Riad Casa Lila & Spa

We liked this Riad, it was very beautiful. The personnel was very friendly and went out of their way to make sure we had a good stay. The room was absolutely amazing, there was a good breakfast and we went for the hammam spa and massage. It is a 1 person hammam so schedule in some time when doing it with a few persons. They also booked us a quad drive on the beach. The location is ideal, because you're about 5' away from the beach and the nicest restaurants. Definitely recommend to stay here!

STAY AWAY FROM THIS LITERAL DEATHTRAP! If you woke up in a riad surrounded by shattered glass that had rained down from above & weren’t even offered so much as a refund, what would you do? Riad Casa Lila has many problems (dirty rugs, dirty toilets, extremely loud shouting right outside the window from midnight to 6:00 am, electrical outlets hanging out of the wall, etc), but I’m going to cut to the chase. These discomforts are a minor inconvenience compared to the fact that if you stay in this riad, you are putting yourself in GRAVE DANGER. My parents are visiting me in Morocco & I am taking them around to various cities. We thought it would be exciting to stay in a multi-room suite at a riad in Essaouira. Well, it certainly was exciting, but for all the wrong reasons. In the middle of the night, I heard loud crashing that seemed to come from the living room. I called out to my mother—she had relocated to there in a desperate attempt to escape the incessant yelling outside her bedroom window. She told me that the crashing must have come from outside, even though it sounded like it was in the suite. Imagine my horror when, the next morning, in broad daylight, we saw that the entire living room area—which included the path to the bathroom & where my mother had been—was covered in shattered glass. The floor, the coffee table…there was shattered glass all over the place. It is a miracle that my mother was not gravely injured. We could not figure out where the shattered glass could have come from, but it was obviously connected to the crashing sounds we’d heard in the night. I looked everywhere. What on earth had happened? Then…I looked up. High above us was a skylight made of sixty panels of glass, with no less than nine of them shattered/loose from their foundation/already broken with large pieces hanging down. I could see that there was something laid on top of the skylight. I told my parents to clear the area so as to avoid getting injured by additional falling glass & went upstairs to investigate. The door to the spa was directly above our room. I opened it & was horrified to see that they had *laid a rug over the skylight* & are using it as a floor. It is necessary to walk on it to enter the spa’s treatment rooms. There is even a sitting area with chairs on the edge of it & *a small table placed directly on it*. I shudder to think what could have happened had we decided to get a spa treatment & walked across it. I was offered a different room. I explained that I did not want to stay at Riad Casa Lila for another night, as the building was not structurally sound & it was not safe to be there. I must admit that I did expect to be offered a refund, at the bare minimum for our second night, when it was clearly unsafe to be there & we would have to rent a second accommodation at the last minute. I believe that would have been the right thing to do, albeit not nearly enough. No such thing was offered. I asked to be put in touch with the owner, who lives in France. She again offered me a new room in Riad Casa Lila. I again explained that we were not safe there & would need to seek other accommodations. I was told that it was “not just a skylight” & that it was “reinforced”. Given the thinness of the shards of glass, it’s difficult to imagine that it could have sustained foot traffic. She also told me that she understood the situation & understood that we didn’t want to stay there. She told me that they would “block the reservations for that room” until the “necessary work is done”. Not a word about the spa. Not a word about a refund for even the second night, let alone our entire stay. I’m baffled how they could block the room I was in—because it is unsafe—but not refund me. From Hawaii to Morocco, it’s the same old story: colonizers in Europe & the US buying homes where people of the land used to live, renting them out to tourists, putting their employees & customers through hell & in harm’s way from the comfort of their homes across the sea. So gross. Late stage capitalism at its finest. Stay safe, everyone.

We spent two nights at this riad; the staff were welcoming. The breakfast was very generous and delicious. The riad's decor is truly beautiful, authentic, and colorful. It was a pleasure to stay there 🌞 …

Nice photos. Convenient location. But it was like a factory. A fake riad. Too crowded. Uncomfortable bed. Average room hygiene. The welcome was far from the warm Moroccan hospitality we're used to. We only stayed one night instead of three! And we went to another riad (dar) 500 meters away: beautiful, clean, and quiet. I absolutely do not recommend it!

We had a wonderful stay at this riad... Excellent location... beautifully decorated rooms... The staff were incredibly welcoming, the location is close to Bab Marrakech (parking and taxis), right in the heart of the Medina and near everything... Thank you Asmaa, Saadia, Brahim, and all the other girls... We highly recommend it