Riad la Parenthese by Sashema

The Riad la Parenthese by Sashema holds in seven rooms behind a studded door, in a derb of Bab Doukkala, at the north-west corner of the medina. The Bab Doukkala quarter, long residential, is set around its mosque and the Dar el Glaoui palace, the former home of the pasha who ruled Marrakech until independence. You are off the commercial pressure of the souks, but within reach of everything: a quarter of an hour on foot to Jemaa el-Fna, ten minutes to the Koutoubia, the same to reach the Ben Youssef medersa on the other side of the quarter.

At the middle, a basin ringed with potted plants, under a large glass roof that opens onto the sitting room, banana trees and birds of paradise rising towards the open sky. The court stays in the shade a good part of the day: that is where you take refuge at hot hours, at the asr hour, when the medina bakes outside. The seven rooms open onto this court or on the floors, each decorated one by one - pink zellige headboards, yellow or wine-red walls, chased lanterns, hunted furniture, and bathrooms in hand-rubbed black or blue tadelakt. Only Wi-Fi picks up a more measured score, 8.4, while the rest of the house sits higher.

In the morning, continental breakfast is taken on the terrace, a planted platform from which you look over the medina rooftops, the Koutoubia standing out in the distance. You go back up gladly at sundown, in the shade of the parasol and on the sun loungers. A Moroccan table books ahead, served in the court, and you can book a massage on site on request. The house puts the accent on the welcome more than on equipment: Pierre and his team meet you at the medina gate, help arrange a transfer, a guided visit or a dinner, which travellers praise with a 9.8 for the staff and a 9.6 for the location. For anyone after the same register, the quarter has no shortage of addresses run in this spirit: see the other charm riads of the medina.

That leaves who it fits. The first caveat has to do with the basin: what is called the pool here is a patio water point, good to cool off at hot hours, not to swim lengths. You need to know before booking. Access goes on foot through lanes sometimes crowded with carts and mopeds, there is no private parking, and no hammam on site: treatments come down to the massage, and Wi-Fi stays the weak point noted by the hosts. The house rents only seven rooms: at this scale, you share the terrace and the sitting room with the other travellers, which makes the address’s charm but little intimacy on a full night. For a couple or two friends wanting a real medina house, calm, a terrace and a careful welcome from around £60 a night, this is a right and well-placed address. For anyone travelling in a large family, expecting a lap pool or hotel services, better look at the big garden houses of the Palmeraie. Here, you pay first for a human scale and a spot in the old town.