Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul At The Bosphorus

As a regular guest at this hotel restaurant, I was surprised at the disappointing service my family and I received last week at Ocakbasi restaurant. The management, staff and service has definitely declined.

I made a reservation almost 3 weeks before arriving, to celebrate my mother's birthday at the Four Seasons with the family and rang to ask for a table with front row view of the Bosphorus.

When I arrived I was disappointed to see that the table we were given was on the third row.

When my family and I enquired with the host she told us they are fully booked on the front row. I was surprised as I booked almost 3 weeks ago and I am certain none of the guests on the front row had booked earlier than 3 weeks. I was also not told it is fully booked when I enquired upon making the reservation.

The host started to raise her voice at my elderly mother when my mother tried to explain the issue to another waiter who came to ask what the problem was. This is highly disrespectful towards an elderly lady especially when the host knew we are celebrating her birthday and we were already visibly upset.

My mother asked to speak to the manager who was, unfortunately, equally unhelpful and offered us another table which wasn't front row. It was very embarrassing for us to be stood arguing with the manager an host about the table in front of the whole restaurant and it was very disappointing to recieve such an attitude from the four seasons, which we are not used to.

The manager then explained we can't have front row as it is "VIP" and reserved for important hotel guests only. As we are staying at Cirigan Kempinski (external guests) we are only given second or third row.

This was unacceptable to hear and made us feel like "second class" guests at the restaurant. A service I have never received at any top restaurant or hotel I stayed in, worldwide.

I expressed this point to the manager and as we were talking (around 10 minutes of trying to convince him we wanted the table for 4 that was available already on front row) another family finished their meal on the front row. I had to then ask him to take that table and after some hesitation he reluctantly agreed and asked us to wait at the sofa area while he prepares this table.

By that time we were already feeling stressed, unwelcome and very embarrassed for having to literally convince the manager to give us the table we booked for my mother's birthday.

My mother felt uncomfortable to stay at the restaurant and my family decided to go back to Cirigan Kempiski and have dinner there - where we are always treated with respect and friendliness.

I am writing to express my disappointment as a long standing Four Seaons member having frequently visited the Casablanca hotel when I was living in London, regularly visiting the Istanbul branch for the brunches they used to hold and very often for dinner/coffee on the terrace and now I am a regular client of the Doha branch having moved there for work and arranged many work events at the venue.

Under no circumstances is it acceptable for a host to raise her voice at an elderly guest. Especially when my mum was not being aggressive.

I did not expect this level of disrespect for my whole family and as I said being treated as second class guests.

I wrote to bring this event to the general manager's attention, to retrain the staff and revisit the hotel policy which puts external guests who have booked in advance for special occasions as second priority. His response was dismissive and not helpful.

Seems the quality at Four Seasons Bosphorus is going down and my family and I would not return given the treatmnet we received - has nothing to do with hospitality.