El Olivar Palace

Overall a good hotel with very welcoming and friendly staff. In particular thank you to Sara who was very accommodating and helpful (allowing us a late checkout).

We came to Olivar Hotel Palace in Marrakech as a group of six friends for a girls’ trip, and we had such a lovely time! ❤️

From the moment we arrived, we felt so welcomed. The staff were absolutely amazing — so friendly, kind, helpful and always smiling, and they really made our stay special

A very special mention to Saida. She was absolutely amazing! So accueillante, warm, friendly and helpful. She always made us feel welcome and was genuinely lovely throughout our stay. She is a real credit to the hotel. ❤️

And the food was absolutely delicious! There was so much choice, everything was fresh, tasty and beautifully prepared. We really enjoyed the food and looked forward to every meal.

We had such a fantastic girls’ trip and honestly couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Thank you to the whole team at Olivar Hotel Palace for making our stay so enjoyable and memorable.

We would definitely recommend this hotel and would happily come back again! 🌸❤️

Disappointing. This is not a 5 Star hotel. Biggest issues.

• No food labels. For a 5 Star, I'd expect food labels to be displayed at all meals. This is a big concern for anyone with an allergy.
• Water. 2 Fridges available near the restaurant. However, they were either empty or only just restocked so water was not cold and often all bottles were gone within 30 minutes.
• Advertised as having 3 restaurants. No. There was only 1. The other 2 were chargeable and clearly not used so 1 was completely shut. Same for the chargeable bar. Always empty.
• Constantly running out of drinks at the 1 bar. Multiple times during our holiday, they run out of alcohol. One night by 7pm, there was no beer. Couldn't have a Mojito as they didn't have the ingredients. On another occasion, ordered 2 cocktails, barman had made 90% of the cocktail and then realised there was no alcohol so I came back to the table with 2 orange juices.

Room/Hotel Our room was not that bad. The safe did not work and balcony door did not lock. But it was clean and it good condition. We were behind the stage but entertainment ended by 11.30pm. Not a big issue for us but would be for people with children. Cleaning not consistent. Towels were changed everyday but the beds being made up did not happen consistently. Towels would be taken in the morning but sometimes new ones weren't given until 5pm.
Hotel itself gives off this grand feeling when you enter but it soon stops. As you spend more time here you can see how things used to be. Especially buildings that used to serve drinks and food. The "snack bar" is the only bar and it doesn't serve snacks but clearly did at some point due to the pizza oven and kitchen behind the bar. The grounds were well maintained by staff. The free shuttle in to Marrakech was nice and operated by the hotel.

Staff All lovely. Not many of the chefs/cooking staff spoke English. Some staff (going to assume managerial) did not do a lot. I approached a lady on the entrance to the restaurant regarding the cold buffet hot dishes at lunch and was not even acknowledge, she just called over a staff member collecting plates and then walked off. Other than that, the same lady just stood there during meal times. Other entertainment staff worked hard and led daytime activities around the pool and kept the children entertained in the evenings.

Food. Average. There were some good elements. Freshly squeezed orange juice every morning. Fresh omelettes at breakfast. Lunch/Dinner - Always various meat/fish being cooked on a grill in front of everyone. Yet again, no labels for what the food was. Kind of had to go with the flow. Always some kind of veg/potatoes/rice inside buffet hot plates. There is a lot of choice and you'd struggle not to find something. Fresh pizzas were made a lunchtime and dinner. Ice cream was only available at lunchtime and when lunchtimes finished, you could not have one. I did not understand the need for staff to hand pick desserts for you. The queue for the dessert station was also long because of this. There were some food hygiene concerns when it came to chefs cooking on grills. Touching raw meet (whilst wearing gloves) but then touching the handles of the tongs with meat covered gloves on. Personal opinion was meal times were too late. One lunchtime I pointed out to the staff the hot plates weren't actually on. The response was "The microwave is over there".......

Drinks Underwhelming. As per above my point, running out of alcohol is impressive especially by early evening. Cocktails were hit and miss. Sometimes there were nice, next one would be terrible. Yet again, water at the bar was never really cold. I had to ask for a glass of ice most times.

Entertainment. Cheesy and lack lustre. Random quiz night, but it was tables just shouting out answers, Mr El Olivar Palace (so basically get bunch of guys on the stage and make them take part in challenges) Couple of good nights, belly dancers and music performers but these happened whilst we were eating dinner.

Overall This is not a hotel for British people. It's not a 5 Star. It's more like a 3 Star. This hotel does not cater for the British and unfortunately, there were not many of us at this hotel and the people we did speak to had the same opinion. We all felt we'd been scammed by booking a "5 Star Palace" hotel when it is not. They are building a lot of hotels due to the World Cup, I personally would like to see the standards post this event as I think they will find out their Hotel standards are well below what they need to be to entitle them to a 5 Star rating.