During our visit to Fez, Morocco, we stayed at the Barcelo Fes Medina Hotel located at Avenue Hassan II, Fès 30000, Morocco. The location was right off of the main parkway through Fez, Morocco. The modern looking hotel appears to be part of a hotel chain. We were part of a tour group, so the rooms were already assigned and ready to go when we arrived. Our room was located on the third floor, not too far from the elevators.
The hotel had a modern look. It was the type of room that requires your room key to power the outlets in the room. As we entered, we noticed that we had two beds rather than a king. As with many hotels overseas, a "king" bed is really just two full beds pushed together with a single set of sheets. Such was the case with Barcelo Fes Medina Hotel. They advised us that they would have someone remake the beds for us while we were out touring during the day. We went out and returned to a room made up just as they indicated. Although having a dip in the middle of the bed when they do this can be a bit irritating. It is a minor irritation.
The room had a modern look and feel, but on closer inspection, it was in need of some upkeep. There were areas where the wallpaper was peeling, the shower could only be set halfway to prevent the shower pan from flooding and the toilet was often slow to flush. The plumbing issues were the primary fault with this room. The minor aging issues didn't bother us that much as the room was very clean otherwise.
The room faced toward the parkway down the middle of the main avenue. It was a place with robust activity during our stay. It was not uncommon to see young families strolling along the plaza or to watch running clubs running down the street. We were only three rooms from the elevators, where the wifi repeater was located. However, the wifi was useless in the room. I can't recall ever getting a signal even to check email while in the room. The wifi worked like a champ in the common areas. This seemed to be the common denominator of the hotels we stayed at in Morocco. Decent wifi in the lobby or restaurant, but non-existent in the rooms.
The lobby was a large, open floorplan that gave the hotel a modern European feel. It is an attractive and well-kept space that doesn't always translate to the finer details in the rooms. However, this room can be found online as cheap as $53 dollars per night, so I would suggest that you are getting your money's worth at that pricepoint. I would imagine we got in even cheaper with our tour group.
Breakfast was included with our tour, which may not be included with the rate I suggested above. Breakfast was probably the highlight of this hotel. They fixed eggs to order in the morning, and had an extensive selection of hot and cold items on their linear buffet. The coffee came by way of a Nescafe machine and was also delicious.
The hotel is located cross corners from a large mall where you have your choice of food court items. There were also several cafes in walking distance to the hotel. The selection of restaurants offered enough options that we did not need to find a cab to go elsewhere to eat. However, taxis are cheap. So you can find TripAdvisor rated restaurants fairly easily from the hotel.
Or main issue with the time of year we visited Morocco was the change in weather. The hotels all still had heat and no air conditioning. That was a problem as the temperatures soared the days we were in Fez. The hotels do not generally have individual temperature control units, even though the thermostats in the room might give that indication. I have to say that Barcelo Fes Medina went the extra mile and switched their entire system over to A/C while we were there. It was much more pleasant, making it the room that had the best temperature of any during our trip.
The staff at Barcelo Fes Medina were all very accommodating. The food was good. The location was good. The rooms had minor repair issues and what appeared to be serious issues pending with the plumbing. But the room was comfortable and clean. It had a modern feel but could use a bit of updating. At the price point, it is probably a bargain. It is currently ranked 60 out of 104 hotels on TripAdvisor, yet enjoys a four star rating. That seems a bit counter-intuitive. Overall, I had a favorable impression of the hotel and didn't see any glaring issues that would have me decide I would not stay at this hotel or chain again in the future. It was a decent hotel.
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