Hotel Club Barbarossa

We have carefully reviewed the comments of our guests. Barbarossa emits a lot of positive energy and is located in a great setting. We have great staff and loyal guests. We feel rather upset by the negative feelings. The guest did not have a prior reservation and come from the road after comparing our property with lots of others. It is surprising that the customers did not actually leave the property once they realized it was not for them. Instead they have stayed three days. Many of the aspects that our guests did not appreciate are actually are plus points. Our cakes are homemade and we have a regular 5 o’clock tea. We cook omelets as an addition to our breakfast buffet. We prepare our breads in our wood burning oven and the taste is out of this world. Regarding sewage smell, Barbarossa and a few properties single handedly build the infrastructure to pump our sewage in a green way to the central sewage processing system at the cost of over 30 thousands of dollars. So we don't have a sewage system; it is pumped out of the system right away for processing at about 1 mile plus from the property. So we are not sure which smell the guests were referring to. Our swimming pool uses fresh water from the sea constantly and it is crystal clear (the pumps are able to change the water of the pool 3 times a day). It is one of our most outstanding features. Barbarossa has a staff strength of dozen plus and one of our uncontested aspect is our cleanliness. So we are surprised to read the comments about the towels etc. The beach wraps are actually not towels but wraps that are used in the Turkish culture in the baths etc. I guess the guests are unfamiliar with this custom and compared the wraps to table covers! We believe the best reference to our success is references we get from past customers. They usually return back and recommend us to their friends/relatives. About 90 plus percent of our occupancy comes from guests that approach Barbarossa directly. We wish that the guests have shared their concerns with us during their stay and gave us the opportunity to work with them.

A common feedback we get from our guests is that our website does not come close to conveying the fact that Barbarossa is such a dear place. So it was a surprise for me to read the comments of our guest from Istanbul. Barbarossa has been rated as one of the top ten boutique hotels in Turkey in the last three years. The pride of our hotel is its staff, its food and its cleanliness. We have a diverse group of quests who stay at our hotel, including international singers/film stars, professionals and even hotel chain owners. There have been upgrades at Barbarossa. Last year we installed a central heating system. During this process there were some pipes exposed waiting for the final inspection. Now that the system is fully functional, Barbarossa is one of the very few facilities that are open in Kas throughout the year. Regarding the sewer smell (referred to in the comment as the water treatment); unfortunately we had to do our own biological treatment until last summer. During the year we were able to connect the sewer lines to the central wastewater treatment facility on the peninsula using our own funds and installing over a mile of piping. Our pool is a saltwater pool therefore is not chemically treated. Fresh seawater is pumped from the Mediterranean daily (and with it some sand). As our guest from Istanbul points out, our pool staff cleans the pool everyday. As part of our improvements last year, all of the rooms at Barbarossa were refurnished with fine furniture and high quality linens for the utmost comfort of our guests. Again as our guest from Istanbul pointed out, we are blessed to have a very meticulous cleaning staff keeping the entire property in an immaculate state. As part of our quality control, all beach towels and wraps are replaced several times in a season. Our chefs at Barbarossa take pride in serving high quality (mostly organic) and exceptionally tasty food with the help of our wood-burning oven year around. I am sorry that the expectations of our guest from Istanbul were not fulfilled to his/her satisfaction. I am glad that the beauty and the serenity of gardens and the sea have been mentioned on a positive note in our guest’s comment. We would want every one of our guests to leave Barbarossa with fond and long-lasting memories and we will make every effort to satisfy our guests’ needs.