Fortuna Gabala Boutique Hotel

The staff we met were genuinely kind, and the breakfast was lovely: bread, local jams and honey, cheese, and an omelette. They tried to help with what they had, but we still left the day after check-in instead of staying the planned five days, and paid ourselves to move to another hotel. Our stay was only one day. Since we cancelled within 7 days, neither the owner nor booking.com could help us get a refund, even though the property did not meet our standards. The rooms were cold even with the heat turned all the way up. There was only one heater in the villa, and the radiators in the rooms were either cold or barely warm. I raised this, but got no answer. I’d consider booking again in a year or so to see whether the place is more like the image shown online. The restaurant wasn’t fully operating, construction was ongoing and the area needed cleaning, and the rooms needed care, deep cleaning, and repairs. Also, staff will likely try in their own language to persuade you to pay cash, despite advertising card payments. They used my credit card payment as a reason I couldn’t get a refund for the four unused days. The staff member on site politely said they had no access to or control over the bank account and couldn’t refund a card payment.

We stayed two days and the check-in was quick and easy. They even upgraded our room at no charge. Cottage 1 was spacious, clean, and had a minibar. The hotel is well placed, close to the city center and Tufandag resort, about a five-minute drive. Breakfast was simple, and we really liked the bread.

A very poor stay. The photos on Google don’t match the place, and there was basically no service or staff presence. One person seemed to be running the whole operation. Our trash wasn’t even taken out, and there was no room service. We found spiders in the room. They gave us just two bottles of water on arrival, then we had to buy more.

The rooms were decent, but staying at Fortuna Boutique Hotel was disappointing overall. The service was really poor, and breakfast was awful. I wouldn’t say it was worth staying there.