Old City Family Hotel — Hotel in Fatih

They ruined our trip! Pay attention!

I had a reservation for 5 nights. 2 days before the check-in I received a notification that my credit card was rejected. I changed the credit card for another, that I used previously in Istanbul. The second card was rejected too and I tried with a third card which, guess what, was rejected as well. I called the hotel and the employee, who didn't speak English, told me that sincd any of my credit cards didn't work he would cancel the reservation. Then I called Booking customer service. The customer services representative contacted the hotel and, following their discussion, he advised me to try with another credit card and if it wouldn't work he suggested me to book another reservation, because the hotel was gonna cancel the reservation. Following his advice, I checked all my credit cards and I tried with another. After this last try, I called once again the hotel and the employee told me that he was gonna cancel the reservation because the forth card didn't work either. I offered them to pay in cash or in any other way of their convenience and they refused this offer as well. Needless to say that my options for a new reservation to other hotels were quite limited, considering the short period before my arrival. As a result, I booked another reservation in a lower quality hotel located in an unpleasant neighborhood. After the first night in the second hotel I received a notification that Old City family hotel had cancelled the reservation because we didn't show up at the hotel and they charged the last credit card that, like the previous, was initially rejected. They charged the full amount of the reservation! I phoned booking customer service 3 mors times after this event. The first time they told me that it is an undue payment which would be refunded. The second and third time they told me that they couldn't do nothing more because they didn't have any record of the statements of the previous calls and that the problem was between me and the hotel and that we had to speak with them. Then we went to the hotel and there was an employee who didn't speak English and he told us that what happened was our fault for not slowing up and he gave me the contact of the hotel manager. I called the hotel manager and I told him what happened. He didn't know anything and he told that he would try to fix it. After two days of chasing him I received his response stating that he couldn't do anything, because this the policy of the hotel. In other words, this hotel ruined our trip and provoked as frustration and a huge waste of money and time! Just because we trusted the statements of the employee and the advice of booking customer services. Needless to say that a third person try to reserve a room to the hotel and it was fully booked. Most probably our room was intentionally sold twice! Very well...

I had a reservation for 5 nights. 2 days before the check-in I received a notification that my credit card was rejected. I changed the credit card for another, that I used previously in Istanbul. The second card was rejected too and I tried with a third card which, guess what, was rejected as well. I called the hotel and the employee, who didn't speak English, told me that sincd any of my credit cards didn't work he would cancel the reservation. Then I called Booking customer service. The customer services representative contacted the hotel and, following their discussion, he advised me to try with another credit card and if it wouldn't work he suggested me to book another reservation, because the hotel was gonna cancel the reservation. Following his advice, I checked all my credit cards and I tried with another. After this last try, I called once again the hotel and the employee told me that he was gonna cancel the reservation because the forth card didn't work either. I offered them to pay in cash or in any other way of their convenience and they refused this offer as well. ||Needless to say that my options for a new reservation to other hotels were quite limited, considering the short period before my arrival.||As a result, I booked another reservation in a lower quality hotel located in an unpleasant neighborhood. After the first night in the second hotel I received a notification that Old City family hotel had cancelled the reservation because we didn't show up at the hotel and they charged the last credit card that, like the previous, was initially rejected. They charged the full amount of the reservation! I phoned booking customer service 3 mors times after this event. The first time they told me that it is an undue payment which would be refunded. The second and third time they told me that they couldn't do nothing more because they didn't have any record of the statements of the previous calls and that the problem was between me and the hotel and that we had to speak with them.||Then we went to the hotel and there was an employee who didn't speak English and he told us that what happened was our fault for not slowing up and he gave me the contact of the hotel manager. I called the hotel manager and I told him what happened. He didn't know anything and he told that he would try to fix it. After two days of chasing him I received his response stating that he couldn't do anything, because this the policy of the hotel. ||In other words, this hotel ruined our trip and provoked as frustration and a huge waste of money and time! Just because we trusted the statements of the employee and the advice of booking customer services. ||Needless to say that a third person try to reserve a room to the hotel and it was fully booked. Most probably our room was intentionally sold twice!||Very well...

The location is convenient, close to the roofed bazaar, to the bay, and many other things. The rooms have no soundproofing whatsoever. When you're in bed, you could almost hear other tenants and the receptionist breathing! Privacy is not even a thing. The receptionist might come to your door and keep knocking and calling until you answer any minute for any reason. The breakfast is not too bad, but if you want a glass of fresh orange juice, you'll have to pay about $2. No milk, kefir, or ayran included in the breakfast. It's mostly solid food and you have to down it with a few cups of tea or order the orange juice. The room service is less than satisfactory. The slippers that they give you are disposable paper slippers that can't be used for long (if at all). They do change the bed sheets too, but the duvet insert might not fit the sheet and could slip out through the night! You might opt to use the sheet without the duvet insert in the end! There is a TV set in the room but I couldn't find the remote anywhere in the room and wasn't interested enough to ask for it. There's an electric kettle and teacups and you can ask for teabags and sugar, but I recommend you bring your own tea and cups if you're serious about your tea. Smoking is not allowed in the rooms because of the fire alarm smoke detection but you can open a window and smoke while leaning out of it. When you leave the room and ask for cleaning, make sure you put delicate items somewhere safe so you don't find them damaged when you return (the USB port on my laptop where my external ssd was attached is damaged now). And the best part is perhaps that the staff will try to sell you their airport transfer for €30. The airport transfer is a minibus with about 20 seats and they will sell it to you even if you're 2 people! I was hoping to get a taxi to the airport, yet they sent me a minibus. If you don't have a lot of baggage, hava.ist (Istanbul airport bus network) bus stop is a 15 min walk away in Beyazit Meydan. From there you could get to the airport with a bus fare of about €3. The staff do speak English too and they are friendly and nice, but in general, I'm not at all impressed by my stay in the hotel. But all that said, the price is as cheap as it gets at this level. So I'll...