Review of El Minzah Hotel 5*

El Minzah is one of the oldest luxury hotels in Tangier, Morocco. It is located in downtown near the Place de France, and there are beautiful gardens with ocean views, a very large outdoor swimming pool, several restaurants and an elegant Piano Bar. Unfortunately, since its new Iraqi ownership and incompetent management, the landmark hotel has had its long-standing 5-stars rating reduced by an agency in Rabat to just 3 stars, which is appalling and disgraceful. Beggars sit on the sidewalk every day blocking the walkway for the tourists and residents alike, probably because this is where the "rich" tourists have stayed over the decades since the hotel first opened in 1930. But it is annoying to have to walk around these poor people seeking a handout from some sympathetic person. Something has clearly faded at Hotel El Minzah, and the building's exterior on rue de la Liberte definitely needs restoring of chipped marble, and it needs a thorough exterior cleaning. The quality of some of the shops in its building can only be described as tacky or garish. The dining terrace overlooking the pool is surrounded by gardens but you stare up at a modern "Wellness Center". There is a large inner courtyard, Caid's Bar and several dining rooms, and a spa, hammam, hair salon and coiffeur. Friends who ate in the winter of 2018 in the Wine Bar restaurant off the central courtyard said the food was appalling: a paper thin filet steak that was over-cooked, watery vegetables, and half-burnt chicken with an expensive but mediocre wine, and they paid over 800 dirhams for two, for lunch. Nevertheless, El Minzah is still an oasis of tranquility in downtown Tangier. Some of the upper floors suites and rooms have sitting terraces with ocean views. Overall this is a very good place to stay, even if it has fading Old World Charm and the services and maintenance of the rooms and building facade have declined after its Iraqi owners and new management took over. The rooms in general are on the small side. The rooms facing the rue de la Liberte do have soundproof windows which is an absolute necessity because of the noises outside. It is best to try to get a room with terrace facing towards the pool and ocean in the distance. The security scanner at the main entrance door is unfortunate since it discourages visitors. Someone in management or authority needs to keep the aggressive and ugly hawkers and disabled street people away from the front door of the Minzah. There is one particularly ugly street lout who hangs out by the entrance every day, babbling with a security guard or doorman, but he is so hideous and repulsive to look at that you really want to avoid the El Minzah altogether. Apparently, someone in the Iraqi billionaire owner's family brazenly embezelled several millions of dollars or Euros several years ago and promptly fled Morocco taking the cash. It was a well-known publicized scandal. This embezzelment of money also delayed the completion of renovations of the historic Grand Hotel Villa de France, and half of the gardens were eliminated by the addition of a pretentious driveway, with a red carpet on the somewhat steep uphill walkway with many steps leading up to the entrance. This also discourages any potential visitors. The enlarged and restored hotel looks good on the outside but lacks the Old World Charm of the past of this landmark property. All this is not a good sign of competent planning, management and responsible ownership of El Minzah and the Grand Hotel Villa de France. As of late-March 2018, El Minzah Hotel is closed for five months while its interior rooms are being upgraded and renovated. The parking lot is also closed at this time until the work is finished sometime during the summer. Hopefully the rates will not be increased as a result. In late-March 2018, I observed a crowd of two dozen demonstrators with signs directly in front of the locked and closed front entrance door that was organized by hotel employees who said that during the renovation they will not be paid wages.