Backstory: In the OpenVillage project, the Edgeryders company currently focuses on the MENA region because we are building a regional youth platform commissioned by the World Bank. As part of that, we are running the OpenVillage fellowship programme, and that includes a residency for aspiring entrepreneurs. Well and for that we need a house in Morocco to rent for early 2018, and it has to meet our requirements.
Content in this topic: To structure the house selection process, this topic presents all the house candidates, one per comment. Comments are wikis, so adapt the content to add something. 
Please only comment to request additional information / clarifications, and be aware that your comments will be removed when the requested information has been integrated into the wiki, to keep it all nice and clean in wiki format here.
Selection process: In topic “Selecting the House for The Reef Morocco” we discuss for making the decision about which house to take. Nadia and Matthias to make the ultimate call.
Thank you: Big 
thank you goes to @unknown_author for finding all the interesting spaces in the list below, and actually visiting them in Morocco. Also @hazem, who found some more via AirBnB.
Table of Contents
Part I: Protected Content
Part II: Candidate Houses
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House #1: Two extra-terrestrial houses
<strong>More pictures</strong> (or click the one above for a slideshow)
Location. Beachfront location, three walking minutes away from the center of Sidi Kaouki.
Description. Two of these houses are available that we could rent. Each has three rooms, including a huge living room opening to the beach. In addition, 2 toilets and 2 bathrooms per house, and a huge rooftop.
The development is a larger area, “the place could be almost seen as a village outside the actual village of Sidi Kaouki” (@unknown_author). This includes a largely empty area with just workshops and unbuilt houses (foundations only) in the back of the owner’s land, large enough to have our festival with 100 - 200 people.
Condition. The houses are brand new. (“There are still some workers building other houses of the same kind close by.” – @unknown_author)
Equipment. Probably unfurnished houses, given that they are brand new.
Price. “The owner is ready and open to discuss.” – @unknown_author
Owner. The older man in the second picture is the landlord. “Very welcoming.”
Comments.
- “The houses are nothing special.” – @nadia, after visiting them
Questions.
- Are the two houses we can get directly next to each other?
- What about the price, approximately?
- The houses are unfurnished. Confirm?
House #2: Mustapha’s place
[details=More pictures (or click the one above for a slideshow)]
[/details]
Location. Somewhat outside Sidi Kaouki, 15 minutes bicycle ride from the two extra-terrestrial houses.
Description. Mustafa is currently living in a (comfortable) tent at this location. There is no house yet, just two stables for Mustafa’s horses and some fencing for the other animals – donkeys, dogs, cats, peacock. There is obviously enough space here for the festival.
Condition. Basically unbuilt land in the initial stages of development. Everything yet to be built. No grid electricity, on-site water well being dug right now (see pictures).
Equipment. unfurnished / “bring your own house”
Price. Negotiable.
Owner. Mustafa, left in this picture. Who is really interested in developing a tourism business centered around horses and animals around this land. He’s also assisted by Anas, right in this picture, who has a lot of experience in assisting businesses like this.
Comments.
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“This does not really solve any of our problems.” – @alberto here.
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“I hate tents. Mustapha’s place is about permaculture and horses. Not about living.” – @unknown_author
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“My impression of Sidi Kaouki is that by opting for this we are firmly in the tourist economy when it comes to revenue for covering costs of offering room and board for fellows / residents. So this means whatever we choose has to be attractive from this perspective.” – @nadia. So at this stage, this place is not an interesting candidate based on that reasoning.
Questions.
- No grid electricity connection. Confirm?
- The last three pictures from above do not belong to Mustafa’s place. Confirm?
House #3: E. S. House
<strong>More pictures</strong> (or click the one above for a slideshow)
Location. Ca. 800 m (“1 minute driving”) away from the center of Sidi Kaouki. Three walking minutes from the beach.
Description. In total the space that can be rented in this house (which is everything except one apartment) contains 3 kitchens, 5 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms and 2 toilets.
The ground level contains three apartments with one sleeping room, one kitchen and one bathroom each (see the last few photos). One apartment was occupied and would not be included in the rent. Upstairs there is a nice large living room, three bedrooms and a kitchen.
All upstairs rooms have access to the large rooftop terrace. The ground floor rooms have access to the garden, which is quite huge (and has a swimming pool). There is also a land next to the house that we can rent for a festival. “The house and land around is huge.”
So in total, five sleeping rooms are available, which could fit a maximum of 15 people at 3 per room (one double bed already inside, and single beds could be added). But of course, we don’t need to host 15 people.
Condition.
Equipment. Fully furnished.
Price. Usually the owner just rents out the upper floor, but agreed that for 800 EUR/month (960 USD/month) we can we can get access to the two apartments downstairs as well. At another occasion, a number of 1000 EUR/month (1170 USD/month) was floated for that by @unknown_author. We have to find out in detail in the negotiation.
Owner. See the contact info section (access protected).
Comments.
- “The place is cute, really. The apartments downstairs are slightly darkish.” – @unknown_author
- “Comment: furnished is nice, but it adds a kind of liability in having to keep the landlord’s stuff in nice shape.” – @johncoate
Questions.
- When fitting 3 people into each of the 5 rooms, where would the workspace be?
- Would the third, inaccessible apartment in the ground floor be part of the space when renting it? No, right?
- What are the shops and other amenities nearby, and how far are they?
House #4: Eco DĂ´mes
<strong>More pictures</strong> (or click the one above for a slideshow)
More pictures on their website (incl. the inside of the domes) and on their Facebook page.
Location. Located a bit outside Sidi Kaouki. Exact location is 31.387012, -9.813566 (the domes visible in the satellite image version). At the beach with no houses in between, only 400 m empty space so effectively, a private beach that is a 5 minute walk away [source].
Transportation:
- to Sidi Kaouki (2.5-3 km): by vehicle 7 min, by bicycle 15 min, walking 40 min [source]
- to Essaouira (20-21 km): by vehicle 20 min; by bus from Ouassen and Sidi Kaouki twice daily (8:00 and 17:00 ) [source], by bicycle 60 min (own guess), by electrical bicycle 40 min (own guess)
Description. Contains in total 6 bedrooms “and the dopest living room in Morocoo” (@unknown_author). It could fit 15-20 people, according to the house manager / maintainer and their Facebook page. The inside of the domes “is super nice … much surprised” (@unknown_author). Consists of:
- main house with the big living room and a view on the sea
- the two geodesic domes (sleeps 2-4 people each)
- fisherman’s cabin (sleeps 2 people)
- a berber tent (sleeps 2-3 people)
- a hamam (hot tub; the white house in the pictures)
Suitable for organizing the festival in the place and the attached garden.
Condition. Seems to be quite new. Their Facebook page only started in August 2017.
Equipment. Fully furnished. The whole location uses dry toilets (means probably composting toilets with urine separation) and they recover the waste water from the shower, so only natural detergents are allowed, which are also available on-site. [source] They also use a solar thermal hot-water maker (see the lower right in the first picture above.)
Price. We have no confirmed information about this so far, so we put what we have only into the access protected section above…
Owner. See the contact infos section (access protected). For publicly available information, see their AirBnB user profile.
Comments.
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“Do you have a personal favourite house so far?” – “Yeah man, the domes.” – @unknown_author
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“The domes seem to be a very good fit, they offers also a very different ways to organize, and privacy for women.” – @hazem
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“I like the domes, they are quite aligned to the OpenVillage “DIY life” vision, with their dry toilets and recycling showers.” – @matthias
Questions.
1 Like
House #5: Traditional House
Pictures.
Location. Near Sidi Kaouki (ca. 2.5-3 km travel distance).
Description.
Condition. “A bit run-down but traditional.”
Equipment.
Price.
Owner. The house manager / maintainer of the Eco Domes.
Comments.
Questions.
House #6: Surf House
Pictures.
Location. Near Sidi Kaouki (ca. 2.5-3 km travel distance).
Description. A surf house with 11 rooms that has regular customers, especially in winter.
Condition. “A bit roots but comfortable.”
Equipment.
Price.
Owner. The house manager / maintainer of the Eco Domes.
Comments.
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“It is luxurious and the view is amazing. The road to the village is amazing. Picture a forest of argan trees and acacia, with huge wind mills.” – @unknown_author
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“All the surf houses will be occupied during wave season in October / November. So better choose something that is not surf related. These houses have been building a type of client so they don’t want to loose their surfers communities.” – @unknown_author
Questions.
House #7: Cap Sim House
Pictures. See:
Location.
Near Sidi Kaouki (ca. 2.5-3 km travel distance). A one minute walk from the Eco Domes house. So like that, within five minutes walking distance from the beach (as also told on their Facebook page). (The location according to AirBnB is very approximate here, as it is 8-10 km off the actual place that our local scout visited.)
Description. “6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, rooftop terrace with sea view, fully equipped kitchen, lounge and dining areas, hammam, indoor pool.” (Facebook page).
Condition.
Equipment.
Price. “The price can be discussed with the owner. But the owner wants to have access to the house sometimes, like one week in November or similar. So all can be discussed.” – @unknown_author
Owner. See contact infos section (access protected).
Comments.
- “Its amazing house. I’d go for it. Best option ever.” – @unknown_author
Questions.
House #9: Oceana Surfcamps
(Originally found and researched by @hazem.)
Pictures. More photos from Airbnb here
Location Taghazout, 18 km from Agadir.
Description. The entire villa as 9 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, suitable for up to 16 people. It is a surf camp with a front desk.
Condition.
Price. 466 USD / month with a 15% monthly discount, so 2,000 USD for 4.5 months. Available to book via AirBnB from 2017-12-16 to 2018-04-30.)
Owner. No information yet, just the AirBnB profile with the name (“Oceana”).
Comments
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In every place we need to have possibilities to create a separates a place only for women, usually if it is a villa like this we can have a secondary entrance and isolate a section of the villa for women. – @hazem
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“All the surf houses will be occupied during wave season in October / November. So better choose something that is not surf related. These houses have been building a type of client so they don’t want to loose their surfers communities.” – @unknown_author
Questions
- How is the Taghazout area? @unknown_author is it a good place to start the residency, or is it very isolated?
1 Like
House #10: Source D’Océan Surf & Yoga Guesthouse
Pictures. See on Airbnb
Location. Tamarght near Agadir
Description. The guest house comprises of 2 versatile apartments and a separate room. The apartments are on the 2nd and 3rd floor with a roof terrace on the 4th level. The second floor apartment sleeps 7 and the 3rd floor apartment sleeps 8 in 3 rooms.
Condition. Newly refurbished, there is a kitchen serving breakfast, and they organize different kind of activities.
Price. 825 USD / month. With the given 33% full-month discount: 2800 USD for 3.5 months.
Owner. Airbnb profile (“Writer, traveler, grew up in Durban / South Africa, lived in London, speaks different languages.”)
Comments
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“I think we can negotiate the price in return of not having some services (if he liked the idea of hosting such a social innovation experiment) he has a quick response rate at Airbnb so online communication doesn’t seem to be a problem.” – @hazem
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“All the surf houses will be occupied during wave season in October / November. So better choose something that is not surf related. These houses have been building a type of client so they don’t want to loose their surfers communities.” – @unknown_author
Questions
1 Like
House #11: Lawama
Pictures From Airbnb here
Location Essaouira, Marrakesh-Tensift-El Haouz, Morocco.
Description A hostel, includes 5 rooms and 15 beds. Only one is a big dormitory, the others are slightly smaller rooms.
Condition
Price 792 USD / month with a 10 % monthly discount so for 3.5 months 2.7 k
Owner Airbnb Profile (“no personal info, and takes time to reply”)
Comments
- Not sure about how to organize the living arrangement, and if there is a living area to act as a workspace or not (not clear from the pictures). – @hazem
Questions
House #12: Villa Soleil
<strong>More pictures</strong> (or click the one above for a slideshow)
For more pictures etc., see their website.
Location Sidi Kaouki, Marocco.
Description. A hotel with about 13 rooms, so it can fit around 30 people. See their website for details.
Condition.
Price. When renting the whole place, around 2100 USD / month (20,000 MAD / month). So, too expensive for our purposes, and also too big. However the owner is open to the option that we can sub-let parts of the space to others booking it as a regular hotel, so doing business.
Owner.
Comments
- Clearly too big for our purposes and budget.
Questions
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