el fenn, marrakech

honorable mention. no experiences or camaraderie with other guests.

in their words: Luxury and authenticity combine at El Fenn. We’re a boutique hotel but also a home away from home where you can kick back and relax - with or without shoes. We’ve got 41 individually styled rooms and suites, three swimming pools, a 1,300 square metre roof terrace, spa, two cocktail bars, two restaurants, a spa and shop - plus a family of resident tortoises - so we’re the perfect base for discovering the beauty of Marrakech.

location: morocco, marrakech: city center, on the edge of the pedestrian-only medina
number of rooms: 41
guides on staff: no
spa: yes, but bare bones
children allowed: yes, no age restriction
apartment rooms: yes, two and three bedroom suites available
price point: $250-650/night
rate includes: breakfast, non-alcoholic minibar drinks, afternoon tea
minimum stay: on some holiday weekends

in my words: I really deliberated over whether to stay here. The photos seemed unmatched, but various reviews said it had gone downhill since they decided to gradually expand from the original 6 rooms when they opened in 2004, to the current 40; the most recent expansion bringing 10 rooms in 2022. My take on this as only a recent visitor (May 2024) is that I love the expansion – it provides a maze of courtyards, feeling both intimate and medium sized at the same time. (it’s still by no means a large property.) So, since the space itself doesn't seem to be a problem, I'm guessing what has gone downhill since the expansion is the service. While I've only seen the end result, the service and offering is unfortunately impersonal.

This property is best described as a museum – in both positive and negative ways. On the bright side, it’s an experience simply walking in the door of the property and looking around. Even after the lovely common areas, we were completely blown away when we stepped into our room! However, like a museum in a negative way, it left you standing on the other side of the art alone, and a bit bored. The immersive lodge experiences you’ll generally read about on Lily’s Lodges are the complete opposite: they only get better after the moment you step in and view the property. El Fenn is trapped in that initial impression. It’s two dimensional, and staff are perfunctory. The servers at the restaurants and bars are attentive and friendly, no real “complaint,” but not conversational. Similarly, your needs are met from the front desk, the way a five star city center chain hotel would: they provided me a freezer for my breastmilk, which is definitely a unique request. When I asked where I could buy a charger, they offered to take my cash and buy one for me. I don’t want to dismiss that these offerings, even if standard in a metropolis, are very unique to be offered in a historic riad. If you’re considering at staying at a Marrakech chain hotel because you have a certain level of service and comfort required: maybe you are a bit older and don’t want to be roughing it, dealing with a power outage, etc.,  please avoid the chain and stay at El Fenn. It will allow you a much more unique stay while still satisfying all of these  “needs”. (Just not all of my whimsical “wants”!)

There are no cultural offerings aside from the Moroccan tea pour at included afternoon tea. Expanding the number of rooms should’ve increased their ability to provide unique experiences such as rooftop yoga and pranayama with the backdrop of the call to prayer, live lira or bendir music in the courtyards, evening sundowners on the roof. Offerings like this may be harder for a property to justify with only a few rooms, but with the low cost of living and wages in Morocco, they could hire some “experience” staff with only a fraction of a single room’s nightly rate. So, I can see why after seeing the before and after for return guests, that the expansion would lead to a detraction in the soft offerings of the overall property.

The emphasis they put on their shop and entrance to the rooftop bar shows you where their allegiances lie – overpriced merchandise and expensive drinks. This is the only area that left me a bit angry and frustrated, instead of just underwhelmed, as described above. The location on the edge of the medina is touted as being perfect – one way is easy access to your private car, for the quick 15 minute drive to the airport, and access by foot into the maze of the medina out of the other door. Yet, when you arrive, they take your luggage through the shop, and make you walk around the corner through the dusty streets. It truly mind boggled me they would have this location, and not allow you to walk through. One night we decided to book the very overpriced transfer to a restaurant in town. We could’ve booked a driver elsewhere for ~$10, but we paid $40 each way, because I wanted to wear a cute outfit to dinner that I didn’t walk to attract attention walking through the medina in. They assured us we could go through the shop, and I decided the convenience was worth the inflated price. Yet when it came time to leave, the driver lead us through the streets again. It makes zero sense. You’re charging your guests thousands for a stay, but are inconveniencing them as to not disturb the shopping experience of someone buying an $80 trinket? It’s baffling. (Not to mention the store isn’t that small, it would not be a disturbance to lead guests through, and would probably increase intrigue of the property, the real product of this site. The gift shop should be an afterthought.) 

It's hard to say if I’d recommend this property to others without staying at other Riads in the medina to compare it to, but overall I don't regret it. I value the intangible experiences more, and if I got to experience somewhere with better service, maybe I would regret the El Fenn choice. It’s just a shame to see all the missed opportunities in what is really an enchanting property. So, stay here, but make sure you work with an excellent tour guide, and let him or her paint the immersive picture of Marrakech and it's magical medina that El Fenn’s century old riad courtyards are longing to provide you. One consolation of all of this is that if El Fenn was providing the full picture, taking the hotel from a museum, to a time portal into Marrakech in the 1920s, they could easily be charging $2,000+/night.