Terra Mia Marrakech - Riad

Oh dear....oh dear We are a family of three. I booked this place for three nights with the hope that it would provide a relaxing haven for my family....just outside the hustle and bustle of Marrakech , and a charming place to spend New Years Eve I will presage this review (because its going to be stinker) with the statement that I don't like leaving bad reviews. I have a live and let live attitude and when I see poor people struggling and trying hard I think its unfair to hit them with criticism for not reaching unachievable standards However Terra Mia is a premium guest house pitching itself as a higher standard luxurious place to stay not a budget hotel Let me also say that I have not asked the owner for a refund, or for anything in fact. And even if they had proffered us a refund I would still leave this review Here is the quick read : We are leaving early to get out of the place.....despite losing money on the room Unhealthy levels of smoke from an open fireplace inside the building (the main reason I'm leaving a bad review) Noisy permeated by smoke every evening Cold smoke polluted Poor value/poor quality Did I mention it is smoky in here? Read on for the detail : ) The Good The staff were outwardly polite and tried to be helpful up to a point The Riad was tastefully decorated, spacious grounds, largely well maintained and clean They offered to put an additional bed in our room the first night and to put us in a slightly larger room for the second night. However when I saw the room on the second day it contained two single beds again. I thanked the girl but said we might as well stay in the room that we were in.....however she insisted that they would place a "grand lit" in the room so I agreed. Unfortunately when we returned from our day out in Marrakech...sure enough they had moved our stuff into the new room. Unfortunately again it had two single beds pushed together....and we had no electric radiator (which at least we had had in the first room) The Bad They clearly don't understand the difference between a twin bed room and a double bed room We booked a double bed room @Terra Mia two single beds pushed together isn't a double bed ! We are not even talking about zip link mattresses here either.....literally two single mattress beds pushed together....with a gap down the middle! doh! The beds had hard cheap looking mattresses There was hard crackly plastic sheeting (think cheap restaurant table covering - see photos) under the cotton mattress sheet @Tera Mia !! There are are breathable soft waterproof mattress coverings....you can do better than putting a sheet of plastic under the bedsheets!!!! The owners might speak English but they were largely absent and the lady that is left to run the House only speaks French and Arabic. There was no guest guide in English in the room It is therefore somewhat misleading in my opinion to suggest that English is spoken The breakfast was poor and cheap...possibly the most basic breakfast we have had in Morocco....Coffee, OJ , Croissant pancake. president butter portions jam.....no olives, no cooked eggs, no omelette Berber, no fruit, no cereals just a dull continental (second morning there was a small bowl of chopped fruit) No heating in the second room they put us in (there was an electric radiator in the first room...I guess because the main heating want working). We had the windows open because of the smoke (read below)...so it was a little cold When we arrived we noted an open fireplace with ashes and thought...ok that's nice...perhaps there will be a fire in the evening Indeed there was About 19.30 New Years Eve one of the gardeners came in built up the wood stack and lit the fire As the reception room filled with the fires rosy glow....it started to fill with something else....smoke At first we thought ok....so its a little smoky But the cloud continued to grow and filled the whole Riad Let me quantify the level of smoke we are talking about here. I'm not just talking about a slightly smoky aroma discernible on the air. I'm talking about a visible pall of smoke in the air that extended from the reception room and filled the central courtyard of the Riad, filtering from there into the bedrooms around the courtyard I'm spitting mad about the smoke. We noticed a number of other guests start to cough as they breathed in the smoke while they ate their dinner. We had to retreat to our room, open the windows and put a rolled up towel along the foot of the door. I insisted that they served dinner in our room The first night there was a Morrocan guy who seemed to be helping out at dinner....he seemed to recognise the problem and said that they would be stopping the fire. As the Riad was full of smoke I told him that we would have to go and eat in our room in any case. They didn't stop the fire Everything stank of smoke , our clothes our hair, and we could feel the burning in the back of our throats for the rest of the night and the following morning. Honestly the level of smoke was probably just a step under which the fire brigade would be warning about the danger of smoke inhalation That first night we could hear the male of an older couple next door coughing his lungs out We could in fact hear quite a lot of noise from the nearby rooms, not too bad but not great. The second night they lit the fire again I told the girl that was left to manage the Riad in my broken French that the smoke was bad for health.....and she just gave me a thin lipped smile and shrugged her shoulders as though to say no one else complains about it.....hard to interpret the reaction as she didn't speak English, but it clearly seemed to convey a lack of recognition of the problem or that we were being taken seriously This reaction demonstrating failure to recognise the issue was incredibly infuriating Ironically there was a no smoking sign over the fireplace. @Terra Mia we don't want to breathe anyone's cigarette smoke....and for the same reasons we don't want to breathe your fire smoke @Terra Mia, aside from causing your guests clothing and persons to stink of smoke, you need to recognise that smoke inhalation is risk to their health as well precipitating/exacerbating Asthma and Bronchitis. Smoke is also carcinogenic and causes heart disease, which is why smoking is banned in public places in European countries. Contrast this blank incomprehension from the lady managing the Riad on the second evening , with the guy the first night who spoke English the night before and told me categorically...."we are stopping the fire now sir" (which incidentally they didn't) They obviously light this fire all the time in the winter., and they just don't think its a problem. In terms of evidence, the smoking gun (sorry) is the sooty smoke marks under the mantel piece showing how the smoke from the fire streams into the room, demonstrating clearly that the chimney doesn't work properly . The fireplace and chimney are either badly designed or in need of unblocking or both (see the photos I have attached). Bear in mind this isn't an old property...its a new build...made to look like an old Riad There were Trip Advisor Certificates of excellence for 2014-2017. on said mantelpiece.....but there seems to be a lack certificates of excellence for the past 5 years up to this point so perhaps things have gone downhill from previous years? In the morning we saw a few people who looked a bit frosty about the conditions at dinner and breakfast but a lot of them just seemed to sit there with their bottles of wine and tagines coughing their way through dinner ......like the proverbial frogs in buckets being gradually heated up until the point of intolerability The Mediocre Food nothing to write home about....but ok....but not god value for the prices that they charge in my opinion We could also hear thumping house music from a neighbouring property (it was New Years Eve......not Terra Mias fault but bear it in mind if you want guaranteed peace) Service was slow in general, there was no one to greet us when we arrived The only person we encountered when we arrived was a very irritated French woman who said "This is a not a good place, no one is paying attention" We took that with a pinch of salt and reserved judgment...but as you've read, we had our own bad experience Overall Terra Mia gave me the impression of being a place with aspirations of grandeur but I'm afraid fell down badly on the basics I feel ripped off and angry on behalf of my family We've just announced we are leaving early rather than suffer another night, and have paid our restaurant bill No..."was everything alright for you enquiry?" No empathetic..."We are really sorry you were unhappy with your stay" I think the fact that we are leaving early should have provoked some response and enquiry in a half professionally run operation Says it all really doesn't it? The attitude and lack of professionalism stinks worse than the smoke I guess in summer they don't light the fire, and lack of heating is not likely to be n issue. Nor do I imagine that there is party noise from neighbouring properties on a frequent basis @Terra Mia I hope my review helps you improve your quality and that your future guests don't suffer the disappointment and bad experience that we have

We have just returned from a lovely stay at Terra Mia just outside Marrakesh. The team there couldn’t have been more helpful and kind and Rohda who was looking after us was just lovely. Terra Mia offer a shuttle bus into Marrakesh which makes getting in and out of the city easy. A stay at Terra Mia is the perfect respite from the hustle and bustle of central Marrakesh but the shuttle makes it easy to access whenever you want. The food at Terra Mia deserves a particular mention - the meals we ate there were delicious!

We stayed as a family of 4 in one of the private villas. We wanted somewhere comfortable separated from the noise and bustle of the city, but with easy access to travel into Marrakech when we wanted. The hotel only has a small number of guests (main building & 4 villas), spread out over a wide area. It has a lovely sense of space with cacti and yuccas growing across the desert gardens. Also great for big sky and star gazing, a welcome opposite to the cramped bustle of the Medina! The villa was spacious: two bedrooms 2 x singles & double and a central sitting room with a couple of sofas (also a satellite TV). The garden to the back had a tiled terrace and furniture for eating and sitting out, and a large pool (it was December so we only used it sparingly!). It felt very private. The staff seemed to be around and available to be attentive at all times and made every effort to accommodate our needs. The food was fresh and really tasty. The hotel has a minibus, providing a shuttle service in and out of the city (~25 minutes), also the airport (30 minutes when we went) -- it is possible to book times outside of the usual scheduled trips on request subject to availability of the driver -- and sometimes with a charge if it is not on their usual runs or if really early, or very late. We ate breakfasts and one lunch in the villa, but made daily trips into Marrakech for other meals/refreshments and dinners, while trawling the city for the shopping, museums, palaces, squares, etc.