In advance:

In advance:

Together with a friend we had planned a long weekend in Istanbul for the end of March (25-29 March). We had booked the Sura for this because of its excellent reviews.

The dilemma:

Due to the global pandemic, we were no longer able to enter Turkey with German passports on the above date. We even considered entering via third countries, but that would not have solved the identification problem. So it was actually not possible for us to physically reach the hotel at all.

As a result, we decided to cancel our stay. We were fully reimbursed for the separately booked flights with Turkish Airlines within a few hours and thus had a good feeling about the reimbursement of the travel price / issue of a voucher by the hotel.

So I contacted the hotel via the customer chat on the hotel website and was referred to the reservation manager Kerem Dogru in a very friendly and accommodating manner. All right, I took the time and described our concerns in detail and also expressed my understanding for the situation of the hotel. After all, we're all in the same boat.

The answer I received a few minutes later made me very disappointed and also angry. There was nothing more than a very poorly worded two-line text with plenty of errors. You'd think the hotel had just enough time to attend to the concerns of its guests, but I guess I was wrong.

In addition to the really impolite wording, we were told very harshly that nothing could be done about the situation and that we were not being met in the slightest.

And that was it. No more and no less.

As I said - we fully understand that the hotel industry in particular is struggling with the effects of the pandemic. But I have never seen such behavior towards guests, who also suffer financial losses.

In the end, we have now paid the full price without any consideration. With communication that wouldn't even be fair to a hostel.

We will definitely make our trip to Istanbul as soon as the situation has "normalized" - but based on the above experience we will avoid the Sura.

Good luck with this "service" mentality.

IMPORTANT: this rating does NOT refer to the service on site, but to the communication with the hotel in advance