Dar Soulaimane

It is difficult to score a place like this as there is very little grey area between the brilliant/beautiful things and those that were bad. The good included superb hosting from the Dr and the kind face + tasty food from Samira. The showstopper are the majestic views of the mountains, which are breathtakingly gorgeous. The free breakfasts are a pleasant addition, but they're a bit inconsistent - one day we received crepes, omelette, peanut butter, honey, oil and some fruit, another we just got bread, oil and peppermint tea, so it's very much pot luck as to what you end up with. The dinners (125 Dirham/12 Euros each) were pretty good, particularly the chicken skewers and tagines, and they helped us out of a bind a few times by serving us late, which was very nice of the host and his team. So far, so 4.5 stars right? But there were issues: The sheets on the bed were dirty when we arrived and none of the bedding really seemed clean. We did ask to have it replaced, but the new blanket was virtually as dirty. There was no toilet paper (they did provide one roll upon request, after which we had to source it) and the toilet doesn't really work properly (you need to turn a metal pipe round and yank a wire out of the top part of the toilet to flush, then turn the noisy pipe off again). The shower floods the entire bathroom, so unless you use your towels to dry it you're going to get wet feet every time you step in there. It takes about 3 minutes before the little shower bit overflows and spreads around the bathroom So, as stated, not easy to score - the patron/owner is a good man and his staff were really helpful, but nobody appears to clean anything. With some improvements and the addition of what looks like a swimming pool and jacuzzi this could be a five-star banger because the location is superb for a getaway from the central Marrakech madness. But I would urge the owner to hire a proper cleaner to offer proper room service each days, and to upgrade the toilets and showers where necessary. You have a beautiful accommodation but are missing some things which undermine its tranquility. Even resolving minor issues like a television with no remote or way to turn it on would add those missing touches and show you're on top of your game. I liked all of the staff and believe they work hard, it just needs touch ups around the place and one more employee as a specialist cleaner and you'll have the best accommodation in Ourika. Good luck with everything. PS: we loved the cats who would join us for dinner. I'm not sure if they're strays or not, but they were really sweet.