- Morocco Holidays
- Marrakech
- Jaal Riad Resort
This hotel is located at the end of Avenue Mohammed VI, just a few paces from the nearest nightspots. Jemaa el Fna Square is a 10-minute drive. Marrakech Airport is approximately 5 km away. This luxurious city SPA complex offers guests a large choice of top-notch restaurants, hairdressing salon, games room, a nightclub and lounge.The younger guests are welcomed to enjoy the kids' club. On-site leisure options include indoor and outdoor swimming pools and tennis courts. A well-equipped business centre is available for business travellers. All rooms come with an en-suite bathroom and home appliances. Individually regulated air conditioning is provided in all accommodation as standard, and all units feature either a balcony or a terrace.
Enjoy a range of recreational amenities, including an outdoor pool, an indoor pool and a fitness centre. Additional amenities at this hotel include complimentary wireless Internet access, concierge services and gift shops/newsstands.
Due to the surrounding area and the number of steps around the hotel, it may not be suitable for those with mobility difficulties.
Firstly please do not pay extra for all inclusive “plus” because quite frankly you get nothing extra for it. They say you get “selected international branded drinks”, which are specifically Johnny Walker Red, Smirnoff, Bacardi, and Gordon’s, however I watched as those without all inclusive plus also got those branded drinks without paying extra for them. So if you like JD, Vodka Redbull, Baileys, Aperol, or even a cold can of coke then you will be paying for it (£6.50 for a can of Redbull!). When I complained I was told as a goodwill gesture I could have those drinks for one night only, only for the Redbull to be conveniently sold out. Fortunately there is a supermarket in a shopping mall nearby where it’s about a pound a can.
Secondly the food is awful - cold, repetitive, not very nice, poor quality, and potentially the cause of diarrhoea which ran through the six of us that stayed here at the end of August. We did end up going out a few times for dinner.
Thirdly, bring your own towels. You have to pay a £25 deposit for each towel - I don’t know why because they are poor quality, well used, and threadbare. You obviously get the deposit back at the end of the holiday but why - who would steal one of their towels.
Fourthly, the complimentary À la carte restaurant was not really free. We had to pay a supplement on more than half the items on the menu, which again was not very nice - paid a £12 supplement for a fillet steak which was over cooked and tough as old boots.
The positives? The room was nice and big, bed was comfortable, and the air conditioning worked well, they were cleaned every day although I don’t know how the cleaner did not spot the huge cockroach in the middle of the floor in the toilet which had just been freshly mopped. Bottled water was left every day, and we needed the fresh toilet rolls that were also left every day too!
The pool was refreshing and welcome in the heat which was low to mid-30s everyday. We got up early so we got sun beds every day in the same place. The hotel didn’t seem to be too crowded.
We had a late flight on our last day and we were able to still get food and drinks up-to when we left.
This was meant to be a special holiday - the first time we had been away with our four adult kids since they were kids, but it was extremely disappointing, and we felt the “plus” was mis-sold.
Overall the holiday was a bust!
Like everyone says the hotel, rooms and pool area is lovely and clean! The nicely presented entrance and attractive reception area this is where the smiles end. USE BOLT FOR TAXIS
SICKNESS - Major issue in this hotel! We spoke to at least 6 other parties who had sickness and diarrhoea which isnt a coincidence! I got diarrhoea on the last day 5hrs before my flight and still had it 3 days later. My wife got it the day after and she ended up in hospital due how bad she was and put on a hydration drip. AVOID THE HOTEL!!
‘All inclusive plus’ is a sheer con. You do not get anything worth while compared to the stand all inclusive that other guests got anyway like Smirnoff and Bacardi etc even though reception say you get 6 different cocktails and 4 other international branded spirits.
Check in - You check in and have to pay £40 tourist tax (card only) that we did not know about which I understand is everywhere now so brushed it off but having to pay £25 deposit per pool towel is ridiculous. You will get the money back but will take 5-7 days to return to your account which by that point you are home so if it’s not returned you lose. ‘Late check out’ is £60 til 4pm but they say this is cash only! I question this is a legitimate extra that is being recorded
FOOD!- Frightening and this still isn’t the strongest word to use, utterly poor from choice of food, temperature and the standard of cooking. We eat quite early so for the restaurant to open at 7:30pm we didn’t really like but thought brilliant nice fresh food… No! Half of the food isn’t even out so you aimlessly walk round a buffet and finally find something you like and it will be cold I don’t even want to say luke warm. Beef was overcooked and tough so being cold was even worse, chicken was tastey but that is down to the herbs and spices but sometimes not cooked enough (still abit pink). Found I was eating pizza for majority of the week in the main restaurant which also got very boring.
POOL BAR - Bar does not open till 11am so you have anywhere to be able to get any drinks albeit soft drinks or even bottle of water. Service was fine but slow, with it being small a Que can soon become long but 3 people on the bar tends to go down quick. Ikram was always smiling but the guys looked like they hated being there and doing their job seemed like hard work. 2:30pm the snack bar opens and if you like food with birds taking bites out of sandwiches or fruit this is perfect! Day in day out 10 birds constantly flying in picking away (pic attached). Staff could not care less even though another guest we spoke too said they had bought food nets they just didn’t bother using them. You can buy food off the menu at the pool bar but a couple we spoke to returned their chicken as it was raw and had vein running through so I don’t think there is any any standard to go by.
MAIN BAR - Really like main indoor bar but only 1/2 guys making drinks on a night and with it being the only bar you just have to stand and wait and accept you will have a 5mins wait regardless, very little evening entertainment aswel and found there is not enough outdoor seating either, we are on holiday we don’t want to be inside. Balls missing from the pool table is crap it needs sorting.
We spoke to management about the concern on cold food and did notice the following day it was better but then day after that was back to sh*t. They will not be bothered if people order in takeaways from McDonald’s or KFC because you have already paid for your holiday and they have your money so means they have less waste by cooking less so it’s a win win in their eyes. You get replies from management saying thanks for the feedback and they will pass this on to restaurant manager etc but nothing has changed from months of bad reviews regarding food.
Would highly recommend Marrakech but nothing this hotel
Im not even sure where to start with the review. The hotel is absolutely beautiful to look at, rooms are big, maids attend daily. Theres nothing much around the area at all apart from a shopping mall with carrefour in it. We paid for all inclusive plus, absolute waste of money we got exactly the same drinks as everyone else would don't bother paying the extra. As previously stated the food in the restaurant is limited and always cold. Even if you go at opening times. We ate out alot and ordered from glovo many times as we didn't want to eat the cold bland food. We met 3 other couples, each one of us had sickness and diarrhea, surely the hotel must take note of this concern. As for the pool snack bar, the birds eating from the food is horrendous, management must see all these reviews but chooses to ignore the problem. Entertainment is very basic and the bar closes at 11pm. There is also a lack of staff in the main bar.
You need to be up early for a sunbed, they look old and I never seen them being washed down at any point, the pool was good in the warm weather. Mohammed in the pool bar was really good as was Roberto.
Its such a shame as this hotel has potential but really needs to address all these issues. Im sure the hotel will reply with they are taking on board these issues as they have been doing for months when in reality nothing changes. I have also raised a complaint with jet2.
Definitely not the 5-star all-inclusive experience we expected
My 19-year-old daughter booked and paid for this 8-night holiday through easyJet Holidays France as a special trip for the two of us. We paid approximately €2,300 including private transfers and were really looking forward to what was advertised as a 5-star all-inclusive experience at JAAL Riad Resort Marrakech.
Sadly, the disappointment started almost as soon as we arrived.
We arrived at the hotel at around 8am after travelling and didn’t feel particularly welcome. We were told that although we were all-inclusive guests, our all-inclusive package wouldn’t start until we officially checked in. This meant that if we wanted breakfast that morning, we would have to pay extra.
We didn’t immediately agree to pay. Instead, we went and sat outside. However, it was hot, we had just travelled and we needed something to drink, so eventually we decided to pay for breakfast.
When I went back and tried to pay by card, I was told that the card machine wasn’t working and that I would need to use the ATM. I therefore went to the cash machine, withdrew money and handed over 400 MAD in cash for breakfast.
What made this particularly puzzling was that the card machine was working when I paid the tourist tax. I’m simply stating exactly what happened, but having just arrived at a supposedly 5-star all-inclusive hotel, this certainly wasn’t the welcome we had expected.
We were then told to go and have breakfast, come straight back afterwards and we could be checked in.
Unfortunately, our next disappointment was the room.
We had booked a “garden room”, but the room we were initially given overlooked what appeared to be a back-of-house/service area, with concrete, exposed pipework, equipment, materials and service access. It was certainly not what either of us had imagined when booking a garden room. I have photographs of the view and they really do speak for themselves.
This was the point at which my daughter became extremely upset and angry. She is only 19 and had paid for this holiday herself to take me, her mum, away as something special for us to enjoy together. She had been so excited about the trip and seeing how disappointed she was within hours of arriving was genuinely upsetting for me.
After complaining, we were eventually moved, although only a few doors away. The view was somewhat better, but the room itself was very tired, there was an unpleasant smell and the shower didn’t drain away properly. It still didn’t feel like the standard of accommodation we expected from a 5-star resort.
Unfortunately, the food was another major disappointment.
In the main buffet restaurant, we regularly found that food which should have been served hot was cold or barely warm. Alarm bells really rang when we realised there was actually a microwave provided in the buffet restaurant for guests to heat up their own food.
I simply don’t expect to book a 5-star all-inclusive holiday and then need to microwave my own buffet food to get it hot.
The pool snack offering was also extremely disappointing. On one occasion, the included food consisted essentially of a handful of fries, a gherkin, a few pieces of chicken and some tomatoes.
What concerned us even more was the way the fries were served. The member of staff had initially been doing something else and then handled the handful of fries directly by hand before serving them to us. We were genuinely taken aback by this, particularly in a hotel being marketed as 5-star.
Burgers, salads, sandwiches and other options were available at the snack bar, but these were at an additional charge. Again, this was certainly not our understanding of a 5-star all-inclusive experience.
I genuinely don’t normally complain or write negative reviews, and I don’t want to suggest that absolutely everything about the resort was bad. There are some attractive areas of the hotel, and we went there wanting to have a lovely holiday together.
However, there was a considerable difference between the 5-star all-inclusive holiday we believed we had booked and paid for and the experience we actually received.
From not feeling particularly welcome when we arrived at 8am, being asked to pay separately for breakfast, having to withdraw 400 MAD in cash when the card machine had worked for the tourist tax, the supposed “garden room”, the tired replacement room, cold buffet food with a microwave available to heat it yourself, the limited pool snack offering and the way we witnessed our fries being handled, the experience was extremely disappointing.
But the part that upset me most was my daughter. At 19 years old, she had spent her own money taking me, her mum, away for what she hoped would be a really special holiday together. Seeing how disappointed and angry she was after putting her own money into something she had been so excited about was probably the hardest part for me.
We weren’t expecting perfection. But when you pay approximately €2,300 for an 8-night holiday including private transfers that is sold as 5-star and all-inclusive, I think it’s reasonable to expect the accommodation, food and overall experience to reflect that description.
My advice to anyone considering booking JAAL Riad Resort Marrakech would be to check very carefully exactly when your all-inclusive package starts, what is actually included and exactly what room category you are being offered.
Sadly, this simply wasn’t the 5-star all-inclusive experience that my daughter thought she was paying for.
We chose this hotel because it had a lovely large swimming pool, and was a riad so offered authentic style which is what we wanted. The hotel is a really beautiful hotel and the bedrooms are nice and large (balcony on the small side). The restaurants are really lovely, however there wasn’t always a clean fully set up table and sometimes the staff were a little slow to accommodate. It was never an issue when asking for a drink or something that might have been missing off the table, and the staff were always willing to assist but we have been to other hotels where tables were to a high standard at a 4 star hotel. The food was ok and there was choice but again depending on the time of dining there might not be the variety or much left or you would have to ask for them to bring out more food. The main thing to take note of is that we paid extra for All Inclusive Plus but it really isn’t worth the extra cost and if we would have realised we would have just gone All Inclusive. The All Inclusive Plus only gives you an extra 3 drinks and also branded drinks however it does not include Baileys, and the people who were All Inclusive also got the same drinks it seemed so we paid extra for the All Inclusive Plus where people who paid less got the same as us. Also the pool bar restaurant food is not included within the All Inclusive package, and whilst there are nibbles available from 14:30 onwards, the selection was poor and limited. All in all it is a really beautiful hotel and it certainly could be higher but changes would definitely need to be made.
