Blue İstanbul Hotel — Hotel in Fatih

BEDBUGS, 155 bites = bitten by at least 30 bugs||Both booking.com and the hotel are hiding, though admitted claims. Medical records exist.||While staying at Blue Istanbul Hotel 1st – 4th June, 2025, I fell victim to bedbugs. 155 bites translates bitten by at least 30 bugs – this is excessive and this means the hotel is heavily infected and severely neglecting their duties to keep place clean and healthy. In my country, a thorough examination would follow and probably the permit of the hotel would be suspended immediately – owner and manager(s) may be forbidden to practice hotel-management in future. Now I have to take medication for over two weeks, avoid sun and much water – and I have to put another, ongoing medical treatment on hold because of this.||More details:||- Upon returning home on 5th June, I contacted booking – they informed the hotel too||- No response from hotel – this is telling||- booking.com admits my complaint and offers voucher, which is just worth of my time I wasted on the first medical visit (no medication, no doctor fee included!): EUR 35. Or for medication I paid this amount alone. I made a fair and detailed calculation – lower than on recommendation by a travel legal and insurance advisor, he put compensation claim at EUR 250 to 400.||- Due to the bedbug bites, I had to cancel other medical treatments on 6th, 10th, 12th June||(proofs, documented)||- In addition, there is a list of problems with the hotel – my score would be 5/10 without the bedbug health hazard||- The hotel has a 8.7/10 (87%) rating currently on booking.com, on Google 3.2/5 (64%) currently– this pushes me to question and discredit ALL ratings on booking.com, possibly ratings are fabricated||- Turkish authorities also hiding-- one claimed this can happen anywhere. NO! Not in civilized countries. One-two bites are tolerable, but 155?||||Other problems with hotel:||1. Main door has over 1 cm gap at bottom – all noise travels both ways.||2. Terrible sink (cellar) smell in bathroom||3. Noises probably by hotel staff any time of day- kicking furniture, smashing doors. Midnight, 7:00 AM.||4. Hot water is very difficult to regulate – it is probably over 40 celsius degrees and is very hard to set optimum shower temperature – 40 or 18 celsius.||5. Toilet paper and other usables never replaced.||6. There is no mosquito net – any insect may travel and they do! I ended up with 155 bedbug bites.||7. A single, very thin bedcover only, and no extra blanket in room – I felt cold.||8. Staff tries to milk me – I ask them about public transportation. They cannot answer for twenty minutes, but try to push taxi to their own benefit, three times.||.....||My response to comments, the weak pretexts and accusations of hotel (as per Google):||In many European countries the hotel would be closed by now (temporary), and fined at least EUR 2000, and hotel would face now a lawsuit – the fact that I told hotel staff during my stay and they completely disregarded is also telling. I am the least surprised that you continue your dishonest and unprofessional ways. I have two medical reports, pictures taken by medical staff of the National Centre for Epidemiology, medical bills. What evidence and reports by authorities do you have to support your claim – is there any? The easiest way to cover up your fault and run from responsibility is to counterattack and make unfunded generalizations and the accusation.||Upon returning home I certainly reported the hotel at the relevant Turkish authorities (not one), which I would do anywhere in Europe in such a case, as you are a hotspot for epidemy. The fact that they have not come back to me until now (three weeks) is very much telling of them and Turkey. A member of the Turkish consulate scolded me angrily that 155 bites is normal anywhere, even in Europe! NO, it is not! (Phone recording is available, dear Turkish consulate staff.) In Europe things may work a bit differently. Finally, I am considering to share the story with several media outlets in Europe. 1-2 bites tolerable, but 155...

BEDBUGS, 155 bites = bitten by at least 30 bugs Both booking.com and the hotel are hiding, though admitted claims. Medical records exist.

While staying at Blue Istanbul Hotel 1st – 4th June, 2025, I fell victim to bedbugs. 155 bites translates bitten by at least 30 bugs – this is excessive and this means the hotel is heavily infected and severely neglecting their duties to keep place clean and healthy. In my country, a thorough examination would follow and probably the permit of the hotel would be suspended immediately – owner and manager(s) may be forbidden to practice hotel-management in future. Now I have to take medication for over two weeks, avoid sun and much water – and I have to put another, ongoing medical treatment on hold because of this.

More details: Upon returning home on 5th June, I contacted booking – they informed the hotel too No response from hotel – this is telling booking.com admits my complaint and offers voucher, which is just worth of my time I wasted on the first medical visit (no medication, no doctor fee included!): EUR 35. Or for medication I paid this amount alone. I made a fair and detailed calculation – lower than on recommendation by a travel legal and insurance advisor, he put compensation claim at EUR 250 to 400. Due to the bedbug bites, I had to cancel other medical treatments on 6th, 10th, 12th June (proofs, documented) In addition, there is a list of problems with the hotel – my score would be 5/10 without the bedbug health hazard The hotel has a 8.7/10 (87%) rating currently on booking.com, on Google 3.2/5 (64%) currently– this pushes me to question and discredit ALL ratings on booking.com, possibly ratings are fabricated Turkish authorities also hiding-- one claimed this can happen anywhere. NO! Not in civilized countries. One-two bites are tolerable, but 155?

Other problems with hotel: Main door has over 1 cm gap at bottom – all noise travels both ways. Terrible sink (cellar) smell in bathroom Noises probably by hotel staff any time of day- kicking furniture, smashing doors. Midnight, 7:00 AM. Hot water is very difficult to regulate – it is probably over 40 celsius degrees and is very hard to set optimum shower temperature – 40 or 18 celsius. Toilet paper and other usables never replaced. There is no mosquito net – any insect may travel and they do! I ended up with 155 bedbug bites. A single, very thin bedcover only, and no extra blanket in room – I felt cold. Staff tries to milk me – I ask them about public transportation. They cannot answer for twenty minutes, but try to push taxi to their own benefit, three times. ..... My response to comments, the weak pretexts and accusations of hotel: In many European countries the hotel would be closed by now (temporary), and fined at least EUR 2000, and hotel would face now a lawsuit – the fact that I told hotel staff during my stay and they completely disregarded is also telling. I am the least surprised that you continue your dishonest and unprofessional ways. I have two medical reports, pictures taken by medical staff of the National Centre for Epidemiology, medical bills. What evidence and reports by authorities do you have to support your claim – is there any? The easiest way to cover up your fault and run from responsibility is to counterattack and make unfunded generalizations and the accusation.

Upon returning home I certainly reported the hotel at the relevant Turkish authorities (not one), which I would do anywhere in Europe in such a case, as you are a hotspot for epidemy. The fact that they have not come back to me until now (three weeks) is very much telling of them and Turkey. A member of the Turkish consulate scolded me angrily that 155 bites is normal anywhere, even in Europe! NO, it is not! (Phone recording is available, dear Turkish consulate staff.) In Europe things may work a bit differently. Finally, I am considering to share the story with several media outlets in Europe. 1-2 bites tolerable, but 155...

We stayed at the Blue Istanbul Suites for 3 weeks. The hotel is right next to the building we stayed at. You check-in there and then go to the other building next door, which seems to be a building where locals live as well and some of the apartments are managed by the Blue Istanbul Hotel and are rented to tourists. I have to say that I didn't like the building (it was very shabby), but our apartment was good. It was clean and big enough for the two of us. The apartment had a bedroom, a bathroom, a living room with a kitchen and a balcony. It also had air conditioning in the living room and in the bedroom, which was very nice. For the price we payed and considering this is an apartment where people probably stay longer than only for a few days I would have expected a washing machine, which was not the case. There wasn't too many dishes either, but after asking at the reception they gave us a few more cups. There was no soap for the dish washer or anything provided. We bought soap, coffee, tea and sugar. We then left for a trip for one week and when we came back everything (including the soap for the dish washer was gone). Don't know what happened to it. Other than that the kitchen had an oven (so you can cook, if you want) and a fridge. The living room had a sofa and a table. I would advise the management to either clean the sofa from time to time or to get a new one. It had quite a lot of stains. The balcony is ok, you can see the sea when you stand up...it's a little annoying that the balcony has no umbrella (it gets hot in Istanbul) and hardly any railing so people from other apartments can look right onto your balcony. Not so great if you want to take a little sunbath while people are staring at you. The bathroom and the bedroom were good and the apartment was cleaned every day. The first two weeks we had very noisy neighbors. The apartment had to be the same size as ours, but it sounded like there were at least 15 people in it every day. They were loud and banging the doors during the day and at night. If you need anything you can go to the reception, which is next door and they will help you. They were very friendly while we stayed at the Blue Istanbul Suites. The location is good. The Blue Istanbul is in one of the backstreets of Sultanahmet and within walking distance to the major sights. It's a little hilly at this part of town so you'll get some exercise while walking around. ;) You walk about 7 minutes to the Hippodrome and the Cemberlitas tram station is also only a little walk away. If you are not looking for anything fancy I can recommend this...