Albarnous Maison d'Hôtes

Security at this hotel is poor. The only way to enter the building is to knock on the door and wait for the person at the front desk to answer it. However, the front desk attendants frequently abandoned their posts and were unavailable to answer the door in a timely manner. This made us feel incredibly unsafe, especially at night. Also, when we first arrived, the front desk attendant introduced us to a man (who claimed he worked at the hotel) so that he could give us a tour of the Kasbah and to show us to a pharmacy (we were in need of medicine). Instead, the man took us on a two hour trip to various shops where merchants tried to sell us things. The “guide” would not respond to our requests to get back to the hotel, and he had essentially trapped us in the middle of a Kasbah that we could not navigate on our own. At the end of the “tour” it was almost dark, we did not have a chance to go to an ATM or the pharmacy, and HE ASKED US FOR MONEY. When we refused, he said that he would come back tomorrow to collect. It became clear that he was certainly not an employee. I was aware that people in the Medina/Kasbah would approach us and ask if we wanted a tour, and I knew to refuse those offers. I did not expect for our own hotel to send us on a fake “tour,” however. This additionally made me feel unsafe and as though our best interests were not valued by the staff. When we asked for a taxi to a different hotel, they said that we would have to navigate the Kasbah ourselves (with our luggage at 22:30) in order to hail a taxi. After I persisted, the staff made a call to another person, who then told me that he would call his “friend” to pick us up. Out of options, we took him up on it. His “friend” arrived in a taxi with another man sitting in the passenger seat. Again, unsafe. After all of this, I was refused a refund (even a partial one).