Mumtaz Mahal

I just love Essouira! From the people, food, hotels and everything. Mumtaz Mahal was such a fabulous hotel i have ever stayed. Full of charms! Clean and quiet. Magical India touch. Guys go there please.

Decent location. No services to speak of at the hotel. The breakfast seems like it starts whenever they get around to it. Never once did it start serving near posted times. Better to go down the street to one of the cafes.The front desk insisted we had to pay cash and asked us to do so 1 day before our departure.

The property is beautiful, very well thought out and intricate decor. Bed very comfortable and good WiFi throughout. The room was clean and the man on reception when we checked in and most mornings was lovely. Breakfast was nice apart from one day when there was toasted stale bread. On the first morning of our stay we woke to find a TV show shooting in the hotel. Warning would have been nice as we had planned to spend the rainy day relaxing in the room and getting a massage - but it was too noisy, and we couldn't send out laundry as staff were too busy. We also had to go out in the rain to get between breakfast and the stairs to go to the room as the elevator and main part of the hotel were out of bounds due to filming. The day after the rain there was banging all morning, presumably roof repairs after the rain? Not there fault. Language barrier with staff in the evening and night shift, but nothing major. Sometimes slow to get back into the hotel as the door is locked in the night. Would stay again, but wouldn't rush back.

I wanted to treat my daughter to her first hamman so booked the upper price range hamman at Riad Mumtaz Mahal. After changing we were taken to the steam room which was filthy with black mould crawling up the walls. We were told to shower ourselves, had oil slapped on us which took roughly 10 seconds each and left for half an hour in a steam room listening to women chatting and laughing down a hall somewhere. Finally I called for someone. A lady turned up and told us to shower again, then another joined her and they both scrubbed us down with water, again this took maybe two minutes at the most, and then were told to shower again. We were then led out of the steam room, at which point I thought we were going to have a clay mask, or a massage or a deep exfoliation scrub as everything up until that point had felt like the preparation, but instead we were taken to our changing room and told to get changed. I was so shocked. And so disappointed for my daughter. When we walked out through the dark passage and massage room past the massage beds to the reception area, one of the girls lay on a massage bed staring at us. Reception didn’t care at all when I explained to them what had happened. My advice is avoid this place. What a shame. The rest of our trip to Essaouira was magical. It felt like a warm and inviting city, investing in itself, welcoming tourism, with so many kind and lovely people proud of their businesses, trading and offering their services. Riad Mumtaz Mahal is just out to take your money and rip you off.

The place has amazing moorish decorations. Room are very widw with high ceiling. Very impressive. The only downside was the horrible mattress. I woke up with back pain after few hours. My wife had the same problem. Uncomfortable bed.