Zawiya Sidi Bel Abbes

Personeel super super lief maar de accommodatie viel zwaar tegen

BEWARE OF FRAUD AND UNPROFESSIONALISM BY THE STAFF. Ahead of our arrival, I was contacted by a staff member who asked me to buy him alcohol. This felt highly unprofessional and made me feel very uncomfortable. I contacted the riad ahead of time and asked them to arrange for a taxi drive to the riad. We were driven to the riad and paid the full cost 220 DH to the driver upon arrival. The staff member at the riad witnessed this payment as he spoke to the taxi driver and also was helping us with our bags. Upon checkout, the same guy at the reception demanded we pay double local tax and again for the taxi. He claimed the taxi driver took the full payment as a tip and that it was our fault for paying the driver, (despite having witnessed this at the time he said nothing) and then demanded that we paid again. For reference, a tip of 220DH is something you would notice and ask about. The normal cost of a taxi fare is 15-50DH. None of them had said anything about us paying the riad and not the driver beforehand. Once again, he even WITNESSED the payment. If this were a proper establishment they would have settled this with this with the driver and not us. That is, if it weren’t a thought out, two-part, scam. We were forced to pay again or we would have missed our flight, we also felt unsafe in the situation. The room was right by the lounge and pool. People stayed there until long in the night and early in the morning. It disturbed our sleep and experience further.

Small riad located outside the medina. You need to be prepared to deal with staff who can be quite persistent in trying to sell extra services despite our refusals. We eventually booked and paid for an airport transfer through them. They had also offered us a takeaway breakfast, which we never received. We ended up without transportation in the middle of the night, having to figure things out ourselves, and they refused to issue a refund