Amanruya — Hotel in Bodrum

My review was taken down so I am reposting it, but it is from 2021.

If we could do half stars, I’d actually give a 3.5/5 rather than a 3. We stayed here for 7 days which was a good amount of time. This place is good for couples or family that enjoy privacy and calmness.

ROOMS-

As you can see by yourself on the photos, it is undeniable that the hotel looks amazing. There is even a little walk to their private pier which is nice, and we loved walking around in the hotel’s little pathways. If you are lucky enough, you’ll be able to see some squirrels or some roughtail rock agame lizards (I believe, but maybe I’m wrong about their type).

The rooms are spacious and clean. The private pool is heated which is also very nice. The heated floor is great too. The wooden curtains aren’t that easy to open and close but every night there is the turndown service that will do it for you.

The iPod with their playlist is a good idea, a little upgrade to a Bluetooth option is needed for the guests to be able to put on their own music.

SERVICE -

Here is the main reason that my review isn’t as high as what I would have hoped.

The service in this hotel is unfortunately very inconsistent.

It started by the pick up at the airport that was 15 minutes late and drove like crazy at night, cutting edges on the road. Not to mention this pick up service is normally not free, the hotel should simply have a free shuffle (or maybe charge a little more by night so it’s included). The hotel is not in Bodrum center but also charges 100euro for a 15-20minutes ride to get there! It just look like a cheap way for them to try to make extra money.

The staff is also inconsistent. While we loved some of them which were excellent at their job such as Sila, Turgay (and of course some more that I didn’t get to ask the name... ) a lot of the people working there don’t actually speak well English and do not seem to be training for luxury hotel service.

Some of them don’t even a word of English! It’s surprising in a hotel of this price range. This is evidence that you won’t get excellent and consistent service like you can get in hotel chains such as the Four Seasons.

Another HUGE issue is that I couldn’t give them my laundry. On the first day, they shrunk very badly my 100% merino Wool sweater. The manager took care of the situation by ordering a new one (luckily we just bought it so it was still in stock).

Of course guests here have nice clothes that are sometimes extremely hard to replace. They should be aware of that and make sure the laundry is adapted to the type of clothes they get. This is probably once again a staff training issue.

FOOD -

Unlike some old reviews I’ve seen about the food, I actually thought the food was very good. I’m a foodie so I can tell you they really do a good job with their current 2021 menu.

We tried a lot of things on the menu and liked it a lot (especially the carpaccio and the raw fish marine). The display is also great, in beautiful plates. The restaurant view is amazing. For the dessert, their baklava is great.

We wish there could be maybe a little bit more traditional Turkish options for the mains.

The tasting menu is good but just not worth the price at all. I felt like they actually used the same ingredients revisited in a different way. No high quality ingredients justifying the price.So I actually thought the everyday menu was equally good and a better deal.

The breakfast is overall good. The pancakes are a bit dry and the bacon is way too salty.

But once again, the issue is that we felt like they were trying to make extra money by charging 35euro just to bring it to the room. Normally in this kind of hotel, this service is often free. Especially considering they only have about 35 rooms in the hotel.

To conclude, this hotel has great potential that is still untapped. It is not refined enough. Essentially, the owner/ managers of this place should read the book “The Heart of Hospitality” to take this place to the next level, which they should already be at with this...

The property itself is stunning, especially the rooms with ocean view. They’re all suites with private pools which is great. BUT definitely the service level is totally incomparable to organizations like the Four Seasons or Ritz. Amanruya did not come close to meeting expectations for me. Here’s why...

The food is overall good, but for sure lacking traditional or Turkish options. The gastronomy option isn’t worth it if we had to pay but we had it included in the promotion. Definitely the chef should consider to add local Turkish options though, it’s quite a shame to not have any.

The service was the weakest area at Aman. Some staff members were very kind, warm and hospitable such as Turgay and Sila with good English. Much of the staff didn’t speak English so 90% of the time things were very much lost in translation.

In addition, Aman needs to rethink a lot of how they handle hospitality. Honestly they totally miss the mark.

The room rate itself already is higher than most other luxury hotels in the world, so there’s an expectation that during the stay, it wouldn’t feel like the guest is being nickel and dimed. For ex, to bring the complimentary breakfast to the room it’s an extra 35 eur / $45 usd. I’ve never stayed at a luxury hotel that’s charging extra to just bring food to the room outside of the cost of the food itself. Over 7 days this amounted to $300 of extra fees to just bring food to the room.

In addition, the hotel is very far from the city so it’s required to take a shuttle. However the shuttle costs 100 eur round trip to just go to the city for a walk which once again should be complimentary.

My advice is that you remove everything that are these extra small annoying charges and if you really want, just add it to the total room price and make it more expensive rather than making it feel very transactional with upsells constantly. If you can afford the hotel you don’t care much about the price but today’s guests don’t want to constantly feel like the hotel is making the experience transactional on how to extract more money from the guest. Just charge 100 euro more then per night. I still would have booked it, and the property still makes more $. Win win.

The tour to Ephesus was good because Ephesus itself was absolutely incredible. However if I had to do it again, I’d just go by ourselves via transportation or something else. The tour guide was nice but not good. I actually couldn’t understand a lot of his English unfortunately so I didn’t feel like it added a lot of value. Definitely if you do the tour you can leave a bit later and it isn’t required to have such a long day. I think they generally save and allocate time to go to some traditional art or pottery shops on the way back if you want which some guests may like but I view as more a tourist trap.

Transportation, our driver to pick us up from the airport on the initial day was actually late and not there when we arrived. So that wasn’t a great first impression to arrive at the airport in the evening at 11 pm after traveling all day and for the transportation from the luxury hotel which normally costs like 130 euro or something for a 35 min drive to be not existent. He also drove like a maniac and had all these dirty old bottles from the last passengers and trash in his car. The complimentary water bottles were drank already.

I recommend Aman to rethink their hospitality model and check out the book “Heart of Hospitality” by Micah Solomon. I could tell the team tried hard but overall many things felt rough along the edges.

For example even when we did laundry they washed and dried a brand new $300 merino wool sweater, obviously completely ruining it. Don’t give them any valuable clothing to wash or it will be mishandled!

It appears to me that Aman differentiates on privacy and architecture versus other luxury resorts such as the Four Seasons differentiating on incredible service plus good architecture.

There’s a big opportunity here though which I think the young luxury generation...

On June 4th, 2025, we visited Amanruya Restaurant as a party of four to celebrate my mother’s 60th birthday—a very special occasion for our family. Unfortunately, the experience we had can only be described as disastrous.||Shortly after being seated, we were overwhelmed by a severe insect infestation. While we tried to fend off the swarms of bugs, we also sought assistance from the staff. The server responsible for our table informed us that we were not the first to experience this issue and that all guests had been facing the same problem. This statement clearly indicated that the management was aware of the situation but chose not to inform guests at the time of reservation.||It is only natural for guests to expect a flawless dining experience—especially when paying a considerable amount at a globally renowned brand like Aman. This is even more true when the occasion is as significant as a milestone birthday. Instead, we found ourselves battling insects that were getting into our clothes, completely ruining both our comfort and any enjoyment of the evening.||When we inquired about pest control, we received inconsistent responses—first being told that spraying was insufficient, then being told that the issue was due to the restaurant’s forested location. The shifting explanations made it clear we were being brushed off.||Although we had come to enjoy an elegant evening by the poolside, we were eventually forced to move indoors due to the unbearable conditions. This marked our third table change of the night.||While we were discussing our frustration among ourselves, the Food & Beverage Manager approached our table and, in an astonishingly unprofessional and rude tone, told us, “If you’d like, you can leave.” At that point, the evening was entirely ruined.||Coming from a family with seven generations of experience in the hospitality industry, and as someone who has always upheld the value of customer satisfaction and professionalism, I have never encountered such discourteous treatment. Such behavior is completely at odds with the Aman brand. That a senior staff member, presumably over the age of 40, would take guest feedback personally and respond with passive-aggressive remarks reflects a deep failure in training and leadership. Rather than protecting the brand’s reputation, such individuals damage it.||By the time it was past 9 PM, given the location’s remoteness, we had no alternative but to finish our meal there. However, due to the upsetting experience, we chose not to cut the birthday cake and simply requested it be brought out with the bill. At no point did anyone apologize, nor was any gesture made to rectify the situation.||Just before we were about to leave, the Assistant F&B Manager came over and spoke to us for nearly 15 minutes—yet still failed to offer a single apology. Instead, he explained that the F&B Manager had taken our private conversation personally and had therefore told us we could leave. It goes without saying that, in the hospitality industry, especially at a managerial level, there is no place for emotional reactions to guest complaints. If this person is not the owner of the restaurant, his reaction was unwarranted; and if he were the owner, he wouldn’t have said such a thing in the first place||In the end, neither he nor his assistant showed any willingness to apologize or make amends in any form.||What may have been just another evening for your team was, for us, an incredibly important and irreplaceable occasion. Sadly, it was completely ruined.||For all these reasons, I would like to express that the experience we had fell drastically below the standards one would expect from a world-class brand like Aman. I strongly urge a serious review of this incident in terms of both personnel and guest relations, and I trust that appropriate action will be taken to ensure such treatment is...