Name: Ibis Marrakech Centre Gare
Price range: from £332.47pp (7 nights includes flights and transfers)

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I usually don't read or write reviews however I felt compelled to comment on this one. 

There was a bad odour permeating most of the second floor. HVAC system is old and dysfunctional. Hall carpet is long past its "sell by" date. Should be replaced with more modern flooring system. Shower leaked all over the bathroom floor as others have commented.

It took the receptionist a half hour to check me in. He seemed to be dithering with other things and didn't really care about service.

I have come to expect a decent minimal standard from the Ibis chain but this hotel unfortunately didn't meet that. In fact it fell far short. I am not an engineer but I thought the hotel had a lot of age and design issues and was well past the end of its useful life.

It's probably better than sleeping outside but not by much.

Stay away

The staff was unhelpful, even telling us to call back 20 minutes later because they were busy. They sent us to a smoking room which was disgusting, and also tiny. The shower and the bathroom in general had mold. Go elsewhere. 

I did give one star for the breakfast, which was only okay, but much better than expected considering the rooms.

Gross rooms, unhelpful staff

When checking in, We were asked to fill in a form (e.g. passport and visitor info.). Checking in at other Ibis stays in Morocco, the front desk completed the form, so this felt different from the start.
After completing the form the front desk takes a photo copy of the passport. The other Ibis stay did not do this. I don’t like this practice. 

Next they want you to provide a credit card or cash for the stay. No problem.
Then you get a room key. This was different again. Here they write the room number on a small bit of sticky paper and stick it to the room key. No fancy paper sleeves here I guess.

I proceeded up the room on second floor. Open the door, stepped inside, closed the door, turned the door lock and …… the door does not lock. The lock mechanism just spins and spins and spins. As I turned the lock in both directions it comes off in my hand! Now I know what the problem is, broken lock.
I return to the front desk, explain the situation and the clerk immediately decides to assign me a new room. 
She reprogrammed the room key and adds the new sticky bit with a new room number and off I go to the second floor again.
I reach the new room and step inside. To my amazement there is no lock on this door! Nothing to twist, no lock mechanism whatsoever.
Second time. Am I being punked?
I head down to the front desk again, see the same clerk and I explain that this room too does not have any way to lock the door from the inside.

I’m asked to take a seat while they figure out what to do.
After a short wait a new key appears.
Different floor this time, so “third time is the charm”?
I step inside the room, and joy, there is a lock, and it works! 
Take pleasure in the little things. :-)

I open the suitcase and start to unpack. 
When I’m ready to hang my shirts, I notice there are no hangers. This is very unusual for an Ibis as they use the hangers that have the permanently attached rings with the detachable hanger frames. In this  room however, no rings, no hangers. 
I decide to not go back to the front desk again. I’ll go without hangers. I have a lock!

I unpack my toiletries and put them in the bathroom. Looking around I see I have a couple of towels, some toilet paper, etc. I’m glad to see them.

Then to my complete horror I see that neither the last guest nor housekeeping has flushed the toilet!!!!. Gross. So gross.

Decision time, 1: call house keeping, 2: repack and move again (is there a 4th room?), or 3: flush and clean the toilet myself. 

At this point I don’t have any faith in the skills of housekeeping or maintenance at this hotel. I decide to clean the room, the whole room, because who knows what else they may have missed or ignored. The TV remote for example has not been cleaned in ages, it has all kinds of gunk in between the buttons and is sticky to the touch.

While cleaning I got the feeling that this room is a special room. It is likely used as a donor when other rooms in the hotel need parts.  It is likely used as a workshop for maintenance judging by errant drill holes on the flat surfaces. And maybe it is used as a hang (break room ) for staff.
After cleaning the room, I felt icky, so time for a shower.

Instant hot water and great pressure! Things are looking up.

I notice that the water is beginning to rise in the shower tray. I turn off the shower spray and see it’s just a slow drain, and not (fully) blocked as I had feared.
While I do travel with limited cleaning supplies, I don’t travel with plumbing tools, so I can’t fix the drain. Maybe I could have borrowed some tools from maintenance since they are not using them.

Ibis typically provides shower gel, maybe shampoo etc. in large pump bottles in the shower and hand basin area. Here they have one bottle in the shower and one in the sink. Both of them were empty but they did provide two soap bars.
The basin didn’t have the drain plug (to hold water in the basin). Perhaps it too was donated to a different room.
One of the two towel hooks was loose. I didn’t hang a towel on it for fear it would fall off the wall. 

Bedding was fine. They didn’t have the spare blanket or pillows (or maybe they too were donated) in this room.

Window was open before I entered the room, but that window had a working lock, so closing it was simple.

Only one working power socket in the room beside the bed. I recommend you bring a power adapter with multiple USB ports and long cables if you are traveling with multiple devices.

TV was non functional initially. I swapped the batteries and then it powered on. It had some basic channels, but the reception was very bad, so it was unwatchable. Wonder if the satellite connection was donated.

Wi-Fi was very slow and intermittent in the room. Completely unreliable. Don’t rely on it for business.

The highlight of the stay was the gentleman behind the bar. He has great interaction skills and was genuinely helpful.

I’m not fussy and I don’t sweat the small stuff. I’m relaying this story here as  PTSD therapy for me. There’s a small chance that some/all the other rooms are entirely functional. 

Don’t let this story dissuade you from Ibis. I stay at Ibis hotels a few times a year and they are all much much better than this one.

Nope. Not this one. Look elsewhere.

After EasyJet cancelled my flight and we’re going to give me a none disabled friendly hotel I chose a hotel chain I use regularly as they are both lgbt and disabled friendly .
 Comfortable room that suited my needs as a disabled person and a great breakfast next morning 
Only downside was a grumpy elderly British person who did not like the hotel pet puss cat .
 Hotel puss cat was lovely but the elderly British person was not as try to avoid such people when I travel 
 Room 326 was massive, huge television with an English language movie channel disabled friendly shower and bathroom and a comfy bed 
This hotel is ideal for Marrakesh airport and exploring the city with the train station next door there is a night sleeper train service to Tangier which is cheap and comfortable 
Great hotel and great deal all round .

Flight cancelled, ideal for the airport

My friend and I had booked this hotel for New Year’s Eve for a couple nights and price was convenient for us, however when we had arrived to our room it was not up to standard of the images we had saw. The floor was filthy my friend had to wash her feet because they were black from where she stepped onto the floor. The room was cramped for 2 people. The shower was dirty and there was no hand wash soap. The bed was comfortable but some of the lights didn’t turn on so the room was constantly dark!  The staff are so friendly and helpful, but otherwise I will not be returning or recommending this hotel to anyone.

Wouldn’t recommend

In its red ochre colored building with touches of blue, ibis Marrakech Centre Gare offers 109 air-conditioned and comfortable rooms with private bathroom, desk area, flat-screen TV and unlimited free WiFi. Its international restaurant serves an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet, and its 24-hour bar and sunny garden with terrace and swimming pool promise savory moments of relaxation close to the tourist sites of the Red City.

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