Originally Posted by
scented
Can't believe no one here has complimented you on that TR on Olinto... your review here just made me want to try that property. Thanks for sharing. Very easy to combine with properties in Marrakech. Wonderful review...! Can't think of another Atlas Mountain property that comes close in terms of service, sounds certainly better than Kasbah Tamadot. Just find Olinto's website rather disappointing, I hope they will continue to improve it over time.
Very happy to report that FS Marrakech is in the midst of a great renovation, which will dramatically improve their rooms product. Very pleased with the progress there -- going better than anticipated and will be finished by the end of the year... best check with team ahead of arrival re room allocation. The impact of the works on the guest experience is minimal with buffer floors and taking several buildings offline during the process. Sadly their amazing new HM (Alda) will leave again for personal reasons, which is rather sad. Once the rooms renovation is finished, they will start on public areas, including all F&B outlets.
Aw, thanks so much, Scented. Means more coming from such a knowledgable source (and excellent writer!).
That resort really astounded me.
Agreed, the Olinto website needs a lot of help. Even down to the .net address. It's serviceable, barely, shows a few (wildly insufficient) pictures. But, yeah, pretty pre-historic.
Right now it's not functioning at all, which leads me to believe a full mulligan is coming presently. (again, they have not 'officially' opened, still in a soft-open posture and pricing).
No excuse, of course, at least not in 2023.
My 15 year old daughter has already designed a way-sexier website than Olinto's is. (or was).
But i have to say it's kind of in-line with the vibe of the place.
Not in the quality sense (not at
all), but in the 'relaxed' sense.
They don't seem to be doing much forward-facing marketing at all right now. Depending more on old-fashioned word of mouth,
true buzz, than on throwing their stuff out there for the whole world to immediately (hopefully) see.
Ironically, attempting (probably unintentionally) the highest form of exclusivity: simply building it and then not telling a soul about it.
"We're a secret. See if you can find us."
And, as a nine-key resort, I'm not sure they'll
ever need to blitz all that much.
Viewed in this light, I'm surprised they even
have a website.
Also, there's an excitement here for us - surely coloring our overall objective judgement to a certain extent - of feeling like we 'discovered' a place.
Moreover, our staying there
at all was purely an accident.
(You may remember we had our hearts dead set on Kasbah Tamadot, and only opted out when we learned of construction there). So there's the additional thrill of literally stumbling into such a wonderful thing purely by circumstance. So there are two disclaimers that might act as grains of salt for my overflowing-with-praise review.
Visited Kasbah Tamadot for a cooking class and dinner. Loved it. The surroundings and views aren't nearly as gorgeous as Olinto's, but the property itself seemed very much 'luxury' to me. A younger hipper, luxury, yes, but still bespoke and great. Not at all a W, much more refined. Interesting, this actually
is an ancient castle/kasbah. Olinto's structures - basically brand new - feel far more ancient. While we would have been quite happy staying here, even among the slightly younger, cocktail-ier crowd, we're soooo glad we chose Olinto.
Really really wanted to visit FS, based on your and other friends' praise. But it just wasn't situated in a place (hivernage) that made it as easy to get to from our the other hotels. Ditto El Fenn.
But we visited and had various meals at Oberoi, Amanjena, La Mamounia and La Sultana.
We really liked them all. A lot.
While we didn't come away from the city proper leg thinking we would have been happier in the latter vs Royal Mansour, further out in the palmerai was a different story. We thought that either of the first two would have been better choices for us then Mandarin Oriental. They both felt like (much) larger versions of Olinto in their calm, peace, quiet elegance and beauty. I'm guessing FS would have been similarly better for us (though not Palmerei). MO seemed better suited for younger couples w romance (like, younger than my age - 56) or full family/friends stays..... There's a whole lot happening at MO, all of it luxurious, but not all of it felt completely congruous with itself.
I actually am gonna write up some reviews for the other two - MO and Royal Mansour - and post em up on the vanilla 'review' sub.
Was going to do a full 'trip report' - i just discovered that amazing sub and format by reading Offerendum's ingenious Caribbean report - but I don't take pictures of airplane seats. I often fly first (we did on this 20th ann trip, of course) but that stuff doesn't get me as jazzed as the hotels. Trip reports seem to be as much about the Airplanes and the food eaten as they are about the hotels themselves.
So I'll make 'em regular hotel reviews.