Maroon Tomtom — Hotel in Beyoğlu

The most racist, disrespectful and unprofessional place!||||I went to Istanbul for a vacation with my friend. The hotel offered us a room located at the highest floor of the hotel. The room that I booked was different than the one the receptionist gave it to me, but it was nice (it had a small sea view). From the early beginning, we encountered a problem with the elevator and we told repetitively the receptionist that we are being stuck, and he kept say okay and tamam. ||On the forth night, we were returning late and the elevator was stuck. We informed the receptionist and he was "very surprised and shocked" as if it was the first time we highlighted this to him and to other staff. He suggested that he go up to our room located at the sixth floor although I mentioned that it's not feasible as I recently had a surgery in my knee and it's will cause me severe pain. He then called one of his colleagues from the other branch and they checked it, but it was in vain. It was around 2 a.m. when the receptionist told us that we have 2 options: to take another room located on the lowest floor or to wait until 7 a.m. in the morning or to stay at the lobby. I was really mad about the approach and I requested to speak with the supervisor during his shift, as I explained that both of the two options were not feasible. Then he called someone claiming that he was his supervisor and when explaining what happened. He seemed to be clueless and doesn't know anything about the hotel. Then, I asked the receptionist to give me the name and the phone number of the manager to call him from my own phone as a proof, as he was obviously playing games. I called the manager Mr.Orhan, and I told him what happened and that's not acceptable and I want to do a check-out and have a refund especially that we were staying for 10 nights. The manager asked me about my nationality and when he knew that I was Lebanese or in Turkish "Arabça", he told me okay tomorrow you do a check-out and you take your money and he hung up the phone. ||I was personally shocked by this unprofessional behavior from the owner, and my friend recalled him explaining that there's no need for such behavior especially that it's the hotel fault not ours, and he hung up the phone again. ||By facing such racist behavior from the owner and the receptionist who was cursing me based on my ethnicity and nationality, we didn't feel safe at all. I went very slowly on the stairs until I arrived. (it's an old hotel that is renovated, so you can imagine the height of each stair). We packed our staff and honestly speaking we didn't sleep, as we felt we might be attacked by the receptionist at any time. Around 7 a.m. in the morning, we took our baggage using the same stairs (none of the receptionist or the room service offered any help) and we waited for the manager Mr. Orhan to come. Around 10 a.m. he came and he explained that the receptionist tried to offer a good deal but we refused. I re-explained to him that I have a medical condition and it's very rude and unprofessional to treat the customers this way. He tried to be nice by offering a 1 night stay in the hotelz but of course aftet the level of racism we refused and insisted that we want our money back as we are not going to stay in this hotel anymore. The manager refused to refund the money via western union or cash or even to my friends' turkish bank account claiming that it's a long process and it will take time. I emailed him my bank account and he promised that he will be refunding money after "Bayram" or the religious holidays, and deep down I knew that we wouldn't. ||Mr. Orhan emphasized about not sharing this because he cares about his chain reputation and didn't want any negative comment regarind the incident. He added thaf if we weren't 2 girls, he might had a different attitude with us! ||The fun fact that after we finished our conversation, it was already 11 a.m. and the elevator wasn't fixed :) ||||I don't recommend this hotel at all, since the manager and the staff are racist and they don't respect the Arabs in general. All they care about is the money without offering any customer service or help or at...

Looks like people can't give balanced ratings nowadays, and instead hang onto one problem, and rate a property one star. That's just not fair.||||Despite some of the poor ratings, my experience at Maroon Tomtom was quite excellent. The hotel is centrally located on the busy Istikal pedestrian/street, so there's some noise, but with a pair of earplugs I didn't hear anything (and I'm very sensitive to noise). There were also some slammed doors from other guests, so yes, maybe soundproofing could be better. But this isn't an apartment to live in and meditate or write poetry. It's a hotel in one of the most popular areas in Istanbul.||||Anyway, the staff was super friendly and fixed an issue with the door lock that I had on check in, right away. Another staff member helped me figure out where to get a taxi from, where to buy an umbrella etc.||||The room was compact but functional. There was even space to lay down a yoga mat in front of the bed if you wanted to. Lots of spot lights etc. The only thing that didn't work was the mini-fridge, but you really don't need a mini-fridge in that area of Istanbul - there's fresh food literally right around the corner.||||The room even had a narrow desk along the TV, and I got some laptop work done. This is an extremely rare feature for hotels in that area, and at that price range. There was also an in-room safe, something not even bigger hotels (e.g. Tryp) offered.||||My only suggestion would be for a chair with a backrest, to make it more comfortable to do laptop work.||||Haven't tried the breakfast, which other guests complained about, but apparently you can have breakfast at the sister hotel Maroon Pera, located 2 minutes away.||||WiFi was stable and fast enough to watch YouTube in 1080p.||||All in all, excellent value...

I stay at this hotel for 2 nights. And I chose the hotel mainly because of the location, which later became a big mistake. It was too noisy every night, day and morning. Loud music played everywhere until 5 am. However, I understand this is not the hotel's fault.

As for the service, when I arrived at the hotel there were no towels in the room, and it took me a day to get them. Thanks for at least having bathrobes. I tried to call the reception, but the phone apparently did not work. During the day I went downstairs three times in order to request towels. And when they finally arrived, they were dirty. They were washed BUT dirty, tattered and very old. The room was dirty, but I had already closed my eyes to it.

We paid for breakfast at the hotel, but it turned out to be a funny thing. To go to breakfast, you had to walk through the main street for 5 minutes and get into another hotel, apparently it was one Maroon chain. It was more than uncomfortable, I regretted it.

The staff was not friendly and there was a feeling that I was visiting them, where they want to get rid of us as soon as possible. I agree, this hotel is not expensive and it would be foolish to claim much. However, we paid about 3000 tl and I expected at least a clean room with all the amenities and a staff that does not treat guests arrogantly. Think about how you want your hotel to look like in the eyes of guests and whether you want guests to come back to you. I do not recommend this...