Dollars or Turkish Lira??
 

I notice the hotels in Turkey quote prices in dollars and euros.....with a discount for cash payment....do they accept U.S. dollars as payment or do you have to pay in YTLs?

I'm just back from Turkey. I paid hotel bills in both euros and YTL. Never in dollars

We visited Turkey in July. Never paid in dollars, only in YTL, Euros, or credit cards.

If you pay CASH with any kind of money you can get some DISCOUNT. The percentage of discount is up to your negotiate skills.

Have a nice trip in Turkey

Sinan Akdeniz

Sinan: Does that mean that if a hotel quotes you a price in dollars that they WILL take dollars as payment?

It's been a couple of years, but traveling in Turkey was the only place in recent memory where we took some US dollar Travelers Checks. That was because we booked two hotels that specified if we paid in US dollars (the quoted rates they were doing) then we'd get a 10% discount, and that included using TC's.

NO,
Most of the hotel prefer CASH money (Any kind of money) that's why you can get some discount.

Have a nice trip in Turkey

Sinan Akdeniz

Recently returned from Istanbul. Hotels want lira but in the shops they liked US$ or combination of credit card and cash

Now that the lira is trying to peg itself to the euro, in terms of foreign currency, Turkey much prefers to accept euros rather than the sinking dollar.

Just returned and my hotel in Ankara was priced in dollars as were my 2 hotels in Urgup. My Istanbul hotel was in Euros. I got 10% off for cash in most but not all of them. Nobody wanted credit cards.

A number of ATMS give you the option of taking out money in Euros or dollars in addition to lira. I took out the actual currency requested b/c I calculated that I got the best rate that way (plus if you take out in dollars you save the 3% FX fee).

The dollar fell $1.41 to the Euro while I was there. Was approx $0.90 to the lira - ouch!

One more thing - if they price something in Euros or dollars, they will accept lira but will usually give you a bad exchange rate.

My hotel in Istanbul was 59 Euros (but would accept 177 lira). Before goign to the bank to get the money, I plugged both prices into Yahoo's currency converter in the computer in the hotel lobby and it was $15 cheaper if I paid in Euros!!