Even in a city celebrated for its over-the-top luxury hotels—the Royal Mansour! The Palais Namaskar! The Mandarin Oriental!—the Royal Palm Beachcomber had earned a reputation as a bastion of luxury. Run by the Mauritius-based Beachcomber Hotels group, the self-proclaimed “six-star hotel” presides over a vast estate on an olive plantation with the majestic Atlas Mountains as the backdrop.
There are only 134 guest rooms, but guests are privy to lavish facilities: a spa by Clarins sprawling across nearly 38,000 square feet, a sports center where trainers lead fitness classes, an Olympic sized pool, a Golf and Country Club, plus a top-notch Kids Club (think cooking classes, mini tennis courts, treehouses and more). A number of gourmet dining concepts round out the hotel’s amenities.
In big hospitality news, this hotel will be rebranded as a Fairmont property on May 1, 2017. AccorHotels—which acquired Fairmont in 2015—recently announced the signing of a hotel management agreement with the New Mauritius Hotels Limited Company. The goal, as outlined by Gilbert Espitalier-Noël, CEO of Beachcomber Resorts & Hotels, is to entrust in Accor’s commercial power to position the Fairmont Royal Palm Marrakech as one of the top hotels in Morocco.
Currently Fairmont has two other hotels in development in Morocco: Fairmont Marina Rabat Salé and Fairmont Taghazout Bay in a new seaside resort north of Agadir. In the AccorHotels portfolio, there are 37 properties in Morocco. Expansion plans for the Fairmont brand in 2017 include new hotels in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S.