The Kayseri Loft Hotel — Hotel in Melikgazi

My family and I came to Kayseri for a short getaway and to attend a wedding. Before booking, I was torn between The Loft and Wyndham in the city centre. Both had similar reviews and were the same price, but I chose The Loft as it was slightly further out of town and did not serve alcohol. Unfortunately, I absolutely regretted that decision.||The lobby makes a great first impression – clean, welcoming, and with a lovely fragrance in the air – but sadly, the same cannot be said for the room. We waited for the lift to take us up to the 7th floor (only one was working), and when we arrived, our corner room was in an unlit hallway, making it very dark at night.||The apartment itself was spacious, which was positive, but the design and layout were chaotic, more like a dated teenager’s bedroom than a hotel suite. It was also dirty and dusty everywhere. Old tea and coffee spills were visible on the floor and on the children’s bed frames, and none of the shelving, under the beds, or behind furniture had been properly cleaned.||Master Bedroom – The room was poorly lit, with only one dim light, no reading lamps, and no mirrors (which was particularly inconvenient while getting ready for a wedding). The wardrobe was helpful, and there was a TV, the most bizarre feature was a full glass wall between the bedroom and the bathroom. A black strip ran across the middle for privacy, but it was still easy to see in. At night, anyone using the bathroom disturbed those trying to sleep with both light and noise. This was far from family friendly.||Living Area – There were three sofa beds, but only one was remotely comfortable. The other two had no mattresses at all, meaning my sons had to sleep directly on sofa cushions with just a sheet over them. They were so hard and uncomfortable that neither could sleep properly, so one ended up sharing with his sister and the other with us in the master bed. The lighting was again a problem – just two main ceiling lights with no softer lamps, so anyone wanting to sit in the living area after others had gone to bed had to do so in near darkness. To make matters worse, the ceiling in the living area was made of glass, covered with a black panel. This absorbed the summer heat, turning the entire room into a sauna during the afternoon. The air conditioning, even on its lowest temperature setting, was ineffective. Perhaps in winter it would be less of an issue, but in summer it was unbearable.||We also had a large terrace, which in theory could have been lovely, but in reality it was filthy. The photos online show terraces with stylish furniture and a large parasol, but ours had a dirty, incomplete set with no shade. The terrace barriers also felt very low, which made me nervous letting my children out unsupervised.||Kitchen – The small kitchen area was fitted with a two-ring hob and a small dishwasher, which could be convenient for longer stays, though we did not use it much.||Breakfast – We paid for bed and breakfast, but I was very disappointed. The dining area was on the top floor, and as soon as the lift doors opened we were greeted by stacks of dirty plates. The seating area was spacious, but the food selection was limited: mainly cheeses and jams, with a few hot options like menemen, börek, and chips – except they were all stone cold. At one point the chips were replenished so I thought I’d grab some fresh, however, the staff member simply tipped a tray of cold chips onto the existing cold ones. Even worse, the small kitchenette area behind the buffet counter was very dirty, which completely put me off. I was unable to eat breakfast that day and did not return for the remainder of our stay.||Housekeeping – Another frustration. On Saturday, the day of the wedding, we returned to the hotel after a day out at about 3:30pm to get ready, only to find housekeeping had just started cleaning. As we were pressed for time, we had to ask her to leave so we could get ready. The next day, housekeeping again came around the same late hour, so we declined. In all my travel experience, I’ve never encountered housekeeping this late in the day – it was highly inconvenient.||General Maintenance – The entire property is in desperate need of refurbishment. The outside entrance still has New Year decorations hanging. The pond out back was filthy, and the land surrounding the hotel was desolate and dirty, creating a very poor impression. I cannot comment on the pool as we decided not to use it, given the general lack of hygiene throughout the hotel.||Overall – This hotel has potential but desperately needs proper cleaning, refurbishing, and a complete rethink of its design (particularly the glass walls and ceilings). Attention to detail is lacking everywhere, from lighting to furniture to cleanliness. We really kicked ourselves when we saw how lovely the other hotel looked, especially given its central location.||Sadly, we left disappointed and unrested. I would not stay here again, nor would I...

The room was clean, spacious and good-looking. There was pretty big kitchen with a fridge and dishwasher, but there were no kitchen stuff at all. Moreover, we had an electric kettle without power source. As we understood, that was because of quarantine, but it worth to know that kitchen was absolutely useless. The other problem is a cigarette smoke. You may feel it almost everywhere and it may become a real problem for people who are allergic. But the biggest surprise expected me in a shower. There was a cockroach. The first desire was to change a room, but a little bit later we discovered that several of our friends also had cockroaches in their rooms, so we realized that there were no sense to change it. And the rest of our vacation I thought how not to bring them home in our luggage. Next huge problem of this hotel is food. I believe that it may be perfect for locals, but for us it was absolutely unacceptable. There were no dietary menu at all, the only healthy things to eat were cucumbers and tomatoes, boiled eggs and oat, which you should cook by yourself for breakfast. Sometimes there were some boiled vegetables. I am sure that it is obvious that it was impossible to do some physical activities with such type of nutrition. The rest of food contained of fat. Moreover, breakfasts were absolutely  the same from one morning to another. Every time among main dishes we saw 2 types of scramble, boiled eggs, fries and sausages in a puddle of oil. So we had to eat bread just because it was impossible to eat in a such way everyday. But I have to mention that the staff was really pleasant. Finally, one more thing was quite strange. There a lot of animals in a hotel and they behave freely. For instance cats may seat on the tables in a dining room. I'm in love with pets, but some sanitary rules have to...

ROOM. The room is clean and stylish. But there were cockroaches in our rooms, the drain in the shower drained poorly. Rooms didn’t have kitchen utensils, we were told that it's because of the pandemia. Although, everybody used ordinary plates and utensils in the restaurant.

SERVICE. The service is pleasant. We had only one pair of slippers in our room, the hotel service provided us with another pair. They also gave us a sewing kit and two bathrobes (without belts) on our request. They easily changed a room for my friends to another.

FOOD. Food in the restaurant didn't vary a lot. There was max 2 options for meat/garnish, 1 soup. Boiled eggs had different level of readiness. Some of them were almost raw.

GYM. We wanted to train in the gym, but all the equipment was unavailable for us. It was stored on the backyard.

SPA. The hotel has a hamam, a sauna and a pool. You can take free water and a towel just there.

TRANSFER. The hotel's transfer to Erciyes is available only once. To the mountain: around 9:00, back: at around 16:30. Individual group transfer costs around $120 for a group. But you can easily find a less expensive transfer. Taxi cost 160 liras.

MONEY. Our tour operator told us that we can't use a credit card on Erciyes, but we could easily pay with a card anywhere. Except for the taxi and public transport card. If you want to use public transport, you need to buy a card which cost about 19 liras (1 card and 2 tickets). Additional ticket cost 3 liras. The card will become inactive if you don't use...