Luxury Vacation Nightmare: French Tourists Stranded as 5-Star Morocco Hotel Overbooks

In their search, these tourists fell under the charm of White beach whose "ultra all-inclusive" formula reserved for "adults only" is published on the Pickalbatros website. They book without hesitation in this luxury hotel based in Taghazout, a fishing village located less than an hour north of Agadir, and very popular with water sports enthusiasts. After booking through the Ôvoyages agency for around 1,000 euros each, Dylan Donne, 21, his parents and his girlfriend arrive in Morocco on July 31, relays Le Parisien.

As they were waiting for the bus that was to take them to the hotel, they witness a dispute between a traveler and an agency representative. "He tells us that basically the hotel is overbooked and there is no more room at the White beach," the angry traveler confides to them. The agency offers to redirect them to the Palais des roses, a 4-star hotel. "The only difference is that we’re in Agadir and it’s with children, but overall it’s a hotel that’s just been renovated," they are assured, adding that they "won’t regret it and that it’s really incredible."

Like the student and his relatives, about thirty other travelers were in the same situation. A week earlier, 50 other tourists had to fall back on the Palais des roses. In this 4-star hotel, which has nothing to do with the White beach, the comfort is lacking. "The setting is absolutely not the same," laments Dylan, who describes an establishment "family-friendly, noisy, damp, under construction, without a private beach." The next day, they approach the managers of the White beach to get explanations. The latter inform them that the Ôvoyages agency is only entitled to ten rooms per week over the last two weeks.

For its part, the agency "says that if we have order forms from the White beach, it is because the White beach has indeed agreed to let us stay in their hotel and that they had the necessary rooms." Finally, Dylan and his relatives spent their entire stay at the Palais des roses. "Lies, manipulations, attempts to make us sign documents canceling our right to a refund," fumes the student who, upon his return to France, recounted his misadventure in a post published on LinkedIn.

"We’ve been working with this chain for four years and we’ve never had any problems. The rooms concerned had indeed been guaranteed and paid for in advance by us. We were therefore the first to be surprised by this incident, independent of our will. Apparently, they had a computer problem. The responsible persons would have been fired," explains Samia Benslimane, CEO of Ôvoyages, who offers the travelers an amicable settlement.