Hotel Bella, Selcuk, Turkey

We booked three nights online to stay at Hotel Bella in Selcuk, Turkey.
Check-in was friendly, but we got the impression that it was all a tad fake.
We went up to our room on the first floor.
After we’d freshened-up we went back downstairs to be told about breakfast times etc. We were taken into the ajoining carpet and ceramic shop to be shown a map book of the area.
Just because Richard is pale skinned does not mean we’re ‘fresh off the boat’, so it was a complete waste of time attempting to get us to buy anything as we were quite obviously not that gullible, and thankfully the guy speaking to us realised that and didn’t give us the hard sell.

Our room at Hotel Bella in Selcuk, Turkey was very small, really pokey, not really suitable for two people, especially considering the amount of furniture, and the way it was laid out.
There was a double bed and a single bed in the room, definitely one bed too many. Other furniture included a slim wardrobe and a chest of drawers.
Thankfully there was just the two of us, as I have no idea how three people would be able to fit in the room at the same time.
Removing the single bed, and placing the wardrobe in that empty space would make it much easier to move round the room. It would also make getting in and out of bed less like mountaineering. And then a bedside unit would fit next to bed, so guests wouldn’t have to leave their mobile phone, drinks, or whatever, on the floor.

There was no TV in our room, we would have liked to be able to watch the news etc. Having said that, finding a suitable place for a TV would have been difficult in such a small room.
There was only one useable electric socket in the room, which made charging all of our gadgets, DSLR camera batteries, video camera battery etc. difficult.
The lamp on top of the drawer unit next to the single bed was fixed to the top, so we couldn’t move it. As the top of the unit was literally the only place in the room to put things, that was irritating.

The bathroom was quite roomy compared to the size of the bedroom – once you managed to actually get in it. The double bed in our room was right in front of the bathrom door, which left only a few inches access.
There was a shower, which when there was hot water, was pretty decent.
Unfortunately on several occasions when we wanted to shower there was no hot water at all, which, after walking round Ephesus in the heat all day, was very bad.
The towels were fresh and clean though, and there were tiny bottles of shampoo etc.
Sometimes there was a nasty odour coming in from the drains.

Not only was our room pokey and cramped, all of the furniture was bulky. We both knocked our legs and feet several times on the wooden beds, and banged ourselves when entering and exiting the bathroom.
Maybe we should have been grateful that our room was the size it was, because whilst some of the neighbouring rooms were being cleaned we looked inside them, and they appeared to be even smaller than ours. Oh my!

Breakfast was included in our room rate. It was served between 8am and 10am, up on the roof terrace. We were given a plate of food, a slice of orange, a slice of apple, a slice of kiwi fruit, a slice of cucumber, a piece of gala melon, a piece of watermelon, an apricot, a piece of tomato, a couple of skinny raw carrot sticks, a piece of soft cheese, half a sesame seed roll, and three cherries. We were also given a basket of sliced white bread, and four small dishes of condiments; honey, cherry jam, strawberry jam, and black olives.
We were offered tea or coffee, and a choice of eggs. The first morning I had a boiled egg. The yolk was hard, the white was snotty, inedible. The following morning I asked for scrambled egg. It was very oily, not nice at all. On our last morning at the hotel we asked for fired eggs, we were given two each which were in various states of hard, and slightly runny.

Hotel Bella is one of the noisiest hotels we’ve ever stayed in. The doors on guests rooms were difficult to lock, which meant people were having to fiddle and click their keys. This may not sound too much of a problem, but sound in the hotel really echoes, so it was disturbing. Also we could hear everything in the neighbouring rooms, people peeing, showering, talking etc. There was often the sound of furniture being moved, probably by other guests trying to move about in their cramped rooms.
We were also disturbed by people clip-clopping up and down the stairs, and by telephones ringing, presumably in the reception. Another disturbance was staff shouting up the stairs to other staff members. And finally one more thing, considering the hotel is not on the main road the traffic noise was quite loud too.

In trying to think of something positive to say about Hotel Bella. I thought of one thing, they offer guests a complimentary shuttle bus to Ephesus, we used this service, we thought it was good.
Ephesus is only 3 kilometres away though, and the hotel isn’t cheap, so as the saying goes, nothing is for free.
Also to get picked up after visiting Ephesus we were told to go in to one of the bookshops near the exit. We didn’t do this, but another couple from the hotel said they popped in and all the owner of the bookshop was interested in was persuading them to buy things. In fact he didn’t even phone the hotel for them, they saw us sitting in a nearby cafe bar and asked us to phone the hotel, which we did. Thankfully we had a Vodafone TR sim card in our iPhone, so it wasn’t a problem for us to phone the hotel to ask for a pickup for the four of us.
Actually there was one thing we thought was good about our stay at Hotel Bella, the WiFi was free, and better still we managed to pick it up over 400 metres away (line of sight) in an outdoor restaurant we frequented.

We didn’t enjoy our stay at Hotel Bella in Selcuk, Turkey.
I was wishing the hours away until we checked out, to be able to enjoy some peace and quiet.
We were very disappointed that we’d chosen Hotel Bella, as we were really looking forward to staying there having read lots of really good reviews online.
It’s baffling how anyone would have anything positive to say about it, that’s if any of the online reviews were genuine.
The hotel has, ‘Come as a guest, leave as a friend’ written on their sign. That’s quite funny considering the unpleasant vibes. It wasn’t just us who thought that, other guests we spoke to agreed.
We felt that all of the staff at Hotel Bella were only friendly and pleasant to guests who were eating in the rooftop restaurant, purchasing goods from the carpet shop, or booking tours.
If you didn’t do any of those things, it was pretty obvious they didn’t want you there.

Speaking of the carpet shop, no doubt it makes lots of money selling overpriced goods to people who don’t really want or need them, but it seemed like such a wasted space. The shop was quite large, and would have made a great cafe bar. There was enough space outside it for a few tables and chairs, it would definitely be a nice spot for guests to relax after a day of sightseeing. But I guess flogging coffee, beer, snacks and icecream isn’t as profitable as flogging rugs.
Speaking of beer, we need one to help us blot the memory of our, thankfully short, stay at Hotel Bella.

Hotel Bella
Ataturk Mah. | St. John Street No:7, Selcuk, Turkey
+902328923944

http://www.hotelbella.com

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