Polat Termal Hotel — Hotel in Pamukkale

The only "5 star" thing about this place is their prices. As in you pay 5 star hotel prices (comparatively to other local "high end" hotels). The lobby and service areas, like the pools and such, are very nice looking. The staff is friendly and welcoming. Most can communicate in multiple languages, as there are worldwide tourists that come here, our group included.

Now with the rest of the experience. First for context, my family did not book this hotel. We are part of a tour group that must have a contract with the hotel, but it also looks like EVERY tour company has a contract with them. This place was packed with tour busses with groups from all over the world. So it is almost by definition a tourist trap type place. Very unfortunate because again the hotel looks very pretty and friendly.

So now to my experiences that drives most of my review which is mostly derived from one night that we stopped here.

The room: we stayed in a triple bed room, two twins and one queen. Our room was one of the very first rooms in the "block" of rooms. This is notable because it means that most other guests have to pass by to get to their rooms. Normally, not really a big issue. The problem here is that there is basically zero sound insulation anywhere. You literally could hear every step anyone took, every squeaky wheel from the luggages, and everything else. This was especially annoying because for whatever reason there was a noise near out room that sounded like a pool pump that would run for a few minutes every 15-30 min throughout the night. Just enough to wake you up if you are a light sleeper.

Apart from the poor room acoustics, there were a lot of other issues with the room. Primarily with the bathroom. The bathroom we had cannot be matched via the door handle mechanism. You could not shut it close on its own. You have to use the actual door lock if you want some privacy. Now normally most people wouldn't thing this is an issue. However, I was traveling with an older parent, my mother in law. The door not latching is a big issue because if she wants privacy when going to the bathroom or showering she HAS to lock the door. Which means that if something were to happen to her while in there, we could not get in to help. Now in most 5 star hotels this would not be an issue, as there are usually some accessibility features in bathrooms to help those with mobility or dexterity issues. However here there are none. On top of that, the actually tub of the shower is so tall that it's not that easy to get in and out.

Now talking about the tub and shower. The fixtures in the bathroom look like that are 40+ years old. Rusted, pitted, and extremely worn. Again, not something you expect from not only a 5-star hotels, but one that has such a huge amount of volume of guest (again from the tour group contracts where there are hundreds of guests pushing almost to thousands on a week day).

Continuing with the bathroom, it is not fully enclosed and the poor excuse of a shower head can only point about 45 degrees. That means that unless you are sitting on the tub floor, or squatting, you are going to over spray water all over the bathroom floor. Thankfully the corner where the toilet is has a drain, so you can't flood the bathroom, but the floor still gets ridiculously wet. To the point where the shower mat towel gets completely saturated, and has no purpose at that point. That being said, if you have to stay here absolutely bring shower slippers.

Last comments about the room, the room does not have a proper lock from the inside. They only give you one room key. The room key is used to power the room as there is a mechanism that holds the key and acts like a power breaker. So no key in there no power, which means you can't leave things charging while you go eat.

As far as the food, it was all pretty meh. The dinner is way better than the breakfast. Also like most places in Turkey, drinks are included (not even water). This is normally not terrible except the prices here are ridiculous. Also there was mold on some of...

We stayed in Polat Thermal Hotel for ten days in April. While some parts of the hotel might need a little TLC, nothing was too dramatic or glaringly obvious. I read the past reviews and I got somewhat confused about the comments like : ‘there is no lift to the second floor’ or ‘ you have to purchase towels’ etc… There is definitely a lift in this hotel, we used it all the time (my mother is not very mobile) and no, you don’t have to purchase towels. As a matter of fact, I’ve gone through more towels than I care to admit and nobody said a word or was bothered by it. ||We loved the food; it was fresh, delicious, prepared with care. The variety and quality was outstanding. The head chef and other kitchen staff would come out and inspect the dishes during dinner. For me that spoke volume about the pride they take in their job.||||Id like to comment on the very reason we were there; the thermal baths. We’ve heard about the healing properties of the water but I was still sceptical. However, a few days ago, I woke up and my day was brighter. For the first time in a long time I was pain free. I’m still a long way from being healed but I am certain all the hours of soaking in that hot water did something for me.||Not to mention what the mud scrubbing did for my skin. ||A special mention to cleaning ladies for their warm smiles and incredibly hard work; to kind Murat who was constantly asking about our comfort; Erkan who is a wizard and able to conjure anything that you might need; Abdullah, who was always good for a joke and a laugh (even when he had a toothache, he didn’t miss a beat); Osman for being seriously efficient and the hardest working waiter I’ve ever seen; Mr Polat who was always around and engaged in the day to day running of the hotel, ensuring all was happening and the world was turning.||For us, the hotel is not only about the bricks and mortar, but it’s about people and the atmosphere, it’s about sharing the same space and time. And we had a great time at Polat. ||So if you are ok with small inconsistencies and don’t care for frills, but appreciate the good Turkish hospitality, we warmly...

We booked 2 rooms at this hotel to visit the attractions at Pamakkale. We arrived in the afternoon and had a warm welcome at reception. Unfortunately that’s where the one star review come from. We were shown to own rooms which were dirty and run down. The floor was covered in dark brown hair, myself and my other half had blonde hair), the bathroom was like something you had never seen…. The silicone was mouldy if there are all, the shower was held into the wall with sellotape and when used a dark red lime scale came from the shower all over you which was certainly a fright. |The water squirted every where apart from where you wanted it to and flooded the bathroom which meant cleaning the floor with the floor mat. The floor mat was brown with dirt from the floor. |The place was filthy, the towels and pillows were stained. ||The table clothes were dirty at dinner although the food was tasty. ||There was no where to sit around the pool or anywhere outside as the amount of chairs versus guest was minimal. ||We had booked a stay for 2 nights but left after one without refund of the second as they second day out room was equally as dirty. ||The thermo spa was dirty and smelly and I would not have got in if I was paid. ||Until 1:30 am there were doors banging and kids shouting so we were unable to get to sleep. ||At about midnight someone kept trying to get into our room which wasn’t very comforting. ||I could continue but there is little point. The smiley reception staff on our arrival did not care about the faults or issues.||So not stay here unless you are looking for a 3 star ( and that being kind) hotel stay. ||This may have been a 5 start 20 years ago...