Hotel Riad Layalina Fes, Piscine & Parking

Great location a few minutes from the Medina, has an Asian restaurant next door. Hotel has secure parking for motos or cars. The man who runs is extremely pleasant and helpful. Would stay again.

We stayed in this Riad for 2 nights. We were greeted by Asma, who brought us into the Riad and had us seated at the table. She left us for approximately 20 minutes while getting us tea and biscuits. While this may have been nice for other travellers, we had just returned from the desert and wanted to be taken to our room to freshen up. When she returned with the tea and biscuit, she left us for another 10-15 minutes. When she returned, it was an odd check in process. Language was definitely a barrier, but no passport information or sharing information about the Riad was completed. Asma took us to our room, but it didn’t look like the room we had booked. It was double room (with the bathroom across the staircase outside) that she took us to and we were pretty sure we had booked a room with the bathroom inside. We were unsure though because based on the confirmation email, it just said “1 double room with 1 double bed”. About 30 minutes later, we decided to ask Asma about the room; she took us to the deluxe room across the Riad (had to go down the stairs with our luggage and then back up), only to review the tablet and find that we were booked for the suite (1 double bed + 2 mattresses in the loft). Apparently there was miscommunication as we had told the Riad that we would arrive around 730-8pm, but arrived earlier at 6pm. But still, this should have been addressed during the initial check in process. That evening, we inquired about purchasing saffron and Redouane (Asma’s brother) graciously took us to a spice shop for high quality saffron at the “local price” (we paid 50 dirham/gram, but we were also quoted by our desert tour guide that it could be as low as 35-40 dirham/gram). We then had dinner at the Riad. Asma’s cooking was very good, but was traditional Moroccan (bread, tajine, fruit for dessert). For 20€ per person, I feel like you could find similar meals within the Medina, but I do understand that this is an “experience”. Breakfast over the next two days was good, very typical. Lots of breads, sweet jams, eggs. Served at 9am. If you’d like anything earlier, you have to wait. Second day unfortunately found an eyelash in the food. There is construction going on across from the Riad, so there is a lot of noise during the day, but no problem for sleeping. As well, there are very loud birds in the tree above the pool, but they did end up settling down. After our stay, we received 2 follow up emails to write positive reviews, outlining 5 stars increased the rating, and 4 stars would decrease the rating. Lastly, when we settled up, we paid in cash the amount outlined to us. We received an email approx. 2 weeks later saying that they accidentally forgot to add our meal charge, and that we needed to send via PayPal or they were going to charge our card. We were still out of the country with limited access to email and 2 days later, they did charge the card. This is fair given that we didn’t pay for the meal initially, but perhaps I am used to North American standards where once you are settled up, that is it. I understand they are a family Riad, but it did leave a bad taste in my mouth as a hospitality business. Benefits: Great location just outside of the Medina (about 3-5 mins walk), but there is private parking and is accessible by driving. Nice room (depending on what you book), pool. Considerations: Older Riad, shower/bathroom could be updated as water went all over when you shower. Loud construction across the street. If you do not speak French or Arabic, language barriers may pose a challenge. Not accessible - if you have any difficulties waking up and down stairs, I would not recommend.

I stayed here with my family a few weeks ago and though we were quickly bombarded with welcoming staff we go to our room and it felt like a cave. The lights were so dim even when opening the windows and you could hear EVERYTHING. Never had such a terrible nights sleep when I was constantly awoken by horrendous laughs and chatter at 6 in the morning. Besides that the SMELL of the room made me feel quite sick. It smelled like poop (literally) or like soggy cabbages that were molding. The breakfast was also basically all bread for some reason which wasn’t so appetizing every single morning.

The hotel is clean, the public places nice, but the bed of room wasn't good and the bathroom was just next to the stairs, so room-hotel public stairs-bathroom, Grrr, the staff friendly

The riadis beautiful with many special details. The hosts were very generous, gracious, and helpful. There is a bit of room for updating (particularly in the bathroom) and there was a very strong perfume in the common room of the suit that didn't agree with my asthma- only reason for not giving 5 stars. Overall very sweet tho.