Tuntas Beach Hotel Altinkum

I would encourage international travellers to pay close attention to who has written the reviews before booking. Many of the negative reviews were from international visitors. This matched our own experience.

1. No room on arrival

Our holiday got off to a terrible start. We arrived at the hotel at around 1:00am and were taken to a room that was already occupied, which was an extremely awkward experience for both us and the other guests (who were also from the UK).

We were then left waiting for a couple of hours while the hotel tried to find us a room. During this time, our children ended up sleeping on sofas in the lobby. Eventually, we were given a temporary room with only one bed for our family of four. A folding bed was brought in, but there was no space for another one, so I had to share a bed with my children. Next day we got a bigger room, only just big enough to fit four beds placed tightly next to each other.

2. No willingness to help or acknowledge the problems

What disappointed us even more was how the situation was handled afterwards. It took a full week – half of our holiday – before the hotel finally acknowledged what had happened, and this only happened after Love Holidays became involved. Before then, we felt the hotel did not recognise the seriousness of the situation or offer any apology.

Love Holidays emailed me saying that they've heard from the hotel that the manager had personally spoken to us about the matter and that compensation had been arranged. This was not true at all. No member of the hotel management discussed the complaint with us after the night of our arrival, and no goodwill gestures were offered until Love Holidays intervened. It was only then that we were offered a larger family room, complimentary access to the pier and sunbeds, late check-out, and lunch and dinner on our departure day. We appreciated these gestures and accepted them so that we could enjoy the remainder of our holiday. However, we feel it is important to point out that they were only offered after Love Holidays became involved and not when the incident first occurred.

3. Standard

The hotel itself is quite dated and, in my opinion, does not meet the 4-star rating advertised on Love Holidays. I think it is closer to 2-3 stars. The bathrooms need renovating. Our shower was disappointing throughout the stay – the water was usually only lukewarm, and because the shower fitting was broken, around half of the water came out of the tap instead of the shower head. We reported this to reception but nothing changed but it wasn't the biggest problem for us.

4. Noise

The biggest issue for us throughout the holiday was the noise. Every night there was extremely loud music from nearby clubs until around 4:00–5:00am, making it very difficult to get a good night's sleep, especially for families with children. Even with the balcony doors fully closed, the noise was so loud that I often couldn't fall asleep until the early hours of the morning. We reported this to reception. To their credit, one of the helpful receptionists Kaan showed us three other rooms and offered to move us. However, after checking all of them, the noise levels were exactly the same, so there was no benefit in changing rooms.

5. Food

The food is mostly aimed at Turkish guests. There were some chips, wedges, rice and pasta most days with choice of meat stews, cooked veg and fresh salads. The only fish is I think mackerel once a week. Chicken nuggets were not edible for my kid who normally loves them. Some stews were really nice. Most guests will probably find something to eat at each meal (lots of chicken) but the choice is limited if you prefer more familiar food. Families with fussy children will struggle. Desserts were entirely traditional Turkish sweets with lots of syrup honey nuts so most europeans won't eat any. My kids did not eat any desserts and I've only had one desert that was more like a regular cake during the two weeks holidays so that was a big disappointment. Fruits served every time was oranges, and rotation of watermelon, peach, green apple.

Two of us also suffered from food poisoning even though throughout the holiday we only drank bottled water or filtered water from the hotel's water dispensers and no ice. While I cannot say exactly what caused the illness, we didn't eat out before this happened.

6. Staff

The staff were very mixed. Some were genuinely kind and helpful, particularly John on reception, who provided excellent customer service, and Mahomet who was helping to find us a room when we arrived and night. Kaan as mentioned before. Nilgun from the housekeeping team, who was always friendly and hardworking. Unfortunately, our experience with some reception staff was very different. We found some to be rude, dismissive and unwilling to help, especially after the problems we experienced on arrival.

7. A hotel aimed at Turkish guests

We also noticed that the vast majority of guests were Turkish – I would estimate around 99% during our stay. As foreign tourists, we often felt like we stood out and did not always feel as welcome as the local guests.

There were a couple of occasions when we felt that Turkish guests were given priority at reception, even though we had been waiting longer to be served. This was our personal experience, but it left us with the impression that the hotel is much better suited to local Turkish guests than to international visitors.

8. Language barrier

Visitors should also be aware that not all staff speak basic English, which can make resolving problems more difficult.

9. Not enough sunbeds

Another issue was the availability of sunbeds. If you wanted any chance of getting one, you had to get up at around 6:00am to reserve it. By 9:00am, there were usually no sunbeds left by the beach. This made it very difficult to have a relaxed holiday without getting up extremely early every morning, especially when you didn't sleep all night due to the noise.

10. Not a hotel for kids

Despite being advertised as a family hotel, we did not feel it was particularly family-friendly. In our opinion, it is much better suited to younger adults looking for a lively holiday. The hotel and surrounding area are very noisy. Families with young children or anyone looking for a quiet, relaxing holiday should be aware of this before booking.

11. Only one room key

Hotel provides only one room key per room. Normally this wouldn't be a major issue, but when temperatures are around 40°C every day, it becomes a real problem because the air conditioning and fridge only work when the room key is inserted into the power slot.

If you leave the room for a few hours, you return to a room that is extremely hot. The air conditioning is also very basic and takes a long time to cool the room. Even with it set to the minimum temperature of 17°C continuously, the room never felt cooler than around 25°C.

To get around one key policy, we often had to leave the key in the room to keep the air conditioning running. Every time we returned, we then had to ask reception to unlock the door for us. This made little sense, created extra work for the reception staff, and was inconvenient for everyone involved.

9. Beds

The beds were very uncomfortable, and instead of duvets or blankets you'll get thick rough sheets (not really blankets) that were not soft or comfortable to sleep under.

Overall, there are some positives, including the beachfront location and some genuinely lovely members of staff. We had best time on trips to Pamukkale, Hierapolis, Milet, Apollo temple, local bazaar etc. so hotel is located well if you want to explore. However, because of our arrival experience, some staff attitude, the nightly noise, uncomfortable beds, poor sleep, cold showers, no desserts and not enough food choices for kids we would not choose to stay there ever again even if it was offer to us free if charge.

Location was ok, about 30min walk from main seafront. The atmosphere around the hotel was relaxed although people were reserving sun loungers the night before and very bargy at lunch and dinner. Food wasn't great, nearly the same every night. Was told water was provided in the room everyday but this did not happen. Good size rooms with shower, water was only Luke warm and did not drain very well.