My first visit to Tangier with a friend whose sister now lives there.
She booked us a room at the Chellah at a very favourable rate,but because of this I suspect we were not given one of their better rooms.

The hotel has been very beautiful in its day but the rooms are now tired and basic. We had no air conditioning and a shutter that was jamned three quarters of the way down the window. We asked on several occassions for someone to look at it but eventually with brute force we managed to raise it. The beds were clean but the thin carpet felt dirty and the room had that aroma that takes a few years to aquire!

Now for the positives, the staff were lovely and breakfast was really quite good, eggs cooked to order and a local lady sat and cooked the heavy pancakes which you find all over the city,these were served with "honey" which was in fact golden syrup but nothing wrong with that.

The public rooms have amazing carved ceilings and wall panels as a reminder of its glorious past.

When we checked out we found that several people expected tipping including the doorman and c hambermaid, however a little money goes a long way there so it wasnt to painfull!

Tangier is exciting and different, as a woman I walked alone through the markets and felt safe and unthreatened but like any city be sensible. The pottery is amazing and incredibly cheap haggling is a way of life and expected, you should try to get 30-50 percent discount.

Anna and Paoulo's restaurant just around the corner from the hotel is highly reccommended and the Chellah is not to badly placed for a walk to the promenade and the main shopping street.

If you want to stay somewhere cheap and cheerfull then the Chellah isnt a bad option but make sure you request a room that suits your requirements, we found that some rooms have balconies overlooking the pool and they have airconditioning a must in this hot climate.

Although in need of an update, we did enjoy our stay at this hotel. We only ate breakfast here as there was so many other alternatives around, so can't comment too much on the food, but our kids thoughroughly enjoyed what was on offer, and without any "problems".
We had quite a big family room which gave us all a bit of space, as did the bathroom, but again we were out exploring most of the time so just needed a bed and somewhere to crash.

This was sold as a 3 star hotel and certainly has the amenities to make it a 3 star - swimming pool, bar, restaurant, nice lounge area etc. The door staff and room cleaning staff are very pleasant too. But for us that was as good as it got. We were travelling as a family with two children - one under 3yrs old.
The reception service was abysmal - we booked our rooms 6 weeks in advance and paid and confirmed our rooms online. Our plane was delayed by a few hours so instead of arriving at 1am we arrived at 9am at the hotel - totally exhausted from the plane delay etc. But guess what? They had no rooms available - myself and my arabic speaking local host told them clearly we had two rooms booked from the previous night - but no rooms were forthcoming - come back at 12noon we were told!! Luckily my Moroccan host didnt live too far away so she took us home for breakfast and we came back at 1pm. Still no rooms available! We were eventually shown our rooms at 2pm - but they were smelly and dirty and had not been cleaned from the previous occupants!
We eventually took some rooms at 3pm - not very good rooms but we were desperate by now and our children were extremely exhausted / frustrated etc - so we just took them. We then had to wait whilst they were cleaned and the beds made up - this was done by 3:30pm.
I then decided to shower - but guess what? No water at all in the sink or bath!! Water eventually available around 6pm!
We had booked the Chellah over the Rembrandt hotel as the Chellah was listed as having AC - but neither our rooms nor the ones we saw earlier had AC!
As we settled down for the nigh we discovered more wonders of Chellah. The rooms dont have curtains but have wooden shutters outside the windows. In one room the shutter was incredibly stiff and required considerable muscle power to lower them - this might have been related to the birds nest inside the shutter mechanism - we had birds chirping all night long! In the other room the shutter would not close completely - there was an 8in gap at the bottom - perfect for light to stream in after sunrise.

Breakfast didnt seem too bad on the first morning - apart from the queues for Coffee and tea. But the remaining days breakfast was not as pleasant - we never got a clean table - even if we asked all they did was wisk away the dirty plates and cutlery. Any spilt drinks or crumbs etc remained - was not pleasant having to eat on a table with soaked and dirty table cloth. We had to hunt for our own cutlery and napkins from other tables!
There were other problems with our rooms - one of the bathroom door handles did not operate properly and became stuck - luckily no one was inside the bath at the time. Eventually a cleaner showed us how to unlock it using a clothes hanger!
The lighting in the rooms was wacky too - one room the bedside lamp was blindingly bright - in the other room the main room light was so dim you could not read a book!
The only redeeming aspects of this hotel was that my children loved the pool and it was nice for us adults to sit outside near the pool after breakfast and relax a bit.
Perhaps we got the two worst rooms in the hotel - but I doubt it - the other two rooms we were shown were just as poor - even a so called 'luxury' suite we were shown (50Euros etc a night to upgrade) had an electrical wall socket hanging loose with all the wiring exposed!
Definitely would not stay at the Chellah hotel.

Hotel Chellah in Tangier/Tanger Moroc: You can get pictures of the outside of the hotel and maps/aerial photos from Google Earth...
just got back from our trip to Moroc and was looking at Trip Advisor and found a question requesting info on this hotel.. The Hotel Chellah is an older Hotel, probably quite the place, say 20 years ago. Its OK, not spectacular..The night before we left on our 2 week motor guided tour of Morocco, we stayed there. The room we had was OK but reaked of a curry smell. I guess we were several floors above the kitchen and the two chutes (laundry?) in the bathroom carries the smell right up to our room, if not others. Shut the door securely and maybe a towel on the floor to block smell worked.We did sleep thruough it. The night we came back from our trip, we had a front street side room, several floors up which fronted a school's paved football (soccer) area. It was a Saturday night and the lights and action stayed going until after mid-night. Close the windows and heavy curtains helped. Unfortunately, the meal I had (fish and veggies) that last night at the hotel, made me extremely sick. I had made it 2 weeks and 2400 miles, through Morocco with just a few intestinal problems but that meal kicked my butt. Must have been food poisoning although no one else in our 10 person group had this reaction. I was up half the night being violently sick and I was barely able to move the next day. Luckily my wife came through and did everything (arrange transport, shuffle 2 backpacks, direct me through several passport and other checkpoints) as I couldnt even carry my own backpack. We were traveling by ferry to Algeciras that day.. A real bummer (no pun intended) but we did it..It was only about a 30 hour bug but the first 10 hours was very miserable.. Anyway, The Hotel is in the old part of town with nothing outside to see or do. We walked around the hotels block and then went back to the hotel. No problems just not the best neighborhood. Breakfast was typical, pastries and tea/coffee. The only reason we stayed there was that our tour was departing and ending for us at that Hotel. Also, if you are coming by taxi from the port, make sure you go the the right Hotel Chellah as there is another hotel with almost the same exact name on the same street. Again, it was an older hotel but no major problems with it. OK for one night. I don't think I'd go back to that hotel again but I'd have to do alot of research to see where I would go. Tangier/Tanger is not the best introduction to Morocco, at least where we were for a night...The rest of Moroc was amazing...

Mike