The Ship Inn Hotel

I want to begin by saying that the bar staff, pool staff, cleaners etc. are the friendliest, most welcoming people and so this review does not reflect on them at all. So we booked for 2 adults and 1 child (13years) through trip.com. After an overnight flight and being extremely tired, we finally arrived at reception to be told that no, we had only booked for 2 adults. We quickly showed the reception staff our email which said '2 adults, 1 child (13years)'. The man on reception told us that there was a comma and not a plus sign and so that meant that it wasn't plus 1 child. This completely baffled as why would the email have a child and age if not booked regardless of commas/+ signs and we continued to insist that we had booked for all of us. After some back and forth, he decided to ring the manager who promptly said that it wasn't something she would accept and that we would have to pay extra for our child. The man told us this and said that as we hadn't booked through the hotel, this wasn't his problem and that I could take it up with trip.com. Now, 2 flights, no sleep and the fact that I have various conditions that effect my mental health so much that I am registered disabled, I admit I responded harshly at this point. How can you advertise through a 3rd party website, be shown the confirmation, and still tell paying customers that this is your problem, not mine? Even if this were true, wouldn't a more appropriate response be 'You clearly have a booking and have come a long way, let's get you settled in a room and then we can either contact trip.com or help you contact them to get this sorted out'? I then asked to speak to the manager myself- the member of staff phoned her but she refused to come to the phone and said if we were unhappy, to cancel our booking and then shut the phone. Cancel and go where with what money? Were we supposed to walk back to London in order to have somewhere safe to sleep? There was no budge and around an hour after arrival, we were told by trip.com to pay the extra and they would refund us. Kudos to them, we were refunded within 2 days and they were extremely helpful. After all of this, there were so many issues with the hotel itself - street digs in the pool, ceiling in living room crumbling and falling, dirty sheets and tiles, the shower flooded every day and at one point was a waterfall down the stairs into the living room and we had to use wvery towel we had to soak it all up, ants everywhere, the list is endless and I have added pictures so people can see it for themselves. I am so disappointed the whole experience was an absolute shambles. To top it all off, I was telling a friend who lives in Cyprus and he knew the owner. He phoned the owner to tell him and the next day we were offered a free meal as an apology - so just because I had a contact, and the owner told you off, you give me a gesture of goodwill? What if I hadn't known anyone, would this gesture have even existed? Or would you have just told us it wasn't your problem? We refused. Disgraceful.

I do not understand how the hotel got its star rating. Drawers , wardrobe, floor, the lamps, nothing had been cleaned. I got black hands when touching the clothes rail and ended up cleaning all the furniture before unpacking. The sockets by the bed were broken. See attached photos. For me personally the fact that the hotel ignored all dietary requests [and reminders] was the last straw . Every single vegetable dish came immersed in onions. I have IBD and spent a few uncomfortable days to put it mildly. No milk alternative was offered [i registered lactose intolerance], even after my travel agent had intervened. No coffee - Turkish or otherwise - was available, only nescafe, rather surprising for a supposedly 3 star hotel. Coffee was only available at the bar at exorbitant prices for a 3 star hotel. Room service was appalling. We ran out of sugar on the second day and in spite of several requests, we never received any more. We asked reception about the lack of topping up coffee and sugar sachets; they assured us that room service would be informed, but nothing happened. We followed the instructions about leaving used towels on the hook/ on the floor depending on whether we needed replacements, but in spite of following these, new towels were not forthcoming. Some of the junior waiting staff were friendly , but not the senior staff nor the reception staff who were in fact rather rude.

Stayed on a group tour. Location is around 40mins walk from centre of Kyrenia, although close to bus stops. Around 10mins walk to supermarket and a few further restaurants. Rooms set back from main road so don't get lots of traffic noise. Room was a reasonable size for one but would have felt tight for 2. Very limited shelf space and very few places to hang things except in wardrobe. Got very wet on first day but heater didn't seem to work properly to get things dry. Windows and door to balcony were not thick or well fitting enough- heard lots of external noise from wind/rain & others were disturbed by calls at mosque. No lift available to our rooms. Bathroom would have fit a bathtub but had a large walk in shower instead. Pressure and temperature in my shower would change even when I hadn't moved the control, which was irritating. Took a while for hot water to start flowing. Provided shower gel was nice, didn't try the shampoo. At first glance room looked nice but actually became clear needs a refresh- e.g bathroom shelf was cracked. Bedside table was a long stretch to reach from the bed. Breakfast was fine for me- some hot options, breads, bran flakes or cornflakes, fruit salad, some cheeses & cakes etc but not labelled very well so would be difficult if you had allergies. Reception staff seemed to do the minimum- no information was given on check in about pool facilities or evening meals. Asked about currency exchange and was told their rate was not good but not advised where was nearest alternative. No maps provided for anyone walking to Kyrenia- would have expected this to be common request they could anticipate. Bar prices for drinks seemed high compared to other places we ate. Do not expect to return to North Cyprus imminently but if I did I would stay nearer to the main centre.