Istankoy Hotel

At the reception they tried to charge me the room bill in pounds twice,not in lira and it was £6500 instead of 6500tl fortunately not successful. Otherwise small clean and cosy city hotel , very good location,very close to the centre, sea....Kind and friendly staff. and the girl that was cleaning the room one of the days saw me outside my room and without asking or saying anything just went into my room to clean it, while inside were my wife and my baby, which was disrespectful to us.

The Hotel Istankoy is both great and awful. There are both positives and negatives to staying here.
Positives: Great location. It’s only a row back from the sea front and there are plenty of shops within walking distance to find everything you need.
Good restaurants within easy reach.
Lovely clean pool.
Great staff, always friendly and helpful.
Location - yes, again. It’s right in the heart of Bodrum and a short walk to just about anywhere.
Decent breakfast included with enough of a choice to please almost everyone. The only hot option is an egg station where you can get omelets or fried eggs freshly made. It’s worth saying though that they could buy the cook a spatula and then maybe they could flip eggs without breaking them almost every day. Lovely baked goods, a toaster and cheese, cold meat etc all available.
Fantastic shower with plenty of hot water and really good pressure.
Negatives: The room we were assigned was awful. Like a prison cell. We did say straight away we’d like a different room, but were told there wasn’t one available and to ask the next day to see if things had changed. We decided in the end to stick with what we had as we didn’t want to spend our holiday checking, trying to change it and having to repack and unpack. It meant we had no outside space, no light, couldn’t open the window at all and had nowhere to dry our towels. The room might have been okay for a staff room, but should never have been rented out to paying guests.
The noise from the bar late into the evening. It can be okay if you have ear plugs, but even they won’t save you from anything amplified. I did hear that if you’re in one of the rooms round the back it’s much better. Some of the rooms and the bar are in very close proximity. It wasn’t very relaxing being woken up by loud music, singing, bingo calling etc.
Extra charges for air con and safe.
Lumpy, awful pillows.
One blanket - no top sheet. Meant it was too hot without the air con and got quite cold with the air con.
Couple of quick tips: Ahmed at Heaven tours at the start of the shopping section gave us a great deal with a couple of tours.
If you want to go to Pamukkale and Ephesus do go, they’re great! Just be warned that it’s a long, long day with hours on the road and stops at factory shops.
Everything is priced in euros and dollars!
There isn’t a beach in the traditional sense. There are areas of pebbly shore, mostly used for restaurants. If you want a bit further up the road you can find space where there are sun beds, but it’s not great. A hotel with a pool would be recommended.

Great standard of cleanliness. Very pleasant staff. Food excellent and resonably priced. Only downside is a Cockrel crowing in the early hours of the morning can be heard from some apartments but does not belong to hotel. Most staff good comand of English language and very helpful. I love it and go for a month every year.