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Review: Le Meridien N’Fis, Marrakech, Morocco

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Booking:

I picked this place as it was one of the bargains in the Starwood Preferred Guest portfolio. We stayed for 2,000 Starpoints (now the equivalent of 6,000 Marriott Rewards points) for the night with a free Platinum breakfast included. The hotel was also on the west side of Marrakech and the medina so it was situated close to the Marrakech airport. I can’t really complain since you can pretty much earn two thousand points with a one or two night stay in the Americas if you’re playing your promotions right.

Arriving to the Hotel:

“Le Meridien N’Fis is a straight forward city resort hotel that is close to the Marrakech Airport. It offers everything you’d expect from a chain hotel, but none of the charm of staying in a Moroccan Riad”

On arriving to the hotel, we entered through a metal detector and the bags were wheeled in. Similar to many of my other Le Meridien experiences, the property was quite dated and partially refreshed. The check in was handled fairly promptly and there was no wait to get to the counter. On our arrival, the lobby happened to be full of packaged tour guests. I asked if there were any Platinum Upgrades available and the host indicated that we had been upgraded to an Executive Room.

The Room: An Executive Room

We had our bags wheeled up as we were led to Room #344. Unfortunately, the beautiful upgrade that I had been dreaming off after the tenting experience turned out to be just a Club Level view room on the top Starwood preferred guest floor.

The room was in reasonable condition and was likely in first third of it’s life cycle. It was a pretty straight forward and standard room. We were happy that we didn’t spend all our time in Marrakach at this resort when we compared to the Anayela Riad as the Riad was a much nicer experience (and priced accordingly). I wasn’t a super fan of the red 1990’s accent wall, but who’s complaining at these prices?

The bag was not included with the room. LOL.

Although there were lots of suite upgrades reported here through others, the building we were in didn’t appear to have too many suites configured into the layout at only 1 per floor.

There was a tiny and slightly drab bathroom with the usual Malin + Goetz toiletries.

At least the room had a pleasant view into the palm trees of the property.

A gorgeous outdoor swimming pool and resort grounds:

The next morning, I ran around and took some photographs of the property. The hotel had some nice gardens and a pleasant pool area that was completely deserted all throughout our stay. Being an older property, it happens to have a lot of real estate attached to it. As a result, it was very spacious for an inner city property.

On the day of our arrival, we had dinner at the hotel property bar. It was a dated looking bar but it offered a club sandwich which I was craving at the time. By this point, I’d had Moroccan Tagines about three nights in a row. Tagines are great but they tend to be similar tasting after a while. The bar was old, dark and smoky; just what you’d expect from an older African hotel. It was full of French visitors smoking thin cigarettes.

We took in a Platinum breakfast the next morning. It wasn’t anything all too exciting to write home about. It did offer Moroccan Tea, along with the opportunity to try fresh pancakes which were featured all over morocco.

The Bottom Line:

The Le Meridien N’Fis certainly met my expectations for a quick stay. It wasn’t all too exciting, but fit the need for a quick overnight at the airport. The pools looked great, but it was definitely a cheaper place to stay for those that didn’t want to spend a large amount on a luxury resort or a riad that Marrakech was known for. At two thousand Starpoints, I certainly wasn’t complaining. It seems that the same property is now offered for 12,500 Marriott Reward points, which is still a reasonable value.

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