gelincik,

You are the owners of Sultanahmet Suites.

Stop this now. I don't think you've done yourself or your ApartHotel any favours at all.

Also, stop asking your former guests to write rave reviews on tripadvisor. It is extremely unethical.

You threatened your former guest who posted a critical review on tripadvisor. Then you discussed private lives of that guest on a public forum.

NO HOTEL MANAGER should ever call a former guest in her home country and threaten her. NO HOTEL MANAGER should expose customers’ privacy on the internet. This is a true misconduct and is totally against all ethics of hotel management.

Here is what people say about Sultanahmetsuites.

"(The Sultanahmetsuites owners) talked about the private lives (of guests) in a strangely defamatory manner (in a public forum). This is a very serious invasion of privacy by a Hotel Manager into the private lives of hotel's guests. Ladies and Gentlemen, It seems that if you want your private lives be exposed in public forums, you should stay at Sultanahmet Suites a couple of days. This is a very sad affair. "

"To violate the privacy of guests is the last straw for any hotel managers, and I certainly will not mention this property to prospective visitors nor will I speak positively of it in the future."

"The owners of Sultanahmet Suites do not have the capacity, skills, training, and especially goodwill to run an establishment be it in Sultanahmet or anywhere else.”

For details of the threats and other unethical misconducts committed by the owners, please read tripadvisor Istanbul forum, "Don't stay at Sultanahmet Suites" and "Busy-Retired - Sultanahment Suites".

Everyone, please avoid this dreadful place.

ttt

I stayed at Sultanahmetsuites for 5 days and I had a very positive experience
Service was warm, welcoming, professional, the location is very good
Enjoyed my stay here very much. The hotel had a friendly family atmosphere and the manager, Mr joy, was a gentleman.

We would certainly stay again.
Also other guest reviews:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...-Istanbul.html

What is funny about these TA reviews is that there are 2 reviews of this property, written on 18 November, by two "different" "guests".

And BOTH reviews are identical to the last letter!

Hey ekscrunchy, good job!

The OWNERS of Sultanahmet Suites, a.k.a. "gelincik", do this all the time. The husband and wife solicit rave reviews from their former guests via e-mail, then copy and paste those reviews on TA. It is funny that, on Nov. 18, they somehow decided to create 2 pseudo names and put the same review twice!

On other travel sites, like here on Fodor’s, they disguise themselves as guests and self-praise their own hotel. It is pathetic and shameful.

Everyone, avoid Sultanahmet Suites when you are in Istanbul. It’s very far away from Sultanahmet, anyway, in an abyss down a steep hill. You don’t have to get into trouble and destroy your pleasant holiday at this place.

Enjoy!

To know more about unethical misconducts and threats committed by Sultanahmet Suites owners, go to:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...-Istanbul.html

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...-Istanbul.html

Click on the Sultanahmet Suites reviewers'names. First time posters on TripAdvisor. Interesting. ekscrunchy wins the Charlie Chan award!

Weekender, your analysis is excellent.

This hotel has ONLY 4 ROOMS, but 11 reviews (all of them raving!) appeared on TA in 2 months from October to November 2007. Other hotels with 30-40 rooms in Sultanahmet have just a few reviews, both positive and negative ones, spread over many years. The reason is obvious. The owner and his wife of Sultanahmet Suites solicit reviews from former guests.

The wife, or "josephine009" on TA, touts her hotel on the site. She initially denied her true identity and claimed she was a friend of the owners. But after being pressed hard by TA's Istanbul forum participants, she finally came out and admitted, "I am A owner. My guest are writing to my personel e-mail they say thank you and last two mounths I wanted from them if they writes to TA it will be helpfull and they did".

She is repeating the same thing here on Fodor's with a different name "gelincik" on another thread, "Istanbul hotel alternatives? Any good B&B's?". She wrote, "I am not A owner or Staf of Sultanahmetsuites you can not blame people like that I dont want to any discuss with you I just wanted to send my travel experience
and I recommend Sultanahmetsuites all travellers".

By the way, TA has never deleted coerced reviews she keeps posting. Is this usual? Or could this be intentional to show a great collection of fake and coerced reviews gathered by a hotelier?

If you go to "Istanbul hotel alternatives? Any good B&B's?", you can see touting of gelincik and her c*azy rambling (as usual). :)

Wow...thank for all of the great music, food and trip advice but I certainly got hijacked and had more information than I ever wanted about the Sultanehmetsuites...any publicity is good pubicity as they say...

So, any more advice for me on my upcoming Istanbul trip. I am staying at the Galata Residence...so, tell me about interesting stores, markets or restaurants in that area.

I also have my 17 year old daughter who loves to shop but loves interesting boutiques- things that are different from the regular stores we'd find in NYC where we live.

Please keep the suggestions coming but the rants post on someone's space.

I am sorry risab,

I will open a new independent thread about Sultanahmet Suites.

As for Empress Zoe, I suggest that you read how Empress Zoe has responded to reviews on TA. For me, their management responses more than tell us the personality of the managers there.

Enjoy your trip to Istanbul!

Denizlove

now it Sounds like I am now being hijacked with reviews for Empress Zoe...

Please note most recent response says that I am staying at Galata Residence not Empress Zoe...