Ilkbal Deluxe Hotel &Spa Istanbul

Booked this hotel because I had a stop-over in Istanbul with the sole purpose of spending the day in the hotel using the facilities that are advertised like the pool, sauna, steam room, and the Turkish bath. It is advertised that all the facilities are free and the front desk staff told me so as well. After looking for the location of these facilities which were not that easy to find as in the elevator it says the health club is on the fifth floor but it isn’t actually, there are only rooms there. I found the facilities at the -1 floor. The facilities staff did not speak any English and was in fact on her phone when I entered the floor so I started exploring on my own. The laziness of this staff did not allow them to get up and kindly find me but when she ended her phone call she started shouting across the whole space as if signaling for me to come to her. AWFUL SERVICE. She used Google translate which isn’t always good and did not make any sense what she was translating so she made me stand there and read her translated nonsense. The facilities themselves were rundown and dirty. Turning on a low light will NOT hide the mess if that is what the hotel was hoping for. The pictures advertised for the facilities are MISLEADING. You must buy a swimming cap for 200 Lira to use the pool. What kind of century is this that guests must buy this sort of thing to use the “FREE” facilities. The sauna room was barely warm. The changing room had a dead roach and the shower was totally broken. Besides that in my personal room something was constantly leaking in the shower leaving a rusty puddle in the shower cabin. The fridge was not working even after I had to manually plug it into the wall after a day of traveling. Guests shouldn’t have to do any manual work in the room like construction workers 😂. Even drinking water was not provided. You are better off skipping this place all together. Don’t be fooled by the pretty pictures, the reality is nothing alike. The front desk man was not present behind the check in counter when I arrived, none of the staff wear any sort of uniform so it is hard to tell if you are being approached by a civilian or hotel staff, the front desk man asked me the same kind of questions MULTIPLE times like “are you staying alone” and “how many nights I’ll be staying”. Unprofessional.

The biggest problem of this hotel is cleanliness and technical quality of rooms. It seems like the last major repair was made 20 years ago. WiFi is could be better. In bar you can only pay by cash

Hello, we came with my family to the hotel. This is the first time we are staying in such a low-hygienic and depreciated hotel. The rooms are under all criticism. The terraces are narrow and one can easily fall from them. The staff is made up of people with a low level of English, the pool is full of sand, hair, dirt. The sauna is also obscenely dirty and without electricity. The steam room is ok if the previous ones don't bother you. All Google and Booking reviews are 101% real

Not a good place to stay. Small and warn-out rooms with no coffee cattle. Sink and shower was leaking, they fixed the sing the second day. Mostly russian and post USSR republics guests with their terrible eating habbits. 2.5km from Aya Sofia but the neighborhood is unpleasant, just cloath stores oriented on russians. No restaurants, cafes or even good groceries close by.

I went to this hotel in 2019 with family and i'm still bitter about it. THIS IS THE WORST HOTEL I HAVE EVER BEEN TO, MARK MY WORDS !

First of all, we got the "Model room" usually showcased as the best room by their standards, which was the worst room by my standards. Little did i know that the triple rooms (occupied by the fam) were even worse. The rooms were dirty, weren't close to what was portrayed in the pictures, cockroaches were roaming all around, everyday. It was a nightmare that i could never forget.
Shall we talk about the breakfast ? Yes the food wasn't various but above all it lacked hygiene. I got intoxicated because of their breakfast and had to stay at bed with my friends the cockroaches :)

Im not usually picky about hotels but here, the minimum required wasn't even provided. At this point, the good location didn't even matter cuz the hotel itself is trashy.

AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS.

The photos and description are not accurate, they are even stolen from another hotel.

The cleaners are extremely careless and shout and talk loudly. In the corridor in front of the room, they had been welding all day and had turned the corridor into a construction site, and when I asked them to come through, they did not even move.

The pool and so-called "spa" in the basement was off-putting enough that we didn't dare go in, and the gym looked nothing like the pictures.

The staff are not helpful at all and seem quite ignorant. They didn't know English and they kept saying that they wanted us to speak to them in Turkish.

*BEWARE when booking. Photos and description not accurate.*

For the first night I was given a room which quite honestly was not even 1 star. Window view was literally of a brick wall and very poor quality, dated furnishings, with a completely substandard bathroom. The room was located right in front of the elevator with the door right next to the bed, you could therefore hear any guests going up and down in the lift.

I asked for the room to be changed but they could only facilitate this the next day. The next room was slightly better with a much better city view from the Juliet balcony. However it was still a low-end 3* quality at best.

The walls are super thin and so you can hear everything in the next room. The cleaners are extremely inconsiderate and will be shouting and talking loudly (including on their phone over loudspeaker) in the next room early morning, even if you have a do not disturb sign out.

The basement swimming pool was off-putting enough for us to not dare enter and the gym was nothing like the photos, it was located on a store closet next to the pool and consisted of a broken multigym, 1 treadmill and 1 rowing machine (not sure if these work because I could not bring myself to even attempt a work out).

The staff are not helpful at all and seem pretty clueless. They were unable to provide another room key for one of the room guests when the other was out in the town, which meant waiting for hours to get in to the room. Apparently this was due to hotel protocol and inability to create a further key card, which is bewildering. What if you lose your card?!

All in all, this was one of the worst hotel experiences I have had and is absolutely not worth the relatively expensive cost. Either pay a bit more for a significantly better option or go for another alternative.