Taksim Mood

We booked this hotel in order to get 6 hours of sleep during our layover between flights. They had arranged for us transfer from and to the airport for 70€. The transfer to the hotel was excellent, the driver was really polite, friendly and helpful. When we got off the car, the problems started. It was extremely difficult to locate the hotel as there were no signs standing out. It was 2am, nobody answered the doorbell after ringing 4 times (they knew our arrival time), so we had to call a number that was written on the door in order for someone to come and open. The man on the phone with whom we had made all the arrangements needed some time to understand who we were (as if they weren’t expecting guests?). Another employee let us in - the lobby was basically a small, smelly room. After taking our ID’s, he asked us to pay for the to-and-from airport transfers and asked 5€ more than the agreed price because “SAW airport is a bigger distance”! Fortunately he didn’t insist when we told him that a deal had already been made with another employee. Then we tried to tell him what time we wanted the taxi in the morning but his english skills were non-existent, we had trouble explaining 7 or 8 o’clock. After we thought our departure time was settled, he came back to our room, asking if it was morning or night, sending our anxiety through the roof. When we entered the room, we saw mold on walls and bathroom and sockets hanging out of the wall. Don’t know if the stains on the sheets were fresh or if the detergent couldn’t remove them but the hair on the beds were surelly fresh-and totally disgusting. We were given only one towel per person (no hand-towel in the bathroom), the toilet seat fell off when we tried to lift it. It was too late to search for another room, so we “slept” with our clothes on and on the towels, in order not to touch the sheets. After all these, the noise from the bars on the strees seemed a minor nuisance (which was not). And of course, in the morning, there was no hot water. Thankfully, our taxi was on time to take us away from this place. Totally not worth 60€/night, wouldn’t stay again even if they paid me 60€. By far our worst hotel experience ever! PS: the following day I received a text message, from the man we had made the arrangements, the one we never met, saying he would ask us for a favor. We thought that he wanted to apologize and ask us not to be harsh on our reviews. To our surprise, what he wanted is from us was to give them a 10/10 review and mention him by name. Since we have nothing personal with him, we will not mention him by name. After all, it was the whole of the experience that was appauling.