On Marhc 29 we arrived in Istanbul after some 30 hours of travel. I am a 74 y.O. Woman with multilple sclerosis travelling with my daughter. We got to the Poem Hotel around 10:30 P.M. Only to find that there was a Huge step on to the sidewalk and a furather flight of steps into the hotel itself. The night manager/clerk came rushing out and said he was so happy to see us. However, they were not handicap accessible (I can only walk 6 steps), and he would cancel our reservation and our money would be refunded without penalty.
My daughter then got on their computer to hotels.com and explained the situation stressing that both the pictures on the hotels.com site stated that this lovely hotel was accessible. This man said, yes it was, no it isn't says my daughter. She mentioned that I had previously booked with the BEst Western Antea Palace and was that still available, the clerk answered yes, it was. So, we got another taxi and went over the Antea Palace. I told the clerk there that I had had a reservation but it may have been cancelled.
The clerk said thatthey had a room but we would have to move the next day. We took the room, one round queen bed, non accessible bathroom/toilet. The next morning we went down to the clerk who moved us to another room again, not accessible. When we complained they stated they did not have accessible rooms, although I had been told that they had a walk in shower. For 9 days we stayed, I was only able to have a shower three times as in order to get into the shower I had to step up, which I could do with the aid of my daughter and by holding on to the bottom of the shower pipe.
The toilet was so low that I had to lock the bathroom door and lower myself with myk cane hooked over the door lock. The front desk peoplewere either completely ignorant of what handicapped peopole need and made no effort to assist. They booked tours which involved my climbing (with the aid of two men, one on either side of me) 5 steps into a somewhat rickety boat for a tour of the Bosporhouse. The final straw was that we were charged 199 dollars a night for a room which on the hotel.com site was 128 dollars a night.
Anyway, we got home safely after ten days in Istanbul, which was truly magnificent. Upon talking with hotels.com I was informed that they had NOT ;booked me there although I know they did. What a mess, what a loss, no more trips for me, money left, we spent over a thousand dollars on an inferior hotel where, to get it, it tooks two men to push me up the huge ramp entrance. Does BEst western do anything for this snafu? No...
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