Hotel La Bella — Hotel in Salihli

At first, my review was going to be very positive. The hotel is old, but somewhat well maintained, it looks like a luxury hotel from the 80s, but there are places that are not very clean like the room carpet, and the shower both in the bathroom could use a renewal and some cleaning, the exhaust was very, very dirty! The breakfast was waiting on the table, food was already there, cold. It was a nice variety, but it would've been better if I could've chosen what I wanted and if it were hot. But even then we were still "ok, it's a nice place, we liked it". The worst part came when we checked out, the guy tried to charge my card on file for a paid reservation. When I went to the counter to check out, I expected to just deliver the keys and go, instead he showed me a paper saying he wasn't able to charge my card and that I should pay for the reservation. After showing him that the reservation had already been paid through booking since 2 months ago and that it was not a "pay at the property" reservation, he insisted I had to pay. Meanwhile I checked my credit card statement and confirmed I had been charged and booking was correctly displaying paid, only after a few minutes trying to call booking they said it was their mistake and let me go. I won't say this was a scam, but it was very shady. While I was there, he called the owner (I assume) and said things to the likes of "I can't charge their card because they did not park here", which means he'd have tried to charge me for the room with a fee for the parking, the guy thought I didn't understand Turkish at all and felt at ease to say that. Trying to charge the card for a paid reservation without even saying anything to the customer and having that sketchy phone conversation was terrible. Be warned, specially if you're a foreigner!

ödenmiş bir rezervasyondu. Çıkış yapmak için kontuara gittiğimde, sadece anahtarları teslim edip gitmeyi bekliyordum, bunun yerine bana kartımdan ücret alamadığını ve rezervasyon için ödeme yapmam gerektiğini söyleyen bir kağıt gösterdi. Rezervasyonun 2 ay öncesinden beri booking üzerinden ödendiğini ve bunun bir "tesiste öde" rezervasyonu olmadığını gösterdikten sonra, ödemem gerektiğinde ısrar etti. Bu arada kredi kartı ekstremi kontrol ettim ve ücretlendirildiğimi ve rezervasyonun doğru bir şekilde ödendiğini gösterdiğini doğruladım, ancak rezervasyonu aramaya çalıştıktan birkaç dakika sonra bunun onların hatası olduğunu söylediler ve gitmeme izin verdiler. Bunun bir aldatmaca olduğunu söylemeyeceğim ama çok şaibeliydi. Ben oradayken, otel sahibini aradı (sanırım) ve "kartlarından ücret alamam çünkü buraya park etmediler" gibi şeyler söyledi, bu da benden oda için park ücreti almaya çalışacağı anlamına geliyordu, adam Türkçeyi hiç anlamadığımı düşündü ve bunu söylemek için rahat hissetti. Müşteriye hiçbir şey söylemeden ücretli bir rezervasyon için karttan ücret almaya çalışmak ve o yarım yamalak telefon konuşmasını yapmak korkunçtu. Özellikle yabancıysanız dikkatli olun!

Translated with DeepL.com...

At first, my review was going to be very positive. The hotel is old, but somewhat well maintained, it looks like a luxury hotel from the 80s, but there are places that are not very clean like the room carpet, and the shower both in the bathroom could use a renewal and some cleaning, the exhaust was very, very dirty! The breakfast was waiting on the table, food was already there, cold. It was a nice variety, but it would've been better if I could've chosen what I wanted and if it were hot. But even then we were still "ok, it's a nice place, we liked it". The worst part came when we checked out, the guy tried to charge my card on file for a paid reservation. When I went to the counter to check out, I expected to just deliver the keys and go, instead he showed me a paper saying he wasn't able to charge my card and that I should pay for the reservation. After showing him that the reservation had already been paid through booking since 2 months ago and that it was not a "pay at the property" reservation, he insisted I had to pay. Meanwhile I checked my credit card statement and confirmed I had been charged and booking was correctly displaying paid, only after a few minutes trying to call booking they said it was their mistake and let me go. I won't say this was a scam, but it was very shady. While I was there, he called the owner (I assume) and said things to the likes of "I can't charge their card because they did not park here", which means he'd have tried to charge me for the room with a fee for the parking, the guy thought I didn't understand Turkish at all and felt at ease to say that. Trying to charge the card for a paid reservation without even saying anything to the customer and having that sketchy phone conversation was terrible. Be warned, specially if you're a foreigner!||ödenmiş bir rezervasyondu. Çıkış yapmak için kontuara gittiğimde, sadece anahtarları teslim edip gitmeyi bekliyordum, bunun yerine bana kartımdan ücret alamadığını ve rezervasyon için ödeme yapmam gerektiğini söyleyen bir kağıt gösterdi. Rezervasyonun 2 ay öncesinden beri booking üzerinden ödendiğini ve bunun bir "tesiste öde" rezervasyonu olmadığını gösterdikten sonra, ödemem gerektiğinde ısrar etti. Bu arada kredi kartı ekstremi kontrol ettim ve ücretlendirildiğimi ve rezervasyonun doğru bir şekilde ödendiğini gösterdiğini doğruladım, ancak rezervasyonu aramaya çalıştıktan birkaç dakika sonra bunun onların hatası olduğunu söylediler ve gitmeme izin verdiler. Bunun bir aldatmaca olduğunu söylemeyeceğim ama çok şaibeliydi. Ben oradayken, otel sahibini aradı (sanırım) ve "kartlarından ücret alamam çünkü buraya park etmediler" gibi şeyler söyledi, bu da benden oda için park ücreti almaya çalışacağı anlamına geliyordu, adam Türkçeyi hiç anlamadığımı düşündü ve bunu söylemek için rahat hissetti. Müşteriye hiçbir şey söylemeden ücretli bir rezervasyon için karttan ücret almaya çalışmak ve o yarım yamalak telefon konuşmasını yapmak korkunçtu. Özellikle yabancıysanız...

The Situation; We're travelling as a family group of 5, which means that in most places, we'll need two rooms to fulfil our needs. The booking at La Bella Hotel was for a 4 Person Family room and a 2 Person room.

The Good; Our two rooms were well appointed, clean & warm, with super comfortable beds & good bathrooms + hot water.

We were served up an excellent buffet breakfast that was always more than we needed on a daily basis. A great way to start the day.

All the staff were amazing at every level, from the reception, cleaning staff and the breakfast staff.

Plenty of really good food venues all within walking distance.

The Not So Good; Parking is only available on the street and can be a bit of a hassle, but is manageable.

The Verdict; This is a well run and wonderful hotel at the value end of the price scale, suitable for families and couples. Well...