Istanbul going rates and recommendations?

[Erid]

Will be visiting Istanbul later this year. What is the going rates there right now in 2023? Any recommendations? Looking for top only. I checked out a few guys that caught my attention and wonder if you have any other recommendations. 

Ottomanhunk - Pornstar Performer, Rentboy, Gay Massage in Istanbul, Turkey | RentMen

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Pornstar Performer & Rentboy in Istanbul, Turkey - Ottomanhunk: Bearded, Hairy Body and Muscle Man .

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Pornstar Performer & Rentboy in Istanbul, Turkey - Fotballer: Top Footballer.

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Pornstar Performer & Rentboy in Istanbul, Turkey - BienEscort: ★ Vers XL Turkish/Lebanese guy in Town. ★

I checked a few guys with rates displayed on RM profiles and it seems ridiculously high for market like Istanbul, around 300 USD, is that the normal going rate there?

Also, are hotels in Istanbul expensive? I remember checking 2 years ago and it seems very reasonable but now it seems like all international chain hotels like Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, the room rate is like $250 plus per night. I just find it kind of usual for a country going through so much economic turmoil and everything else (i.e. dining out) seems relatively inexpensive compared to U.S. and Europe.

[Wolfer]

I can't help you with your questions, I'm sorry. But I did want to say you have very good taste in men!

As for answers to your questions, I'm curious to know too. 

[pubic_assistance]

On 8/6/2023 at 3:19 AM, Erid said:

it seems like all international chain hotels like Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, the room rate is like $250 plus per night

In my experience you always over-pay for International (American) Chain hotels, no matter what country you're in. 

I remember trying to pre book a hotel room in Beijing and finding the prices ridiculous. So I decided instead to wait and look when I was there. Right away I found a beautiful Chinese Brand Hotel for $120/night that was nicer than the Marriot, Hilton and other US brands that were asking $300.

[forrestreid]

On 8/8/2023 at 2:22 PM, pubic_assistance said:

In my experience you always over-pay for International (American) Chain hotels, no matter what country you're in. 

 

I second that view.

I wouldn’t necessarily be the greatest fan of Istanbul  for various reasons, but one thing it does well is high quality hotels at bargain rates.

For example, I just picked a random date in September and searched on Booking.com for hotels that are at least four stars or more, and had a “superb” or “exceptional” rating on booking.com. I  found 58 properties available for less than €150 a night (and 28 for less than €100).

The big American chains didn’t feature amongst them, as they seem to charge more of a standard fee per night, no matter what city you are in Europe.

I have no doubt that the current currency problems facing the Turkish lira are a part of the reason you get such bargains at the moment, although as I said, Istanbul is always a very good deal for luxury hotels.

I think sometimes high-end customers from the USA are a bit reluctant to venture away from the Marriott and Hilton etc line up. But I can guarantee you that if you see an independent hotel in Istanbul, that is 4 or 5 stars, and has an extremely high rating on Booking.com (from at least, say, 100 reviewers - only people have stayed can leave reviews on Booking.com) you are pretty much guaranteed a good experience.

Edited August 10, 2023 by forrestreid
clarity

[pubic_assistance]

19 hours ago, forrestreid said:

I think sometimes high-end customers from the USA are a bit reluctant to venture away from the Marriott and Hilton etc line up. But I can guarantee you that if you see an independent hotel in Istanbul, that is 4 or 5 stars, and has an extremely high rating on Booking.com (from at least, say, 100 reviewers - only people have stayed can leave reviews on Booking.com) you are pretty much guaranteed a good experience.

Very often I book a hotel for arrival and then look around once I've settled in.

Many of the online booking services feature rates that are nearly double what a hotel will cost you if you just walk in the door.

We traveled to Slovenia and paid $ 120 a night for a hotel, that was actually only $ 70 a night. Another one, I remember was a hotel in Singapore that was listed at $ 180 a night online and we paid only $ 85 per night because we just walked in.

[edinbrooklyn]

On 8/10/2023 at 3:57 PM, forrestreid said:

 

I second that view.

I wouldn’t necessarily be the greatest fan of Istanbul  for various reasons, but one thing it does well is high quality hotels at bargain rates.

For example, I just picked a random date in September and searched on Booking.com for hotels that are at least four stars or more, and had a “superb” or “exceptional” rating on booking.com. I  found 58 properties available for less than €150 a night (and 28 for less than €100).

The big American chains didn’t feature amongst them, as they seem to charge more of a standard fee per night, no matter what city you are in Europe.

I have no doubt that the current currency problems facing the Turkish lira are a part of the reason you get such bargains at the moment, although as I said, Istanbul is always a very good deal for luxury hotels.

I think sometimes high-end customers from the USA are a bit reluctant to venture away from the Marriott and Hilton etc line up. But I can guarantee you that if you see an independent hotel in Istanbul, that is 4 or 5 stars, and has an extremely high rating on Booking.com (from at least, say, 100 reviewers - only people have stayed can leave reviews on Booking.com) you are pretty much guaranteed a good experience.

Never been but I’m curious as to why you’re not a big fan, if you’re willing to share!  It is on my list.

[MikePDNA51]

Check out Turkish bath. The guys probably will not be same as porn stars but they are still men!! Stay in cheep hotel works for me, I even share bathrooms and do not have issues 

[forrestreid]

On 8/11/2023 at 4:29 PM, pubic_assistance said:

Very often I book a hotel for arrival and then look around once I've settled 

Good for you if you have the fortitude to do it, but I would be very nervous that there would be only crappy places left.

What i sometime do is to try and get a better deal is to try the website of the hotel, once found on Booking.com, and see if I can get it cheaper on their website.

[forrestreid]

On 8/14/2023 at 8:16 PM, edinbrooklyn said:

Never been but I’m curious as to why you’re not a big fan, if you’re willing to share!  It is on my list.

In retrospect, that was probably an overly harsh judgement. I’ve been to Istanbul and enjoyed it from purely touristic point of view. Good value hotels, and some of the sites, particularly historic ones, are great.

But I find it seems to have a lot of very uncritical fans on travel websites, which surprises me, after visiting.

A few things put me off Istanbul.

One was the “hassle”. It was not huge, compared to other places, but it was a bit annoying. Men walking up to you on the street and trying to engage in conversation, trying to get you to come to their "brothers carpet shop", etc. I remember in particular on my second day when I had just out of the Blue mosque, and was heading for the Kucuk Ayasofia mosque (formerly Byzantine church). A guy came up to me and began the “visit my brother’s carpet shop“ rigmarole. In an effort to shake him politely, I said "I can’t because I’m going to the Kucuk Ayasofia and it closes in an hour. I’m in a hurry”

His response was to tell me that his brothers carpet shop was close by it, and he walked along with me to 10 minutes to the Kucuk Ayasofia, giving me the Hard Sell all the time!

As an introverted person, I found this rather hellish (of course in retrospect I had made a fatal error by telling him where I was headed. Still enjoyed the Kucuk, would strongly recommend it, along with the Blue Mosque).

That incident made me very nervous of that sort of thing for the rest of my trip. 

Also, the commercial sex scene was not great. The one sauna with escorts, the Aquarius, was full of Middle Eastern guys, that seemed to want to give a little service for a lot of money, and were a bit aggressive with it.

Also, I found that the online escorts were unusually expensive, considering the average wages in Istanbul. Considering it is the largest city in Europe, there wasn’t a great choice, I felt.

For comparison, there was a better choice, and cheaper guys, in Athens.

The food is highly praised, and I found it good. But again a problem I noticed,  is that if you go to cheap neighbourhood restaurants (where I was interested in going) there was no wine or beer available to drink with your meal. Very unlike dining in cheap Greek or Spanish tavernas.

My understanding is that there is loads of bars in Istanbul, and plenty of fancy restaurants serving fine wine and beer with meals. But I wasn’t bothered about going to any of them, I just wanted a glass of wine or beer to wash down my kebab. I still enjoyed the cheap neighbourhood restaurants I went to in Istanbul, they were very good value for what they sold, but the inability to have a beer with my grub was just another niggling annoyance.

All that said, from a purely "standard tourist" point of view, it is a very worthwhile city to visit.

 

Edited August 17, 2023 by forrestreid
clarity

[forrestreid]

I was probably a  bit prejudiced toward Istanbul by one incident in particular,if i am honest.

I  arranged for a guy from the Hunqz site to come to my hotel. I was staying at a small boutique hotel on a side street of Istiqlal Street. 

As the masseur I booked was a good looking hunky guy, I guessed that the male receptionist on duty that day might guess what was happening, and I was wondered if my visitor would have any difficulties being given access to my room. Therefore before he arrived, I informed the receptionist that I had a gentleman coming to discuss business and said, casually, “you can just send him up when he arrives” as if I was about to show him fabric samples or something. The receptionist said he would.

So the masseur arrived and came to my room. We had only just started undressing when there was a knock at the door...

Obviously it was the receptionist about something. I was wondering what the bloody hell it could be (the escort was very unfazed and just lay on the bed). I quickly threw on my clothes, went to the door and opened it a crack, hoping the receptionist had just forgotten to tell me some mundane thing, such as that the electricity would be down for an hour that evening, or the like.  I nearly died when instead he said “I have set up some Turkish tea up in the breakfast room for you and your guest”.

Obviously I had to tell him that we were okay where we were. He seemed a bit disappointed, and stared at me for a moment. I had visions of the receptionist declaring  "we cannot have immorality going on in this hotel you know", like Kenneth Williams in a Carry On film, but thankfully he eventually just turned round and left.

It took me a while to get into things with the hunk after that!

When my escort left the room,  I was wondering if there would be anything said to him when leaving. So I stuck my head out the window as he was going down to reception, to see if you left the building fairly promptly, and he did.

I was relieved as I assumed that meant he hadn’t had much of a chance to be questioned by the receptionist on the way out. However I noticed the receptionist changed towards me from then on. He had been friendly in a smarmy kind of way beforehand, but now he didn’t meet my eye and barely said a word to me. That was fine with me, but I was rather self-conscious coming and going after that!

So between everything, it was a somewhat stressing trip for me.

Edited August 17, 2023 by forrestreid
clarity

[CHIberia]

On 8/17/2023 at 4:56 PM, forrestreid said:

I was probably a  bit prejudiced toward Istanbul by one incident in particular,if i am honest.

I  arranged for a guy from the Hunqz site to come to my hotel. I was staying at a small boutique hotel on a side street of Istiqlal Street. 

As the masseur I booked was a good looking hunky guy, I guessed that the male receptionist on duty that day might guess what was happening, and I was wondered if my visitor would have any difficulties being given access to my room. Therefore before he arrived, I informed the receptionist that I had a gentleman coming to discuss business and said, casually, “you can just send him up when he arrives” as if I was about to show him fabric samples or something. The receptionist said he would.

So the masseur arrived and came to my room. We had only just started undressing when there was a knock at the door...

Obviously it was the receptionist about something. I was wondering what the bloody hell it could be (the escort was very unfazed and just lay on the bed). I quickly threw on my clothes, went to the door and opened it a crack, hoping the receptionist had just forgotten to tell me some mundane thing, such as that the electricity would be down for an hour that evening, or the like.  I nearly died when instead he said “I have set up some Turkish tea up in the breakfast room for you and your guest”.

Obviously I had to tell him that we were okay where we were. He seemed a bit disappointed, and stared at me for a moment. I had visions of the receptionist declaring  "we cannot have immorality going on in this hotel you know", like Kenneth Williams in a Carry On film, but thankfully he eventually just turned round and left.

It took me a while to get into things with the hunk after that!

When my escort left the room,  I was wondering if there would be anything said to him when leaving. So I stuck my head out the window as he was going down to reception, to see if you left the building fairly promptly, and he did.

I was relieved as I assumed that meant he hadn’t had much of a chance to be questioned by the receptionist on the way out. However I noticed the receptionist changed towards me from then on. He had been friendly in a smarmy kind of way beforehand, but now he didn’t meet my eye and barely said a word to me. That was fine with me, but I was rather self-conscious coming and going after that!

So between everything, it was a somewhat stressing trip for me.

As someone whose family is from the middle east, there's a 50/50 chance you had a very repressed, very curious receptionist. Maybe the boutiques are especially hospitable, but this is absolutely not a Turkish hotel thing. He would have called up or asked you earlier. I think you just hurt his feelings, lol

Edited August 23, 2023 by CHIberia