Going Holiday-Turkey Just Read Review On Hotel….?

Question

The other day me and a mate booked a holiday to Turkey B&B style.

Neither of us have been to Turkey before.

The next day I asked on Answers what people thought of Kusadasi?

Every answer given was positive about this resort!

However I have just started to look at any reviews/comments about the Hotel Alp on TripAdvisor.com

I have used this site before and has been accurate in their reviews.

So just looked at what people said about the place:

It was dark and really quite dismal said one,

The agent never warned us about the food, air conditioning etc said another

The food was terrible.

All these reviews have ‘took the wind out of my sails’ and to be quite truthful-not looking forward to it.

When we get there it might be quite good-but I like to be prepared.

If it is not to our standards cleanliness/and not up to much then what rights do we have with regard to improving the situation.

The holiday was booked by phone we seen the ad on the net.

Any help or advice appreciated

Answer 1

Turkey will be different from the US.  Rooms tend to be smaller and have less "comforts."  The bathrooms tend to be smaller, and the beds in the one picture  looked pretty standard for Turkey. There isn't always air conditioning or they are these unique wall units. Also, electricity has become EXTREMELY expensive in Turkey.   You are traveling to a different country, so there will be some let downs and some surprsing finds.  

The food can be here nor there.  I've had amazing Turkish food, and some.... well anyway.  It might be the taste or preference of the reviewers, and you wont be eating there all the time. I did read the review about the one breakfast, and that is pretty standard for breakfast in Turkey.  Breads, olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, tea (chi), jams/preserves, corn flakes/coco puffs, warm milk from a box, and usually some type of cold cuts.  And real Turkish food will be different from the UK and US idea of Turkish food. It sounds like the one reviewer was uneducated about Turkish foods as they confused about the different types of meats (and Kebab's originated in this region - so the "real ones" in the UK was funny to me).

Regardless of where you stay, I would recommend bringing an antibiotic with you.  In Turkey, some are available over the counter, but bringing something prescribed from your doctor would be best.  FYI, never drink the tap water.  Always drink bottled water.  Even the Turks only drink bottled water.  But the water has a lot of minerals in it.

I too found a hotel on-line that looked very good, but there were bad reviews on TripAdvisor.  I should have listened to the reviews... and I booked at a Best Western!  Thankfully, I was only there one night.  I did have some problems with checking out early, but the people I was meeting for business took care of the sitution.  Had I been a tourist, I would have paid $500 plus for that place and for one night!  It might be hard to get your money back if you leave early, especially if you paid for everything up front. There may be some communication problems.  Basically, it wont be that easy to get your money back or be moved to another location.   If the hotel is as bad as the reviews say, you might want to find a different hotel before you leave.  

I've never been to Kusadasi so I cant comment about the city.  However, there is a Hotel Alp in Istanbul.  Perhaps that can be some of the confusion.  

Enjoy Turkey!