Express İnci Hotel — Hotel in Küçükçekmece

I went to this “hotel” and booked a dorm room. I knew it said “hotel” but was probably more like a hostel, but the name and front desk staff made it seem much nicer. The front desk staff were dressed professionally and behaved very professionally. They showed me to my room.|The temperature of the room was 31 C. An intimidating older Turkish woman controlled the temperature and refused to turn it down - she had also hidden the remote to the heater, so no one else could touch it. I had gotten in late and knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep with such a high temperature. I went to the front desk and asked them for help. “It is a hostel,” they said. “You have to learn to get along with your dorm.” I asked if I could upgrade to a single room. They told me no.|I went back to the dorm room and decided to take a shower. But I couldn’t, because the entire bathroom was covered in drying underwear that I didn’t want to touch because that’s pretty disgusting. Then I noticed that it looked like someone was living there. I looked around the room and noticed the older woman had a calendar next to her bed - a pretty strange thing for someone staying in a hostel, right? I opened up the cabinets for storage and they were all completely full of random clothes, shoes, and household items. There were no suitcases or bags to be seen. At that moment I realized this woman and the two kids who were talking to her were a family living there - which is incredibly awkward. But it gets even more messed up!|The next morning, I was awoken at five by the woman and her family setting up breakfast loudly. They worked there. They were living there for free, and working there to earn their stay. They had taken over the whole room as their living quarters. And the hostel chose to put guests in this sane room without making this clear. I couldn’t shower without touching someone’s underwear, so I just didn’t shower. I was essentially a guest in someone’s living space, which is NOT normal.|I asked the staff about it and was told with a condescending shrug, “It’s a hostel” - like this is completely normal behavior at a hostel. I’ve lived in four countries and stayed in hostels on four different continents. Never have I had an experience as uncomfortable or unexpected as this, particularly with staff KNOWINGLY booking guests into that situation. |Very weird and uncomfortable place....

DO NOT MAKE RESERVATION HERE! Your personal belongings can disappear and no one will take responsibility for it. ||Me and my husband stayed for a month for a vacation here. We didn't complain about poor conditions in the room like a hole in the ceiling (the size of a fist), bathroom accessories were broken or rusty, every shower ended with a flood all over the floor... I mean, we're okay with simple small hotels like this. ||What is not okay - it's stealing. Reception said that bag with clothes was recognized as a garbage by housekeeping and it was thrown away. We asked for one thing: please, return our bag or give us money for the most valued belongings. Long story short - they refused to do anything. Also reception blamed us for leaving plastic bag with clothes on the floor. Obviously we had to guess that housekeeping throw everything what's on the floor. Nothing was proposed to us as a compensation. ||During one month there were a lot of shutdowns of electricity, hot water and wi-fi. I don't recommend stay here even for one night. Also walls in this hotel are paper thin. You can hear everything what is going on in other rooms.||Reception team is good only in one thing - smoking just right behind the reception desk. So the smoke is right in the lobby. That's... not right and disgusting.||The only one reason that we didn't leave this hotel earlier is because whole accommodation was already paid and we were sure that greedy manager will not allow to...

Extremely close to the airport. Too far to walk, but we (two of us + two pieces of luggage) got a taxi which cost as 20TL (less than £4) and took no more than 5 minutes to get there (at about 11pm).

The hotel is a bit hidden away, so the drive wasn't exactly sure where it was. But popped it in Google Maps, and then he found it no problem.

Hotel staff were extremely helpful and friendly. Warm welcome. Gave us wi-fi codes, offered tea and coffee (coffee machine in reception). And helped us take luggage to our room.

The room was basic, but better than we expected for the price. We only stayed one night (well, actually only about 6 hours) for a layover at Istanbul Airport, but £19 for both of us was well worth it - better than sleeping on an airport chair! The bed was very comfortable, the shower was hot and powerful. The room was clean. We had a kettle in the room and teabags/coffee sachets. Also a fridge with cold water.

Only downside was the curtain had broken, so some light from a neighbouring car park came in. A minor issue though.

Hotel receptionist sorted us out a taxi in the morning which charged 25TL to get us back to the airport. A bit of traffic, but he went a short cut and we got there in under 15 minutes.

All in all a good experience, well worth the cheap rates if you want to get some rest and have a shower...