Ista Golden Palace

I’ve been visiting Istanbul every year for the past 10 years, and this was the most disgusting stay I can remember. We booked a room for five. The bathroom was dirty, the towels were dirty and ripped, and the carpet rug was torn and dirty. The toilet seat was broken and unfixed, slipping every time you sat on it. The beds were stained, and the sheets hadn’t been changed from the previous guests. The room looked alright at first, but the paint was chipped and the mess hadn’t been cleaned. There was even chewed gum stuck in a drawer. I could go on. It’s a budget hotel, sure, and nobody expects 5* service, but this was awful. I can’t understand why anyone would enjoy staying here, and I’d give it no stars if I could. When we approached the owner, we were abused and kicked out with nowhere to stay. I have video evidence and will report it to booking.com. We were also forced to pay even though we didn’t stay at all, and were threatened with the police card. Terrible experience, one I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. The guy at reception who tried to help claimed he didn’t work at the hotel, but he’s pictured in the booking.com ad 😂. Save yourself the trouble. Trust me, you’re better off paying a little more.

Avoid this hotel if you want a peaceful stay in Istanbul. The manager, Abdul Baki, was very rude and money oriented, and customer service was horrible. The room cleaning was very bad, with rooms cleaned only when guests checked out. There was no hygiene at all. Everyone who stayed regretted it. The worst manager and customer service. I’ll never stay here again.

I stayed four nights and had a terrible experience. They put us in the worst room on the fourth floor, with no lift. When we asked to move, they wouldn’t listen. The AC stopped working for the last two days, and they ignored our complaints, so we had to stay in a room that felt like it was burning because of the direct sunlight. The manager Abdul bakir seemed gentle and used very cheesy marketing tactics, but he was the worst manager I’ve ever dealt with across my stays in hotels around the world. Poor management. I wouldn’t even rate this hotel 0/10. It should be -10000/10. Not recommended at all.

The one real plus was the location, under 10 minutes from Istanbul’s main attractions. The room itself was in awful shape: paint was peeling from the walls and ceiling, the bathroom had mould, uncovered sockets, and spiders, with dead mosquitoes and flies in the ceiling light. Neither the fridge nor the AC worked, and the cleanliness was poor.