Hotel Details
Zen House
| Region: | Marrakech and the Region |
| Location: | Marrakech |
| Season | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accommodation Type | Low | Mid | High | |
| Green Room |
Second floor double room 3x3m. Olive green bathroom: 3x1.5m. Opens onto terrace
|
n/a | 53 € | 79 € |
| Blue/Yellow Room |
First floor rooms onto courtyard: 3x2.4m with bathrooms: 2x2m (blue room has a bath, yellow has a shower)
|
n/a | 62 € | 93 € |
| Red Suite |
First floor 4x2.4m. Green bathroom 2x2.4m. Double bed, seating area with sofa that can be turned into another double
|
n/a | 71 € | 106 € |
| Khalif Suite |
Ground floor opens onto courtyard 5x2.5m. Grey bathroom 3x2.4m. King-size bed (or twins)
|
n/a | 88 € | 132 € |
| Please note: All prices are per room per night | ||||
Check Availability
Special Offers
Large party or long stay discounts
Group discounts offered to guests depending on their length of stay and size of group
Christmas special 22 Dec to 2 Jan
10% off exclusive rental (limited to 10 persons)
Facilities
Swimming pool
Air-conditioning
Spa on site
Sunbathing area
Internet connection
Disabled friendly
Vegetarian food
Smoking
Child-friendly
Bar and drinks
In-house restaurant
OtherThe Lanai dining room with its big square table offers a meeting place and conference facility for approximately 15 participants. Wi-Fi connection is available as well as paperboards and on-site meals.
Laundry service available (takes one day).
The riad owns an air-conditioned minibus carrying up to twelve (6 and 6), driven by a team of licensed drivers.
Description
Built in the 1930s as a private residence for a Moroccan family, Carla Potok purchased the house in 2004 and refurbished it in 2005 as a second home before deciding to open the doors of Zen House to visitors to Marrakech. Zen House offers “an immersion into Moroccan culture and hospitality”, evident immediately in the classical riad structure and welcoming staff of Miloud, Khalid and Saida.
The riad reveals Carla's intention to architectually unite the four elements of earth, air, water and fire. The plants growing on each level of the building, from the olive tree bringing good luck to guests on the balcony, to jasmine, flowering cacti and a medicinal aloe-vera plant on the roof terrace represent ‘earth’. ‘Water’ is found in the two fountains located in the riad. ‘Air’ on the terrace open to the skies. And ‘fire’ represented by the three fireplaces, lit on cooler evenings.
The rooms at Zen House span the floors of the riad and are priced according to size, and named by their dominant colour (with exception of the Khalif Suite). On the ground floor, the Khalif Suite opens onto the courtyard with fountain. Two steps lead to the king-size bed, slightly raised on a platform, whilst in the corner a fireplace features. A large hand-carved Syrian cabinet and mirror adorn the room whilst the grey bathroom with double sinks and cocoon-shaped bath/shower provide a comfortable en-suite facility. On the first floor, the Red suite with contrasting pastel green bathroom is similar to the Khalif Suite but a large Moroccan sofa offers another bed for two. Also on the first floor are the Yellow Room and the Blue Room. Similar in size, they both look over the courtyard from different angles, (the Blue Room has the advantage of bearing a sofa to accommodate a third person if necessary). Finally, the Green Room opens onto the roof terrace garden and solarium area and, as the only room on the second floor, it remains fairly quiet.
Read MoreThe decoration of Zen House is Moroccan although intentionally not to an overwhelming degree. Traditional material such as tadelakt plaster, stucco on the walls and cedar-wood doors and ceilings, alongside the ornate wrought-iron furnishings generate attractive environments in each room. The ground floor living room with fireplace allows guests the chance to borrow from an ample library of 250 English and French books, or sample a DVD from the film collection. Additionally a range of board games are available. A folding table allows up to eight people to dine around the fireplace. The courtyard provides a shady space during the day, and an opportunity to dine in the evening. However the most popular space is the roof terrace with Lanai dining table (located on the other side of the terrace from the Green Room) and Hookah smoking pipe. Dancing and live music can be arranged for guests to enjoy while dining. Alternatively more private, individual tables may be set up on the balcony.
Breakfast offers an impressive range of local specialities such as stuffed pancakes, breads, cakes, French bread and exotic eucalyptus or orange blossom honeys as well as fig jam. Lunches and dinners are generally three-course meals: starters include salads, and main dishes offer meat, fish or vegetarian tagines, cous-cous, Harira soup, fish, pigeon and chicken pastilla as well as grilled meats. Desserts offer home-made cakes, fruit salads and pastries. No frozen ingredients are ever used at Zen House, only fresh ingredients which are bought locally. The freshest of which is probably the poultry, bought live and prepared on-site, or the yoghurt made by a neighbour with his own cow.
Guests can find out more about Moroccan cooking by taking one of the cookery lessons The Zen House offers, which includes an outing to the fresh produce market nearby. Oriental dance lessons are also led at the riad. Guests wanting to explore Marrakech further can ask the riad’s staff for advice or to arrange bookings such as restaurant bookings, car hire, city guides or more extravagant arrangements such as excursions to the Atlas Mountains or coast.
Where is it?
Zen House is located just within the Marrakech medina walls, a 20 minute drive from the airport, and a 10 minute walk from the city centre.
Travel Times
| Airport | 20 minute drive |
| City | 10 minute walk |
| Beach | 2 hour drive to Essaouira |
Other useful information
The riad has five double rooms with a maximal room capacity of 12 adults. Additional accommodation throughout the house allows Zen House, if needs be, to increase this to 17 persons over a short period.
Zen House serves naturally grown food, food grown without insecticides or chemical assistance of any kind, bought directly from farmers marketing their own products. Furthermore, internal operating rules encourage guests to save on energy when possible.
Rooms are not supplied with locks, guests who would like to lock their room can request a padlock from a member of staff.
There is a library of over 250 English and French books, 150 DVDs and VHS tapes, chess, backgammon, cards and a variety of box games if guests want to relax at the hotel.
Special occasions can be celebrated at Zen House. Recent celebrations the riad has organised include a 4-day birthday celebration for a group of twelve, wedding receptions and sit-down dinners with live traditional music and dancing. For buffet cocktails and larger dinners, the riad can accommodate and cater for approximately 50 people.
The riad can organise theme stays upon request. Such stays include bird-watching trekks, desert nature and photographic excursions, interior design research trips. Similar stays can be arranged for employees of a company.
Cookery lessons and oriental dance lessons are also available to guests.
A sustainable development policy has been developed by Zen House where each year a portion of its annual profits are donated to help educate women and children in rural areas as well as to supply the Berber populations in distant moutains and desert villages with warm clothing, medicines and school supplies.
The hotel scores are aggregated individual user scores which have been audited as authentic and accurate through due enquiry by Morocco Gateway.
Morocco Gateway reserves the right to exclude any reviews submitted by users which cannot be validated as authentic and accurate. Equally we will resist any request from any hotel to delist any negative review.
| Condition of rooms and the hotel | 7.0 | Food and drink | 8.0 | |
| Overall cleanliness | 7.5 | Relaxation | 6.0 | |
| Pool and facilities | 8.0 | Value for money | 7.0 | |
| Quality of staff | 8.0 | Overall rating | 7.4 | |
| out of 10 | out of 10 | |||
User Reviews on Zen House
Below you'll find reviews written by our users, that have stayed in this hotel. The reviews are vetted and verified by us and may have been summarised by our editor to give you a meaningful summary.
The Editor's Summary
Recent guests staying in The Zen House have been pleased by the riad for its “simply decorated” style, “yet still bearing its cultural traditions”. Guests have experienced “fantastic” breakfasts, which have encouraged them to try dinner in the riad, which in turn guests have “enjoyed immensely” for the “really fresh food” and Eastern exoticism. Reviews have praised the riad’s staff for being “friendly” and making their stay as “comfortable as possible”. Similarly, newcomers to Marrakech have “appreciated” the advice they have received on what to see and do in the city. Although not “as central as other riads” The Zen House reflects this in the price, and their minibus service “doesn’t make it a problem”. Guests have been tempted to return to The Zen House to try other experiences such as the cookery lessons offered. Overall guests have found the riad “a place to remember”. 
Very nice place, simply decorated, yet still bearing its cultural traditions, we had a great time. We stayed in the Blue room and had a comfortable few days, we appreciated the help from the manager as it was our first trip to Morocco and we felt a bit ‘clueless’. The breakfasts were fantastic, and after two of these we felt we really ought to try a dinner here, which we requested and enjoyed immensely. Really fresh food, and very different from anything we’d tried before – definitely a place to remember.
| Condition of rooms and the hotel | 7.0 | Food and drink | 8.0 | |
| Overall cleanliness | 7.0 | Relaxation | 6.0 | |
| Pool and facilities | 8.0 | Value for money | 7.0 | |
| Quality of staff | 8.0 | Overall rating | 7.3 | |
| out of 10 | out of 10 | |||
Staying a total of six nights here we were prepared to spend the last couple of days relaxing after seeing it all, but the Zen House didn’t let us! There was so much to do, we were taken by surprise! The riad staff were friendly and helped us really make the most of our stay to the extent that we realised there were things which we hadn’t yet tried, such as the cookery lessons the riad offers...we’ll just have to go back! The location of Zen House isn’t as central as other riads, but this is reflected in the price and the fact the riad drives its own minbus doesn’t make it a problem. We were able to see everything, with the help of the taxi service but also on foot once we’d been in the city a couple of days. The staff here made our stay as comfortable as possible, and in the end we were very glad that we hadn’t opted for a shorter stay, as we would have regretted it.
| Condition of rooms and the hotel | 7.0 | Food and drink | 8.0 | |
| Overall cleanliness | 8.0 | Relaxation | 6.0 | |
| Pool and facilities | 8.0 | Value for money | 7.0 | |
| Quality of staff | 8.0 | Overall rating | 7.4 | |
| out of 10 | out of 10 | |||
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