We chose Riad Abbassia for our short stay in Marrakech based on its lovely website and on the good reviews it got on this page. While the staff appeared to be very nice, we had an incredibly difficult time communicating with them, as no one spoke English. (Note that their website has perfect English.)
The riad is in the medina, and very hard to find -- when our taxi driver dropped us off at the door of the medina, he handed our luggage over to an older man who had no idea where the riad was. We had to stop and ask a number of people, and by the time we actually arrived at the riad, we had a crowd following us, all of whom thought they deserved a tip for "helping" us.
When we arrived, the only staff members present were two French-speaking maids who showed us to our room. (On our reservation form, we listed our arrival time.) We were then told that we were in the wrong room, so we carried our suitcases down the stairs to another room. When the owner, Latifah, arrived about a half an hour later, she told us that we had actually been in the correct room in the first place. She was very nice, but also spoke no English, so we had a very hard time communicating. Finally we ended up calling her brother, Mustapha, who speaks some English -- he translated for us throughout our visit.
All in all, the Riad Abbasia is nice, although a bit overpriced for what you get. If you do not speak French or Arabic, I would not recommend staying here. The staff seemed nice, but communication was definitely a problem. The riad is also hard to find, and I would not feel safe walking to it at night without a guide.





