vipsha

We thought we had our itinerary for Morocco finalized with a highly rated travel agent, who I will not name, but he called this morning to say that one of the hotels that we were booked at had a utility problem so he may have to switch us elsewhere. The other hotel does not seem nearly as nice even though he made them sound equivalent. So I called the original hotel, and they said there was no reservation under our name or the travel agent's. Furthermore, they said that they were fully booked, and that they did not have the utility problem that he was describing. I called him back and asked him to send me an email confirmation of our reservation, which he insists he made, but I am now wondering how many surprises await us during this trip. There are still some hotels available for the dates we are traveling. My question for all of you is this: if I were to make hotel reservations, how easy or difficult will it be to book tours (possibly through the hotel) once I get there? I am pretty sure of my itinerary and know what I would like to do.

yestravel

We did our 1-month trip on our own with no problem. We had our riads book any drivers or tours that we wanted. It worked out fine. The only place we did use a tour company was for our time in the desert. We could have arranged it ourselves but didn't feel like bothering. Ironically the only issue with the few days with our driver was a hotel issue. We were switched to a hotel that was not the one promised. For a variety of reasons, the new hotel was not acceptable to us. I called and complained and we ended up in a much nicer hotel than our original booking. Other than that it was fine.

I might add we were warned to be very careful with the tour company we selected.

BDKR

" if I were to make hotel reservations, how easy or difficult will it be to book tours (possibly through the hotel) once I get there?"

Very easy.

Tourism is very important in Morocco and everyone is keen on earning some money.

bolderite

You can completely book all your hotels yourself and transportation as well. As we experienced, price did not necessarily equal quality when it came to the two tours we booked. We used a very expensive company for our desert trekking and they did not properly vet the local guide that they found. We used a much less expensive local company that we found on TripAdvisor to book our guide for the Atlas mountains and the quide was superb.
If you know the hotels you want to stay at, book them directly. If you are looking for a guide for the medinas, the hotels will all have their own. I don't think that "shopping" at each guides favorite shops can be avoided, no matter how you come to find the guide. If you have specific ideas about where you want to go and what you want to see, you just need to be firm.

Enjoy!

vipsha

Many thanks for your advice, it is reassuring.