Our first room was so small you could hardly move. When I asked for a blanket, I was given a child's comforter not very clean. The table cloths in the breakfast room never seem to be changed. most of the staff surly and unhelpful. The exception was the evening bellhop who cheerfully provided things we asked for. We could not connect to the promised Internet and when we complained they just kept telling us it was our fault or the telephone company or some excuse. After our complaints we did get a larger room for the second night and a clean comforter, but this room and bathroom was damp. Don't go there. The only good feature is the location

Tourath House: Raheb Bouhaira Street, Old City Aleppo, Syria

Shops selling food, clothing, antiques, jewelry, souvenirs, plus common household products surround the Tourath House.

The awesome Aleppo Citadel (Syria’s largest I believe) is a nearby walk. For neighbors, you have the Omayyad Mosque, numerous historic churches, and all things cultural that you expect in the Old City.

No taxi needed. There are upscale restaurants, but the number and quality of street food vendors enabled us buy on the cheap, go to the next, next, and then eat it all at the Square where we made friends with locals, expats, and fellow travelers.

We liked the location of our room (number 12). It was quiet. Not overlooking the main courtyard. It was in an adjacent mini courtyard, with more privacy as well. Further, we did not hear the traditional 04:30 a.m. call to prayer.

Thick walls (26 cm, 10 in) help minimize any noise. Outside stained glass windows on two walls have wooden shutters inside the room. When preparing to sleep, you may close the shutters and achieve 100% darkness. So that you can navigate to the bathroom, you have a small red light (like in a photographer’s darkroom).

If you want to wake up to sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows, just leave the shutters open. With shutters open, you will be able to hear the faint music from a neighboring church. You will have a spiritual moment.

From your pillow, you look at artwork and inscriptions on the ceiling. You wonder what it all means.

Bathroom is immaculately clean. Western toilet and shower water does NOT get on the rest of the floor.

Breakfast comes with the room cost. You have a fine selection (see photo).

The staff was like a collection of our friends who help facilitate our stay.

Don’t get me wrong, we live in a modern home with all of the creature comforts. But if we had a choice, we would absolutely prefer to wake up at the Tourath House.

-- John

Our problems with this rather strange little hotel began months before we actually arrived. Unlike other hotels we booked in Syria, Tourath House required a deposit, which is fine, except that they demanded it be paid by the time-consuming method of International Money Transfer into some obscure Swiss bank account where the name of the account holder "Edmond Jenno" sounded suspiciously like those names you get in spam e-mails advertising enhancement of various body parts etc. To make the effort of International Money Transfer worthwhile, in my naivete I decided to transfer via IMT the entire cost of the stay rather than just a deposit. Needless to say, this was a mistake. What follows is long and complex, suffice it to say that it was only under pain of forensic investigation from my bank that they finally admitted that yes, they had been paid, and yes, it was the full amount, indeed we had overpaid them

Finally, after an Odyssean bus journey from Damascus, we arrived at Tourath. The staff were friendly enough and seemed keen to put the bad blood of the IMT nonsense behind them. In terms of comfort, the main problem with Tourath is the heat. The airconditioning units in the rooms are clearly the cheapest and least effective on the market and hence my partner and I would take turns to sleep in the bed directly beneath the AC unit in our room. The courtyard area, although pretty, somehow serves to intensify the heat rather than provide relief from it and it is barely comfortable in there even eating breakfast at 730am. Almost as discomfiting was the unnecessary presence of a grandfather clock in our room, which with its incessant TICKTOCKTICKTOCK, along with the poor airconditioning, served to keep us awake all night if we didn't use major tranquilisers.

The Internet here is also much slower than "Syrian standard" - pages take longer to load than we did to get served in some of "Syria's best restaurants"...according to Lonely Planet.

The good points are the breakfast and the fact that the staff are actually quite friendly despite appearing quite intractable over e-mail when they were disputing the payment stuff.

However, between the payment shenanigans, the airconditioning, and the clock, this hotel is not worth the trouble. Stay elsewhere in Aleppo.

PS. As a final bizarre note, the bathroom came equipped with an inexplicable red light above the door. Why? Did the local Orthodox priests conduct confession in there? Did someone use to develop photos in the corridor? Was the bathroom in fact at one time a brothel? Only Franz Kafka could have come up with a more bizarre accommodation experience.

Enjoyed our stay, though was expensive compared to other places in Syria. Interesting place to stay and good location. A little tricky to get to, make sure you have good directions for the cab driver.