Hotel Baba

"Okay, so I just got back from what was supposed to be a relaxing getaway, but honestly, my stay at Hotel Baba was anything but. Right off the bat, the people at reception were just...rude. No smiles, no help, just a general vibe that they'd rather be anywhere else. And no matter what problem you had, they were completely useless. Needed extra towels? Tough luck. Question about the area? Blank stares. The food? Let's just say I've had better meals on a plane. Everything tasted like it had been sitting out for days, and honestly, the whole place felt grimy. Like, actually dirty. I'm not usually one to complain, but seriously, do yourself a favor and book somewhere else. This place is a total waste of money and a major letdown. There’s a specific worker who worked at the reception desk who will make you want to leave as soon as you step a foot. I uploaded a photo of him as I assume he’s made other people also feel very unwelcomed and uncomfortable."

"I have stayed at this hotel many times in the past and it’s always been very basic yet clean and friendly with lots of atmosphere. This time we stayed, we found it to be quite poor, especially at breakfast in the morning. There was only ever water to drink at breakfast, during the full week there was only the first morning that there was a coffee or juice available….. the rest nothing. I also didn’t like how the hot food was left open all of the time, resulting in cold food and flies on it. When I did close one I used I was told they had to be kept open. The hot selection of food was very poor, but there was always chips for breakfast 🤣. Luckily, I like the Turkish breakfast as in the cheese and salami type meat and cucumber and tomato…. If you weren’t down there first thing for breakfast, there was no bread left. The pool side was disgusting, it wasn’t cleaned, there was a clump of hair on the drain for the first few days we were there. Pool safety was not adeared to at all. The life ring from the wall was used as a toy to float on in the pool by a Turkish family who were on holiday. I brought this to the attention of staff and was told “ well, maybe they can’t swim” which I thought was a totally ridiculous statement. If someone got into trouble in that pool, there was nothing to save them. There was also no music around the pool, nor anyone visiting the pool area with menus or asking if we’d like drinks fetching as there isn’t a pool bar. You have to walk around the side of the hotel to the front where the beach is and go to the bar, personally I would rather tip a waiter to do this for me when I’m on holiday. We would’ve eaten several times by the pool and had many drinks if this option had been available, which obviously is custom for the hotel. The rooms were clean (my cleaner was lovely and would speak when we passed in the hotel), they were cleaned daily and clean towels left. There is a fridge in some of the rooms, we had two rooms and only one had a fridge, only one had a safe which worked and only one had a key card which worked. The key card was sorted straight away and the mattress which you could feel the springs through was also changed straight away. We just used the working safe between the two rooms so that wasn’t an issue for us. Reception were always kind and courteous and spoke fantastic English…. Unlike the rest of the Hotel employees. The room I was in took some getting used to because there was a noise, like a generator or something which was on the go all of the time. I like a bit of background noise when I sleep, but this was irritating."

"Before I write a review about the hotel, I would like to point out that we had low expectations of it. We booked it 20 days before the trip without being informed about the hotel, aware that it only has three stars and no overly positive reviews. However, we came back delighted. It is true that the furniture in the hotel is old and there is no trace of luxury, but the kindness and friendliness of the staff makes up for it. If you are lucky enough to get rooms on the ground floor with large terraces, I am sure you will have a great time at the Baba Hotel. The beach is beautiful and not crowded, and the food is excellent, the chef is very pleasant and professional. The hotel only offers half board, but the food is so good that those two meals are quite enough for adults. But if you are going with a child, there are various restaurants in the area where you can have lunch. However, our experience shows that children do not like typical Turkish food so we ended up buying pizza in the supermarket across the street from the hotel. As for the other staff, the maids are not overly enthusiastic but if you leave them a tip from time to time you will have decent service. Not fantastic but bearable. On the other hand, the waiters on the beach are wonderful and love children very much. They often played with the children and sometimes treated them with ice cream. As far as I understood from reading the reviews here, the hotel gets the most complaints about the noise since it is surrounded by nightclubs. It is true that music can be heard all night but if you close the doors and windows you can sleep, and if you get hot in a hermetically sealed room you can use the air conditioning all night for no extra charge. In my opinion, the biggest problem with the hotel is communication, because few of the staff speak English clearly. But with the help of Google Translate, this problem is easily overcome. To summarize, Baba Hotel is one of the modest Turkish hotels I have visited but if the beach, the sea and the location in the center are more important to you than the appearance of the furniture, then this hotel is a good choice. It is located in the center of Gumbet and is surrounded by many shops. Next to it is a bus stop that takes you to the center of Bodrum very quickly for 1 euro. Of course, my impressions might not have been so positive if I had not encountered the friendliness of the hotel manager from the start, who tried to resolve any inconvenience that guests encountered. Those of tourists who would contact her directly had a much better experience than those who complained to the receptionists. But honestly, there really weren't many complaints. Most of the travelers around us were aware of what to expect, as they were mostly people who were vacationing at this hotel for the third or fourth time. We will probably follow their path too, we are already planning a return to this hotel next summer."