Trip to Morocco
Morocco | Apr 22 - Apr 30, 2019

Patricia
Patricia S.
Canada | Reviewed on May 08, 2019

Overall our trip to Morocco was an exciting trip. I believe that the one area that needs to be improved is the following. 1) agency staff should have one staff member who has visited the primary cities and understands how the city functions - e.g. the square in Marrakech does not have any food stall experience before night fall ... when i would speak to Brahim about places - the response ‘i’ve never been there” required me to research even more... 2) guides should have both prior knowledge of proposed guiding highlights and agency reliance on guides needs to be more than booking a registered guide - there should be some knowledge of the guide skill sets , If the agency cannot provide that service the client should be advised.. I have booked private guide services in many cities and countries and the main guides provided by the agency were not professional.. they were not interested in their work or interested in showing us their city/country, this was not the case with the guides that i booked .... interesting to note that guide services that i booked directly for myself in Casablanca, Essaouria and Marrakech and the one i picked up last minute in Ait Ben Haddou and the one provided by our driver in Meknes were exceptional - the only guide service provided through the agency that provided exceptional guiding were Hafid in Fes and the camel guide and the sunset guide provided by Yasmina Palace in Merzouga
provided good guiding services. all things being relevant
a trip is made exceptional by two components - the driver and the guide services and both were lacking.
better accommodation for the same fee is available in Marakkech,
the Marakkech guide was the worst. he had knowledge but was neither interested in his city or in providing the guide services

most memorable place was FES and the desert experience and Chefchaouen - driver for Chefchaoun was very good

Patricia Stalteri

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Local specialist: Brahim Bourrich
Brahim
Brahim Bourrich
Local specialist in Agadir | Replied on May 19, 2019
Hello Patricia, Firstly, please allow me to thank you very much for taking the time to write and share your feedback and experience with me and my travelers. I have read it carefully and would like to share my comments with you and clarify some of the points you mentioned above: 1. Should I have deeper knowledge about each city and town of my country: YES, no one would deny that I should and that is my dream to achieve. But, as I have mentioned during our phone calls, I could not yet make... Read more

Hello Patricia,

Firstly, please allow me to thank you very much for taking the time to write and share your feedback and experience with me and my travelers. I have read it carefully and would like to share my comments with you and clarify some of the points you mentioned above:

1. Should I have deeper knowledge about each city and town of my country: YES, no one would deny that I should and that is my dream to achieve. But, as I have mentioned during our phone calls, I could not yet make it work and travel to every city because I have other obligations such as studies and family which prevent me from traveling all over Morocco yet. I am always honest with my travelers when they ask me about something I do not know, and I promise them to go and check it for them. The same I did for you. I know you did not like the location of the accommodation in Skoura, but, as you may recall, I never worked with this hotel you selected on your own via Booking.com and I did notify you of it clearly and you asked me to book it for you which left us with checking online feedbacks only and they were all good as you also read.

2. The Square in Marrakech: if you allow me to invite you to get back to the program and check the description; I have mentioned the following "In the evening the square transforms into a huge open-air restaurant with smoke rising from the many food stalls". This means that we only expect the square to have the stalls by the late evening. I never had any complaint from any of my travelers because it's an open space where people may decide to put their stalls starting from the evening time.

3. The local guide being registered: please allow me to confirm that all guides we work and supply to our travelers are registered and have been qualified by the local tourism office. Not sure on which basis you say that they are not registered? Of course, if any guide is not at his expected level of knowledge and professionalism, I would love to be informed because only through your feedbacks and my travelers' I am sure they are on top of their job. Also, I always recommend my travelers inform us through our 24h/7 emergency phone of an unpleasant experience they have during their travel the same as you also did regarding the guide services in Skoura which I immediately approved and refunded to your credit card because after checking and investigating I figured out that indeed the services of your guide were not as expected.

Last but not least, please allow me to say that I am surprised to hear from you that also your driver and all the guide services were not good. The only complained you sent me during your travel was about the guide in Skoura and only for 1 day which you asked me to refund. On my side with my local provider, we decided to refund you 3 days of the guide services as a gesture of good well and because we care about your trip services. Of course, I respect your feedback, but, I personally deserve to be informed while you are in the destination to have the right to intervene and check what's wrong. If I am not informed, I always assume everything is good order, especially that we were in contact via phone and WhatsApp the entire trip which is weird that you did not let me know.

I hope I have clarified some of the points above for you and also for my trusted travelers.

All the best,
Brahim