Don't stay at Sultanahmet Suites

Chicago
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21 posts
Don't stay at Sultanahmet Suites
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Ladies and Gentlemen, please avoid the said facility as much as possible. Here is my experience.

Upon check-in, the owner agreed with a late check out. But on the last evening, it was announed that there was a new booking coming in, and the owner wished to move in those new guests. As a result, the agreement of late check out was nullified. When asked to keep to his word, he was indignated and declared that he "changed mind". The problem was not so much with the actual check out time, but that he easily broke promise, showing a lack of honesty and integrity.

A hidden cost of 4% against credit card payment was disclosed upon payment. When asked whether it could be waivered, the owner yelled "pay or go to the police". This temper (tantrum) and emotion was quite unusual.

Later it was found that going through online booking site was much cheaper than directly booking with this facility. When this was referred and a discount requested, the owner shouted, "that is YOUR PROBLEM!!!!!"

After the above conversations, the owner yelled at a customer, "you don't deserve to be treated well."

There are more to talk about, if necessary. But in any case nobody should go through this kind of experience. Most of the Turkish people are nice and quite helpful, though. Enjoy!

Regards,

Denizlove

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Jackson, Wyoming
Level Contributor
14,183 posts
216 reviews
338 helpful votes
1. Re: Don't stay at Sultanahmet Suites
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Hi Deniziove,

What a dreadful and unpleasant experience. We appreciate your willingness to share you experience so others can avoid a similar event.

I do want to observe that it might not be possible to obtain a cheaper rate with a third-party booking agent. They quote low rates, but when you actually attempt to make a reservation the hotel shows up with no vacancies. I believe the small hotels in Sultanahmet use the booking agents to advertise, but they rarely actually make any rooms available to them.

It has always been my experience that you do better booking directly with the hotel than a third party agent, but as your hotel manager was clearly less than honest that may not have been true in the case of the Sultanahmet Suites.

I am truly sorry for your unhappy experience. Usually the hospitality of the hotel staff is a major high point for visitors to Istanbul. It is most unfortunate that you were denied this pleasure. I hope you have also reviewed this property for the general review page for Trip Advisers.

Dallas, Texas
Level Contributor
192 posts
38 reviews
23 helpful votes
2. Re: Don't stay at Sultanahmet Suites
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Yours is not the first post I have read complaining about this particular owner telling guests to stuff it or go to the police. I considered myself warned and rented elsewhere.

3. Re: Don't stay at Sultanahmet Suites

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Removed on: 3:59 pm, November 21, 2007
Jackson, Wyoming
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14,183 posts
216 reviews
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4. Re: Don't stay at Sultanahmet Suites
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This is probably the worst thing I have ever read about hotel owners in Istanbul. In terms of having a third party agent to support you, do you know for sure that you could have actually booked through the third party agent that advertised the lower rate? In my experience those lower rates are never available. I have checked with Orbitz for months and months into the future and the $35USD rooms are never available. Unfortunately I fear that, for the most part, you are on your own while traveling.

BTW, I did not get much help from Expedia the night in South Beach when the hotel had no record of my pre-paid reservation so I do not know if they are particularly helpful under any circumstances. I ended up in a room that opened onto an alley. It was the nastiest place I have ever stayed. The ancient linen bore the stamp of a defunct nursing home! The alley was filled with catering trucks for a wedding and the noise was terrible until 4:00 am. Expedia defined that experience as having satisfactorily managed my needs.

Did you notify TA that you had been threatened about your review? Did you voluntarily remove your review or did TA pull it? I am currently not particularly happy with TA over another issue. I do not like the idea that they are somehow influenced by hotel owners to do things that are not particularly ethical.

I would like a little more information about TA's response before I attempt to take some action regarding this situation so anything that you can share would be appreciated. If you afraid to discuss it on the open forum, please send me a PM. (click on my screen name and go to my profile page and click on send a message).

There is absolutely nothing the manager of the Sultanahmet Suites can do to harm you. I hope you will not lose sleep over his tirade, nor should your friend be concerned either. There are no grounds for slander. He cannot create a problem for you with the embassy. He does, however, clearly have angry management issues and everyone should be warned away from interacting with him at all.

Again, I am so sorry that you had such a dreadful experience. I hope it will not taint your memory of Istanbul. I can assure you that your experience was certainly not typical. Almost all of us have our personal hotel preferences based on interaction with the staff of the hotel more so than the property itself. You can find charming hotel staffs at almost every hotel in Sultanahmet.

Thank you for warning everyone about the Sultanahmet Suites. Now we just have to hope that potential guests research the forum before selecting that hotel.

Brighton and Hove...
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8,834 posts
3 reviews
31 helpful votes
5. Re: Don't stay at Sultanahmet Suites
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Hi Denizlove,

Your story has really gone from bad to worst. I am appalled at the treatment you received at this hotel, and by TA's action in deleting your post - normally they would allow the post to stand and the manager to give his side of the story.

All that gives me hope about the credibility of the actions of TA is that at least this posting of your's on this forum thread has not been deleted.

Brooklyn NY`
Level Contributor
81 posts
26 reviews
23 helpful votes
6. Re: Don't stay at Sultanahmet Suites
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I recently booked a stay at the Sultahnamet. Have others had a positive experience? The reviews were raves.

I suppose I can understand his wanting to book the room rather than lose the money. But surely something could have been worked out without the tantrum.

Yikes

mhughu

Brooklyn

Jackson, Wyoming
Level Contributor
14,183 posts
216 reviews
338 helpful votes
7. Re: Don't stay at Sultanahmet Suites
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Hi mhughu,

I wished I knew what to tell you about the Sultanahmet Suites. We have had little information about the property on the forum except for the experience of Denizlove. The hotel is one of very few places in Sultanahmet where you can get a self-catering facility and the web site and the reviews do look good. I tend, however, not to place lots of credibility on reviews, particularly the kind of reviews I find for Sultanahmet Suites.

There are 16 reviews on TA, and of those 16, 15 of the reviewers joined Trip Adviser on the day they wrote their reviews about the hotel. None of them have ever reviewed another thing on Trip Adviser. I am always very skeptical of one post reviews because they are often either not really legitimate travelers or they have been "encouraged" by the hotel owner to write them. So I would probably discount nearly all of those reviews.

When you Google Sultanahmet Suites you get a review from Tom's Turkey Planner. If Tom Brosnahan actually visited this hotel and wrote that review it would carry some weight with me because I trust his opinion. We do not know, however, how long ago Tom's review was prepared. Things can change rapidly in Istanbul's hotel industry. A new manager can make a huge difference.

If it were me, based on Denizlove's really horrible experience I would stay in another hotel. (My favorite is the Apricot where a manager would absolutely never treat a guest as Denizlove was treated.)

However, if your reservations have been made and possibly pre-paid??? It might be difficult for you to locate another hotel. I would try to protect myself as much as possible. Be sure you take all the email transactions you have had with the hotel. Be sure that you understand all the hotel policies, and if anything is to change, be careful to get that change in writing.

Prepared with all of your information, go into the hotel expecting the best. Treat the staff in a friendly manner and let them know you are happy to be there. Keep your fingers crossed that you will be treated fairly, and for sure, when you return please write and let us know about your experience.

Vancouver, Canada
13 posts
8. Re: Don't stay at Sultanahmet Suites
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Denizlove, this is dreadful; don't want to comment on the hotel owner; probably has no idea about hotel management, customer services etc. I know some other hotel owners in Sultanhamet, and they are professional, sweet people... But the most awful are the calls you received at home - and i really wonder what could he do with the embassy??????? - this is funny! --- and why did TRIPADVISOR remove your review? Actually I stopped visiting tripadvisor as I was very annoyed with the 'hidden' advertising in the forums; one can sense the mutual agreement easily; local travel agencies via local hotel owners etc... But after reading your review i think we should read and contribute more to make sure that innocent people are not fooled here. I believe we should keep this thread alive - so even if TA does not post your review, forum should do the job. And if this thread is removed, it is definte that TA had lost its function and reliability. Anyways, as a turkish person in tourism business, I felt so sorry for you. Cheers...

USA
3 posts
9. Re: Don't stay at Sultanahmet Suites
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(Joy) and Aylin, the owner/managers of the Sultanahmetsuites Apart Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey to contact you on their behalf. In August of this year, a Japanese woman was a guest at the hotel, staying with a companion. Without going into the details, there was a dispute between the owners and the guest that was unusually heated. Even though the owners feel they acted properly in the issues leading up to the dispute, they do not object to the negative review that followed. They are unhappy, however, that this woman is continuing to post reviews under different names. They can tell this by the specific (and unique) comments in each of the reviews and because their hotel is so small (only four rooms) and they know all their clients. Is there any way that TripAdvisor can screen the origination of these one-time postings by new members to avoid this unfair activity? The owners don?t know if the posts came from the same computer, only that they are from the same person. The TripAdvisor member names given in the reviews were: Kindsuggestiontoyou, ITDUDE, denizlove,camel94

The hotel managers were very upset that a single person can do such damage to their hotel's reputation using Tripadvisor site.

After that the Japanese lady referred to below has started a new tactic. She is going to the real reviews and rating them as unhelpful; I assume to reduce their weight in TA rating system. How else do well written, helpful reviews get a 3/22 helpful rating.

Her latest approach to responding to good reviews is also interesting. Someone from Colorado called "970smile" wrote a positive review. She immediately responded saying she was Smileahonen" from El Dorado and rated the hotel all 1s. The "smile" seemed to key off the previous review, so I Googled "honen." The first listing was Wikipedia which explained the word as follows:

"From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hōnen (also Hōnen Bo Genku, or just Genku) (法然; 1133-1212) is the founder of the first independent branch of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism known as Jodo Shu. Jodo is Japanese for 'The Pure Land' and shu is Japanese for 'sect'. In the related Jodo Shinshu sect, he is considered the Seventh Patriarch."

TA respond to these messages!

After that They stoped this lady...

Thank you Tripadvisor

Ruhr Area, Germany
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10. Re: Don't stay at Sultanahmet Suites
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