FlyerTalk Forums - DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Avanos

Introduction We stayed at the Double Tree Avanos hotel during our stay in Cappadocia. During high season, rates are around 50 EUR so using points at 10k pts per night is relatively fair value. The hotel is far from being luxury but it was generally in good shape and I believe the Double Tree branding is adequate for this property: it is a notch below Hilton but better than Hampton Inn or Hilton Garden Inn. The hotel was fully booked when we were there except for our last night; almost all guests were Chinese tour groups. On occasion this can be a drawback if you are travelling as a couple not in a tour, but for our purposes it worked fine. The hotel was almost empty between 9am and 4pm when the tour groups are away so staff were fully available for any request. Location Visiting the Cappadocia region is highly recommended but the question is where to book a hotel specifically, within the region. Avanos is a nice little village, but most tourists would prefer Göreme, and some other villages as well such as Ürgüp. The other issue is that the Double Tree hotel is in a residential area away from the town center of Avanos where all the shops and restaurants are, and it is not that short of a walk there (2-3 km). If you stay at DT I would highly recommend a rental car otherwise for any tourist site you want to go you will need a taxi. DT has free parking in a small underground garage which has no more than 12 parking spots. Not a lot of people come to the hotel by car and the lot was hardly used. In some destinations I like being away from the action if the purpose is to have a quiet relaxing time for example in Bodrum. However in Cappadocia the busy areas are not that hectic and this is not a beach destination where I want to spend considerable time in a quiet resort, so personally I feel Avanos is not ideal, and especially not being on the outskirts of Avanos. That said, if you are just looking for a bed, it’s only a short drive to many tourist sites.The hotel is the yellow/gold building in the middle of the picture below. Room The hotel only has two suites and they told me they upgrade Diamonds to suites when available. They offered us to move to a suite for our last night but I preferred to stay put and not change rooms because it was not worth it for only one day. The basic room was fine although a bit small particularly the bathroom but everything is functional. There is a nice cove at the end of the bedroom. Most of the room is in decent shape except a few minor defects such as the power outlets which could come off the wall if you pull on the cord too quickly and the bathroom door which slides (no lock) but would not close completely. This is a DT hotel in Turkey at low cost – set your expectations accordingly, but as far as I am concerned, I did not think it was below reasonable expectations. The shower had good water pressure, the AC worked well, and we were not exceedingly disturbed by noise coming from other rooms – only some modest door slamming every now and then. So overall no major complaints and the hotel ticks the important boxes of what I was looking for during the stay.The view from the room was nice Dining As a Diamond we got free breakfast in the restaurant. If going to the restaurant early morning, it is busy because of tour groups but given that we had breakfast rather late, it turned out to be to our advantage because we were practically alone each morning and we had a peaceful time. The quality of the food is so-so but acceptable; some veggies were not the most fresh but other items were ok. While the quality might not be top notch, the spread is quite good – lots of choices of olives, cheese, many hot dishes including sausages, a Turkish pastry, potato fries, a made-to-order egg station, etc. We also ordered room service and it was equally ok food, good but not great. Food is generally very cheap in Cappadocia but normally for room service in a hotel you expect to pay a price premium relative to local restaurants. Not here. Even for Cappadocia standards, room service was cheap: for example, a caesar salad and a pasta dish was $6 total, both being decent portions. However the menu was quite limited and not something we wanted to order more than a couple of times. Pool The hotel has an indoor and outdoor pool. Given that all group tours were not on the hotel property during the day, most times there was nobody at the pool and I only saw a few guests there. Gym The gym is small but similar to the pool, since all guests were out visiting, the gym was almost always empty when I went there a few times to re-fill water bottles. Perhaps there were people using the gym before breakfast starts at 7am but I was not in the gym at that time. Service Overall the service in the hotel is ok and most staff can understand and speak English at an acceptable level, or could find a colleague who would understand. Several of them remembered me by name and/or room number. When asking for directions and information the staff was helpful and even for special requests such as when I asked for a DVD player to watch a movie in our room, they did not have one but they loaned us a hotel laptop which was appreciated. However if we had a request while group tours were in the hotel then it was harder to get attention. One evening we wanted fresh towels to be brought to our room along with more soap and shampoo. I could hear on the phone that the reception area was loud so I knew they were busy with check-ins. I called twice, never received anything, and just gave up. Overall Overall it’s an ok hotel and decent for the price you pay. There is almost no competition from international hotel chains in the area; I only saw a Ramada and a Crowne Plaza, and nothing at all from Hyatt or Marriott. There used to be a Design hotel (Starwood) but it was deflagged earlier this year. So if you need Hilton night credits you can easily burn points in Avanos-Cappadocia because it costs so little that I am assuming anybody will have enough points to cover their stay. However here I think the main question is not which chain hotel to choose, but whether you should stay in a chain hotel in Avanos, or go to an independent cave hotel in a better location such as Göreme. No knock on the DT hotel in Avanos, but personally if I return to Cappadocia I might be interested in trying a cave hotel in Göreme where you can easily walk to several nice shops and restaurants, but I think that is a matter of personal preference. If I come to Cappadocia outside of high season with better odds of a suite upgrade, the value proposition would be significantly improved.