LTI Al Madina Palace Hotel

This hotel has an official rating of a 5* and states a 4*plus.
I would say this should be a 3* at the most. The hotel has a lot of problems with noise if your rooms is over the main road, we were moved 4 times in three days. Due to first the road noise then they upgraded us to a suite however they didn’t say we would be awake until past 4am with Moroccan music, then woke up again at 7am with them praying! Then we went on to no hot water, no telly working, no heating. That was it with the rooms.
The pool well the guys here are great and very helpful in getting you a bed and towels there really is no need at all to save beds they will always find you one. Now take care when getting in the pool if you can stand the cold water! There is a slope that leads into the pool it is very, very slippery and many people slipped down this.
It is quite cold in the evenings. There is no entertainment other than a man on a piano in the one and only bar area, there are a few bars outside that I never went to as most guests said that the drinks were very expensive.
We did go to the English bar for lunch and it is cheep and quite good food. The food on sale around the pool most of the time was cold by the time you got it. And the food in the restarant in the evening really was not good, most things are swimming in oil, the bread was stale, and we were advised not to eat the salad as they wash this in the tap water. This leaves very little to eat, also there were cats walking around the restaurant. There are other restaurants that they say you can eat in however these are not in the hotel they are outside and when we spoke to other guests you have to eat the set menu and again we heard of at least 5 guests being ill after eating there.
The staff are very nice in the hotel and really helpful however the porters became a bloody pain! They will try so had to carry bags and expect a tip all the time so beware. Some people were ripped off by the locals being told thing to get money from them, one lady was told by a man just outside the hotel all dressed in a suit that he was the hotel manager and was going off to get some spices for the hotel and would she like to go along, she fell for this and to cut a long story short they took £40 from her. Just think would you go anywhere in London or your home town with a man you never knew and if you say no then don’t ****** do it in a strange country for God sake think use your brain first!!!
Beware there are lots of steps and no lifts. To be honest if you are looking to relax in a nice hotel with nice food and beaches don't come here!! The beach made Southend on
Sea look top class and hospital food even better. x