Turkish Travel Tips III: Save Money by Staying at a Turkish Budget Hotel

For those who made it through my ode to the Turkish budget hotel and were left wanting more, here is my step-by-step guide to checking in at a Turkish budget hotel.

General Tips

1. Do not reserve a hotel online in Turkey. Many budget hotels do not have websites. The ones that do will charge you inflated prices if you book online because they know that foreigners from North America and Western Europe are not used to bartering cultures and will happily pay the quoted price because it seems cheaper than the cost of hotels in their country. If you are worried that there may not be space in a given city (you are a large party, it is a holiday in Turkey, or it is high season in a popular area for tourists), try calling the hotel instead and bargaining over the phone. You are still likely to pay a higher price, but nothing like you would have paid using a site like Booking.com
2. Ask to see the room before you pay. Often, lobbies will appear nicer than the rooms to coax visitors to shell out more cash. This strategy will also prevent them from sticking you in the worst room in the place, which is usually small and/or windowless. Checking the room is also a good way to gauge whether the hotel might secretly be a brothel.
3. Breakfast is always included in Turkish hotels. If they try to charge you extra for breakfast, make an angry face and find another hotel. Note: This does not apply to campsites.
4. In places that don’t see a lot of foreign tourists, hotels are cheaper. In Iznik or Konya, for example, what you can get for the same price is a lot better than in Istanbul or Izmir. Adjust your expectations accordingly.
5. Test the internet before you decide to stay somewhere. Budget hotel internet connections can be iffy, but they don’t have to be. You can probably get a hotel for the same price with a good internet connection, so unless you are trying to go off the grid for a bit, I suggest finding a place where the internet works. Then you can show your friends your mad cockroach exterminating skills over Skype.

Bargaining Tips

6. To bargain most effectively I would suggest saying, “this is very expensive!” in Turkish. To do this, say, “Çok pahalɪ ya! (Choke pa-HAL-euh yah) as though you’re reproaching the hotel receptionist for suggesting you murder a baby. Then laugh coquettishly, as if his desire to get money out of you is roguishly charming.

Seriously. It works like a charm.

After this, see how low they’ll go before you quote a price, because if you quote one they might agree quickly, and you’ll have overpaid. After the lowest price they quote, quote a price 5 or 10 lira lower. You might get it, you might not, but it’s worth a try.

7. Don’t ask for prices if there is another foreigner anywhere in the vicinity. Hotel staff know that it will look bad if you get a room for 50 lira while that clueless tourist from Texas paid 150 lira. Be discreet.
8. Peek over the counter. Often, Turkish hotels have a register book that documents how much each guest is paying for his room. If you can manage to do it discreetly it’s a great, though perhaps slightly unethical, way to gauge a reasonable price for the hotel.
9. You can negotiate a better price per night if you play to stay several nights at the same hotel. A hotel may be willing to give you a room for 50 lira for one night, 90 lira for two nights, 120 lira for three nights, and so on. If you’re staying in the same city for a while, this is a great way to bargain too. So for example, ask the price for one night. Once you’ve got that the lowest you can go, (for the sake of argument, we’ll say it’s 50 lira) then ask, “Okay, can I pay 120 lira for three nights?”

What if I want to spend even less money?

When I say “budget hotel” I am actually talking about mid-low range hotels. Bottom of the barrel hotels exist too, and can be worth it if you are really travelling on a shoe-string. You may, however, be forced to compromise in the areas of internet access, hot water, or air conditioning. Make sure you ask what is included in the price. If I weren’t a single woman travelling alone, I would definitely check some of these places out.

But bargaining makes me uncomfortable!

Too true! If, like me, you’re not from a bargaining culture, bargaining can be exhausting. I struggle with feelings of guilt because I am paying pennies for services that would be expensive back home.

Sometimes you might not feel like it, and that’s okay. For spending a week in Istanbul, it’s not a huge deal. However, if you’re really on a budget or spending an extended period of time in Turkey, I recommend it. Do remember that purchasing power in Turkey is different; $25 will go a lot further than it will in Western Europe and North America.

The other thing is, as one Turkish friend explained to me, in touristy areas demand from the wealthy (Western Europeans and Gulf Arabs) drives up the prices which locks Turkish people out of the market. So if you’re looking for a good reason to bargain, this is it.

That being said, remember that it’s just money. If you overpay a few times it’s not the end of the world. While I’m never happy when I know that somebody is intentionally trying to get money out of me just by virtue of my nationality, I also think that generosity never goes out of style. Do your best to straddle the fine line between being a scrooge and being savvy.