Tilia Hotel

The bathroom could use some work, especially the shower. Otherwise, the hotel was good value for the money. The staff were friendly and helpful, breakfast was nice, and getting around was easy thanks to the public transport access. Its location also made it simple to explore the city.

The location was good, but the hospitality was poor. I booked seven nights and on the first night got a room no bigger than my bathroom. The air conditioner didn't work, and the breakfasts were a disaster: the same boiled eggs, cheese, olives that nobody touched, and Coco Pops. Thirty minutes before the 10h00 closing time, the bowl was nearly empty. At 10h00 they asked you to leave the breakfast area even if you hadn't finished. Sometimes there were no forks, and if you came at 09h30, only crumbs of the daily bread were left. The shower drained so slowly that you ended up standing in a pool of water. Never again, and don't be fooled by the pictures.

The staff were kind and welcoming, and the location was excellent: near both the metro and tramway, close to Fatih and Süleymaniye mosques, and just two tramway stops from the airport transport at Aksaray. That's about all the good I can say. The rooms are very small and the bathroom needs a lot of repairs. The toilet paper never seemed newly opened. I found hair in the towels and smelled cigarette smoke despite asking for a non-smoking room. Breakfast was the worst part: very poor, barely covering the basics, with stale food. The tomatoes and cucumbers weren't fresh, and all the cheeses looked like they were three days old. This hotel doesn't even deserve two stars.

The reception service was unprofessional and unhelpful, and the broken air conditioning made the whole stay uncomfortable. The online photos are misleading: the rooms are much smaller in person and not suitable for two people. My stay at Tilia Hotel was very disappointing, and I wouldn't recommend it to couples or anyone expecting comfort and good service.