Ari Boutique Hôtel - Adult Only

Clean room Welcoming of the front desk Variety of breakfast

Hotel is clean but has nothing special. Simple clean and confortable

Basic hotel. Nothing extraordinary

The hotel is well located, 10 mins from the train station, close to shops, cafés, restaurants, etc. The staff is nice, the room is clean.

The walk from the train station to the hotel, although short, can be a bit tedious with luggage. The sidewalks are uneven and would wear out rolling suitcases, and some parts are not walkable/completely occupied.

The experience itself was fine, and I would have rated it 7 or 8 without the fraudulent activity. See "negatives" below. The facility was very new and clean. The staff tried to seem very friendly and helpful. The breakfast would have been good enough for most people, but fairly bread-heavy (french inspired), which I can't eat due to my diet.

The hotel gives itself fake reviews in your name on booking.com. The Confirmation number and PIN can be used to log into the booking and leave reviews. Most of the reviews seem to be fake, and their real rating is lower. This is fraudulent and possibly illegal. It may be common in Morocco. At the time of choosing the hotel I was surprised that so many of their reviews were ten stars with no commentary, but I shrugged it off. The price was high, but I felt their high average rating justified it. I looked forward to an exceptionally cozy experience. My stay was fine, but if anything a bit sterile and utilitarian. When leaving, it seemed a bit odd that the manager asked me for my confirmation number and PIN after I had already checked out, but I didn't refuse. Within an hour I got an email that my review was published, before booking.com had even sent me an email asking me to make one. The review was, of course, ten stars with no commentary. Since then the fake reviews seem to have gotten a bit smarter and added some commentaries, but that only shows the fraud is deliberate and they keep doing it after booking.com confronted them about it. The price I paid for the hotel was in part due to the high review, so I feel defrauded. I deliberately picked a hotel with a high rating because I was scared of going to Morocco, and this confirms my fears and makes me feel betrayed. For weeks I didn't know what was going on, whether their WiFi had installed malware on my phone, so I had to reset it and set up all apps again, which was several hours of work I don't get paid for. I had to block my bank card and request a new one, since the hotel had my card data and I feared the fraud could get worse. I had to change a bunch of passwords and call booking.com several times. All of which cost me time and effort. I'd describe it as almost traumatic. The pictures they put here are also noticeably edited. The real view is a lot less nice.