We booked the Riad Salam rather reluctantly, as we were not able to find any user reviews or recent photos of the hotel, and while we didn't have a horrible time, it would be difficult to recommend this hotel.

Basically the hotel is a very adequate tourist-class hotel, very much like an upscale motor lodge in North America. Most of the attention and thought was put into the hotel's common areas, with the rooms leaving very much to be desired. So much so, that we returned to the desk to see if they could put us in another room.

While clean and bright, all the rooms are decorated in a garish turquoise with lime green accents. The furniture was painted the same colour. The first room we had had an awful back-door view of other rooftops. The walls of this first room seemed to be covered in some sort of mottled turquoise linolium. There was a balcony with white plastic lawn chairs but the door was jammed shut so we couldn't go out.

When we inquired if it were possible to change rooms, the staff were very corteous and arranged everything for us. The new room had the same turquoise motel theme, without the linolium walls, which helped, and a nice view of the pool, which also helped. There was a fruit plate awaiting us, which made us wonder if the first room was just an old dank room that they give to tourists who are 'Just passing through".

The breakfast buffet was ample but very picked-over, and the resuarants were average but overpriced at North American rates. The view of the Ocean is very nice, although the so-called "Trendy" Blvd de la Corniche is anything but.

The hotel also advertises triples, but when we arrived they seemed to have lost that infotmation, and the "triple" was simply a rickety rusty old cot wheeled into a corner of the room.

Still we would like to again mention that the staff was very helpful in changing our room when we suggested that we'd like another with a better view, and also, when one of our travelling party came down with some traveller's diarrhea, the concierge sent someone to the pharmacy to purchase medicine.

This hotel is fine for people who are not too picky about their accomodation, and we would recommend asking for a room with a pool view as all other angles are pretty homely.