Cenk Bey Hotel

[Scunner]

Good to hear MamaCass, thanks for reporting back. It's always been a good value hotel and it was sad to hear reports of rude staff etc.

[Toky]

Highlander, I pinched your format for my review of the Cenk Bey. Hope you don't mind

General:
Budget Hotel so you will get what you pay for and we didn't pay much!
Balconies are sooooooo tiny, 4'x3'6", unless you were on ground floor. Dated decor and fittings, plastic flowers everywhere, every door squeaked, every tap leaked and dodgy electrics, wall lamps with bare wires. Front of hotel very overgrown with very high trees and bushes. A wee bit of attention to detail would greatly improve this hotel.

Location:
Brilliant location opposite Orient Hotel, as long as you dont get a room facing main road. We did!! Nightmare and had to wear earplugs evry night. Noise from traffic, Orient's nightly disco and barking guard dog. Noise from Scarletts and now also the Rodeo bar which is practically next door.

Guest List:
Mostly German, plus 4-5 British couples.

Staff:
No pleasantries or interactions from staff, just "good morning and good evening, would you like a drink"? Don't mean this to sound as a critisism as it didn't bother us at all. They were just a bit indifferent.

Reception:
Non existant practically. Its located in a separate building where family were ironing, watching TV and on browsing on a laptop. Safety deposit boxes were situated in that building- £3 per day

Restaurant:
Very brighly lit internal area. Some tables outside around the pool, but eating al fresco was ruined by constant heavy smokers. Cats roam freely. Salad table was brilliant, but only 1 dinner option....take it or leave it. Wine 5TL which I thought was very reasonable as it tasted ok too.

Pool:
Well looked after, but at this time of the year gets hardly any sun. This is due to being surrounded by buildings and high trees. Multi tennis courts are accessable from the pool area. Nice hammock and huge cushions for lounging around in.

Bedroom:
Decent size with very small balcony off. Good storage, 2(musty) wardrobes, 2 sets of drawers and a dressing table with 3 drawers and only one socket which was behind the heavy bed. No TV/music.

Bathroom:
The tiniest shower I have ever been in. Had to stand side on when in it. 1" step down drop from main floor, shower curtain 8" too short so the floor got soaked. More water spurted out of the hot water tap than came through the hand held hose, which leaked like a colander. Good wall mounted hair drier provided. Wash hand basin had permenant grime tide mark around it.

Cleaning:
Room cleaned daily and fresh towels provided.

Food:
Open buffet Turkish breakfast, cornflakes and eggs every day.
1 main option at dinner, but to be fair, all good quality

Extras:
Air con is extra and so is the safty deposit box.

Bar Prices:
Very reasonable

Would I go again?? Mmmmmmm, Only if they double glazed rooms to front, or guaranteed me a pool facing room, or on a really tight budget like I was this trip.

Overall, we did have a good holiday, due to the weather, the central location of the Cenk Bey, meeting Tony & Sue,(Tonysue) Buddy(well spotted), "Squiffy, Pi55y and Mercury"  from the forum. Sorry Anne & Billy, we missed you. We did look for you in Scarletts on 3 differnt nights, Maybe next trip eh?

[MamaCass]

I would have to agree with much of what Toky has said here but the bottom line is that you get what you pay for.
We were on the road side but as I use ear plugs because of a snory husband it didn't bother me.  We weren't bothered by discos from hotel or bar except a couple of occasions where there was loud music as wedding celebrations were taking place.
On the occasions when we went into the lounge we were the only ones there apart from the occasional ironing guest - I got the impression that this was why the ironing board was there.
We didn't expect the staff to be overly friendly - they were courteous and efficient which is really all you need.  When we needed advice or help it was forthcoming.
We ate outside all the time and have to agree that there was an awful lot of smoking going on - I didn't realise it was still so common!  We saw a couple of cats on a few occasions but I wouldn't consider it to be a problem - they didn't cause any nuisance.
I don't agree about the lack of sun round the pool! We were there Sept 6th - 20th and had no problem finding sunny places - in fact at many times it was too hot.
On the bathroom front we worked on the assumption that it was really a wet room so that it was expected that the floor would get wet when you had a shower but yes, the shower itself was pathetic.
We thought the bar prices a bit steep at 5 liras for an Efes so we used to call at the Ametyst Bar on the way home where it was 3 liras and then only have one drink with dinner.  The red wine was good but the white was awful!
But all in all for what we paid it was fine.