Levent Hotel

I am disappointed by this review. As the new owners of the hotel and having little input into a pre existing contract between the tour operator and the previous owners, it had been my understanding that we, as owners of the hotel made the decisions about whether children were accepted or not. We had told the tour operator that the hotel was not suitable for children and since it was a small hotel, with a small pool we felt that lots of children would be a disturbance to older guests. At no time up until this incident was I aware that I could not exercise my own descretion as to who stayed in my hotel. There are several inaccuracies in this reivew. The writer states that it was halfway through their holiday - in fact they had just four days left of their two week holiday. The writer states that I allowed 'children' into the hotel, in fact it was just one child. My exact words to this reviewers' wife was that I 'made a commercial decision to allow the child to stay'. The word 'trade' is not part of my business vocabulary in relation to guests! The word 'trade' does not co exist with the ethos of home from home hospitality which we endeavour to foster in our hotel. The adults accompanying the child had been booked into the hotel by another business with whom we have an arrangement to provide accommodation and they were also not aware that a child would be coming. When the family arrived they had been driving for many hours and were exhausted. We are after all running a business and turning away guests who are tired and hungry is neither good business sense, nor particularly humanitarian, particularly when they had no where else to stay. This reviewer's wife complained to me about the little girl within ten minutes of her arrival. This child had done nothing disturbing, noisy or disruptive other than to exist on the terrace of the hotel. I expalined that I had not expected the child, but that I had allowed them to book in when they arrived because a) they had no where else to stay and were exhausted from their long drive, b) I had not had a chance to discuss with the parents how long they planned to stay or that the hotel was unsuitable for children and c) as we had very few guests at that time felt that we were in no financial position to turn away three paying guests. It was in this context that I made my 'commercial decision' comment. I also apologised profusely to both the reviewer and his wife for the distress this single child had caused them during the course of my explanation for her arrival and endeavoured to assure them that they would not be troubled by her presence. When the tour operator contacted me and explained that they had effectively sold the holiday as 'child free' and that they were now in breach of their contract with 'their' guests I went immediately to the childs' family, explained the situation and said that they would have to find accommodation somewhere else. Which they did. They were naturally disappointed and distressed, but have since been back on several occasions for dinner. In relation to the comments about our menu, I can categorically state that apart from the odd occasion when something is 'off' the menu (usually because it is so popular that it all gets eaten quickly) all of the dishes on our comprehensive menu of home cooked food is always available and as far as I can recall was available when the reviewer and his wife were staying. We do have daily specials, which are in addition to the normal menu and it is highly subjective to call this 'what is to hand'! We are a small family run hotel, our food is home cooked and the daily specials are made from fresh ingredients bought in for the sole purpose of offering our guests something 'extra' to what is on the menu. Our daily specials are often requests coming from the guests themselves, Steak and kidney pie and fresh fruit crumbles to name but two! Clearly this reviewer felt very strongly that we as hotel management let them down and somehow spoiled their holiday. I am much saddened by this, since it is our aim to ensure that all of our guests enjoy their holidays and go home with happy memories of their stay in the Levent Hotel. As a business we want people to return and we want people to recommend us to their friends. The hotel upgrade enjoyed by this reviewer and his wife appears to have made amends for their disatisfaction.

I am the new English owner of this hotel. My Turkish husband and myself will be opening for the 2008 season in May. We have noted all negative (and positive) comments about the hotel and have certainly endeavoured to address all the problems. We have decorated and updated some of the furnishings in the hotel and have a new English/Turkish menu which we consider to be competitively priced. We have made many changes which we believe will make the hotel more comfortable. As a family run hotel our aim is to provide our guests with the best possible service. We welcome returning happy guests are invite the disgruntled to give the hotel another chance.