How do I rent a whole riad / villa for a group?

Renting a whole riad or villa is the best thing a group can do in Morocco, but it is a different transaction from booking a room, so go about it properly. The key word is "exclusive use" — you are taking the entire property, with no other guests, and that has to be explicitly arranged. I book these directly with the owners or through a specialist rather than ticking individual rooms on a generic booking site, because exclusivity, group catering and staffing simply are not options you can select online; they are negotiated. For a group, that direct relationship is also what gets you the flexibility and the welcome that make the stay special.

Nail the capacity details before anything else. A riad described as "sleeps fourteen" needs interrogating: how many actual bedrooms, and in what configuration — doubles, twins, triples? I always get the room-by-room layout and map your real group onto real beds, because the gap between a marketing number and a workable rooming list is where group bookings go wrong. Riads, being courtyard townhouses, typically top out around five to eight bedrooms (so roughly twelve people comfortably); when a group is bigger, or wants a pool and lawns and space to spread, a villa on the outskirts of Marrakech or in the Palmeraie usually serves better.

Understand how the money works, because it differs from a hotel. Whole-property rental usually carries a minimum spend or a nightly rate for the whole house, plus a meaningful deposit and stricter cancellation terms — fair enough, since the owner is turning away all other business to hold it for you. I get all of this in writing: the total, what the deposit secures, the cancellation schedule, and critically what is included. Many riads come staffed — a housekeeper, often a cook who will prepare dinners for the group, sometimes a manager — and a private driver can be added on. Clarifying breakfast, dinners, drinks and staff tipping upfront prevents every awkward end-of-stay surprise.

A few practical group things make a rented house run well. Decide early how shared costs are split — I have the organiser collect a kitty for the rental and group meals so one person is not fronting the whole house. Brief the riad on arrival times, dietary needs and any celebration touches you want. And lean into what exclusive use uniquely offers: a private chef cooking a feast in your own courtyard, a yoga teacher on the rooftop, a henna artist for the evening, the freedom to gather and be loud and be yourselves in a beautiful private home. That is the whole reason to rent the place rather than book rooms — so plan to actually use it.