Golden Sail Hotel Old City

Awful hotel. Tiny rooms with paper thin walls on top of a restaurant in a very loud part of the city. First we didn't book this hotel, we were meant to stay in Palmera Old City Hotel but they cancelled our booking just before we arrived for no reason. I'll mention that later though. The Golden Sail is on top of a restaurant which you have to go through to get in and out of, thankfully it's never busy, which must say a lot for the restaurant. We stayed on the second floor which is up a winding staircase with uneven stairs. The room was tiny, clearly the budget room. It had a fridge and kettle but no cups or glasses or anything to drink from. The bed wasn't made, just a tiny sheet folded on top. There is one small window in the room with a street light right outside but no curtains so I had to jam a towel over the window. The shower was a stranger shape and had a very sharp corner at head height that I was very wary of. There was no bin in the room so we had to just like rubbish in a corner. The walls were so thin we heard every footstep up the stairs and conversations in the next room. Someone singing at 1am is not a pleasant wake up call. I thought I'd mention the hassle we had at the other hotel as it was linked to our stay. Like I said we weren't due to stay here after all. So as we arrived in Istanbul we had a message on *********** saying Palmera Old City were trying to charge our card and there was a problem. We'd selected to pay on arrival so thought this was weird. *********** said we had 2 hours to upload another card, baring in mind this was 2 hours before check in time, we were travelling and had no internet. We eventually found internet within the 2 hours, uploaded another card and again had issues, we were given another 2 hours to upload another card but decided to message the hotel and say we were on our way and we'd be there within the hour. On arrival they said we've given your room away. The booking was still active on *********** so there was literally no reason to give it away. We were stunned. We'd just travelled for 10 hours to arrive and be told you don't have a room anymore. They said because it's high season they get lots of people booking and not turning up so they lose money, which is rubbish as if we hadn't turned up *********** would have taken our money anyway, that's the whole point of it. So this is where it gets a bit too fishy for me, they said oh but we have another hotel just round the corner, with a better room. We argued with the guy for a while but it was clear he wasn't budging as they clearly had over booked. We went to the other hotel as what else could we do, high season in a major city, any other hotels would be a ridiculous price baring in mind we booked the hotel months in advance. The other hotel was on top of a restaurant called Golden Sail Hotel Old City. It wasn't of the same standard, the room was tiny and had no amenities. I'll be reviewing this hotel separately though. Anyway they said we could

Io e mia moglie abbiamo soggiornato per 5 notti in questa piccola pensione a gestione familiare, con ristorante annesso che funge anche da sala colazioni, dove il calore, la gentilezza, la cortesia della famiglia che gestisce la struttura vi colpirà dritto al cuore. L'hotel, sito nel quartiere di Fatih, in una zona turistica folkloristica, è comodo per i mezzi pubblici: dista circa 10' dal Tram T1 con cui muoversi per la città (fermata Beyazit-Kapaliçarşi quella del Gran Bazaar), nei pressi c'è la stazione ferroviaria di Kumkapi e a circa 15' quella della metro di Yenikapi. Ma anche con una passeggiata Sultanahmet e le sue attrazioni sono raggiungibili in circa 15'. Abbiamo prenotato una camera superior, molto calda e confortevole con colazione tradizionale, preparata al momento (pane appena sfornato, omelette o menemen, olive, diversi formaggi, marmellate fatte in casa e burro). L'ospitalità è eccezionale e la volontà di soddisfare l'ospite, tipica ed autentica, esaudendo alcune diverse richieste con gentilezza e sempre col sorriso . La nostra prima esperienza ad Istanbul rimarrà per sempre impressa non solo per l'unicità di questa bellissima città ma anche grazie alla bellezza delle cose semplici e alla dolcezza dei gesti, di questa famiglia; gesti rimasti intatti in questo piccolo angolo di Turchia. Raccomandato fortemente.