Richmond Pamukkale Thermal Resort — Hotel in Pamukkale

"I hope to forget this place". ||I spent a night in this hotel, travelling with a group of turists. I had no expectations; just a bed and something to eat.||Positive aspects: Room size appropriate, good. Everything in order. Smiling, courteous staff, professional behaviour. I called from my room, asked for the telephone to be disconnected, two(2) very polite and smiling men came and fixed it in no time. The air conditioning was in order, the bed was good, firm, new, matress great.||Negative aspects: We were given rooms in the basement. We had to walk endless corridors to get there and it felt like crossing a labyrinth if we wanted to go back to the lobby. We were all tired, slept early, so the corridors were quiet. There was a lift in the lobby, I don't know where it lead, besides we were told it was out of order.||The bathroom is nothing like the picture. Old and unconfortable. The bathtub was about 20 cm under ground level, and if somebody had had their hair done they would be disappointed as they could only take a shower standing.||The hotel is in the middle of nowhere, so prohibitting people to bring their own water is unethical. Having similar previous experience, the use of a small travel bag (just for this purpose) helped me effectively.||There was one socket in the bathroom, and only one in the room, but to use it I had to unplug the lamp. To get to the dining room we had to use the exit at the end of the corridor, cross the pool, reach and go round the dining area, then go up and down some stairs. No kebap, no beef, no lamb, no seafood, only chicken and unidentified fish. Food was spilt all over as if barbarians had passed by just to eat their spinach balls and their yellow cheese pieces. I had cold spaghetti with chicken, there was no ground cheese. Their sweets consisted of something thrown inside sugar, repulsive,t hey looked disgusting, they made everyone sick.There were eg. pieces of cake in syrup which looked like raw beef, another "variety" had the green colour of bile, oriental sweets-ravani-which tasted like lemon etc.||My room was inside a small garden, totally quiet, old balconym, old door, closing with difficulty, but no pool, no bar, no road nearby. At 03:30 I woke up from a very irritating sound (probably from a bird) and since it was impossible to sleep (not even the air conditioning would cover it) I threw the bed cover and the quilt on the bathroom floor and I managed to sleep on the ground.||This is not a five star hotel. Judging from their bathrooms and buffets it isn't a three star hotel either. Too bad because it...

Not many choices in Pamukkale. Therefore, stayed in this hotel.

The hotel has all of the charm and convenience of a busy train station. Dozens of tourist buses, bring hundreds of tourists here every day to stay, usually for short time and move on. For the number of tourists they process, they are desperately short on staff.

For instance, the breakfast is far from peaceful and pleasurable. A huge hall that fits hundreds of tourists is serviced by only 2-3 staff members. It is chaos. People run, shout. Hot food is cold, tables are not cleared from dirty plates.

We checked in one room first, but the AC was not working and it was noisy because it was facing the pool (music was playing). Asked to change the room. To their credit, hotel accommodated us. However, the new room did not have working AC either. That is, the fan was working, but the air never cooled sufficiently to have a comfortable sleep. In the morning, once the sun was out, the room became unbearably hot.

They are charging an arm and a leg for everything. A bottle of water that is 2 lira in a supermarket was sold for 8 lira in the hotel. No complimentary water, but a recommendation not to drink from the tap (common suggestion in Turkey), but use their minibar instead. Basically, they know that tourists do not have many choices and take advantage of this.

So, if you find other places to stay in Pamukkale, try those. I have heard that not many choices in Pamukkale area. Certainly Richmond Pamukkale Thermal hotel is a bad choice. I would not...

The hotel is spacious and geared towards large group tourism - hence at first a bit challenging for a solo traveler like me who arrived on a bus from Bodrum, took a local van to the area, was dropped off at the main road and then lugged my luggage for a kilometer to the hotel which stands along with various other huge structures in the midst of a vast and picturesque plain and at a bit of a distance from the famous thermals and ruins of Hierapolis. The walk was surreal though due to the grand views. ||At first I was flummoxed as the place didn't really cater for those like me who needed independent mode of transport etc and the staff spoke very little English. However, I was told that Mr. Kubilay at the front desk would be very helpful next morning. And indeed he turned out to be wonderfully hospitable and helpful. I managed to have a memorable trip to the sites via a local taxi that picked and dropped me, was given a lovely breakfast on my return even though the breakfast time in the hall was over, and generally felt welcomed and taken care of. Huge appreciation for Mr. Kubilay who went out of the way to help me out and ensure that I got the most out of the short trip. My room was comfortable, the buffet dinner at night was quite good as such dinners go and the place also has thermal baths. Three cheers for Mr. Kubilay who is a real credit to the...