffy bathrobes and whirl pool bathtubs. But I found I was able to relax here more than any other hotel I have EVER stayed at, what with the birds chirping in the morning, the delicious breakfasts, and very sweet staff who helped us in any way they could with a spirit of TRUE hospitality, not just working because they get paid.

For those of you concerned about room security, there are now locks on the doors, but there is honestly no need for them because the place is so safe. We didn't lock our door at all, and we had a laptop and other valuables with us.

I am quite surprise to read negative reviews about this Riad and owner. That's why I decided to write.

We (3 women) stayed in Dar Al Batoul 2 nights and enjoyed it. They have different types of rooms. Our rooms were connected to each other and were clean, with nice decoration.

It is true that you can not lock your door from outside and this makes you a bit stressed but we did not have any problem. Owner was very kind and was speaking English. There was another person (maybe manager) who was also speaking English. They had only one staff around and he was helpfull for finding taxi without any cost. All of them were very kind to us. We did not stayed for long time and did not need much service, but it is a small place, not a big hotel with many staffs. Anyway, we liked our stay there. Maybe were lucky or in positive mode :)

We were mugged on our last night staying there, only a couple of hundred metres from the riad. There were a number of locals around all of whom looked the other way. The riad isn't in the best part of Rabat. I would suggest anyone going to Rabat stays in the new town where there is much more going on. On this trip we stayed in riads in both Fez and Marrakech both of which were of a much better standard (but similar price) to riad dar al batoul. The owner and the staff were pretty unhelpful.