This is a fine hotel in a great location but the staff seem to be very rushed and paid according to what they can upcharge for. Our room was very nice, excellent AC, clean, lovely balcony overlooking the Pigeon Valley of Cappadocia. We had a turkish bath that was a fine experience and at about $100 each person it seemed good value (about an hour and a quarter) but that's our only turkish bath so none to compare with.

The balconies are not at all private and you can hear everyone's conversations, but the clientele were overall quiet and sleeping with the windows open was no problem. We didn't use the outdoor pool but others said it was very cold. There are 2 PC's where one can access the internet.

The problem is that the dining room staff treated us like a herd to be cleared out before the next herd arrived. They literally snatch up your plate of food when you get up to get another item from the buffet (which is a walk of over 100 feet from the tables we were "assigned"). Breakfast is from 0700 to 1100, but at 0830 we had to go searching for utinsils as all the tables were cleared and no cutlery, etc had been set out. Staff are visibly annoyed when asked for items like cutlery, tea, water, etc. Drink prices are way too high. A glass of house white was 12 TL and absolutely horrible, undrinkable. When I tried to complain to the waiter he suddenly lost all ability to understand any English.

The food is good but the dining experience ruins an otherwise nice and unique hotel.

This hotel has clearly once been great but has become faded and lost its true character. There is an unheated pool outside that feels soulless as it is inadequatly supported and the indoor "plunge" pool which is big enough for a decent swim, is so overpriced we did not see it used once. The hotel is filled by bus tours, predominantly from Japan who stay only at night so it's facilities are not fully patronised and staffed. This hotel when fully occupied by guests using all the bars and facilities would be great, but instead it feels like an abandoned hotel, where guests appear at dinner only, and then are gone, with inadequate staffing to encourage them to stay there longer. The food was good.

I felt as if the hotel was nestled in the middle of a bowl of slightly melting coffee ice cream. The surrounding topography reminded me of a work by Gaudi. The hotel itself fits right in with the area and seems to be built into a cliff with cave-like hallways to the rooms. The rooms were clean and functional with okay decor - but who needs decor when the balcony doors open to such an extraordinary view!? The view during the day is amazing, the view at night looks like a fairyland and at sunrise the sky is filled with dozens of hot air balloons drifting in the distance. I wished we could have stayed longer but our tour was moving on to Ankara.

The food was pretty good for a buffet. Many of the hotels we stayed at on our tour of western Turkey had buffets that featured cafeteria-type interpretations of Turkish food, but the Kaya's offerings were of much better quality, flavor and presentation.

During our stay in early October, for 2 days the weather suddenly turned very cold and rainy due, supposedly, to winds from Siberia (How cool is that!). We turned up the heat in the room and donned our cozy terry robes with a cup of tea. We felt quite snug in our hotel cave despite the chill outside. In all a very pleasant stay.

We stayed at the Uchisar Kaya Hotel 3 nights from October 1-3, 2008 as part of our OAT tour of Turkey.

First and foremost what this hotel has is the perfect location and brilliant views. Built into one side of a cliff overlooking the pigeon valley, the property has been developed with the primary aim of offering absolutely stunning views over Cappadocia centred on Goreme. You could probably spend a whole day outside in the garden just watching the progress of the colours at different times of the day from sunrise and the early morning procession of balloons gently drifting above the rock formations to sunset.

The rooms were more than adequate despite the architectural challenges of ensuring a view for all.

The dinner and breakfast buffets were varied with plenty of choices, although I think that most dessert addicts were a little disappointed that many of the offerings were designed with more variety of colour and visual appeal than of taste - not unusual when this course hits the buffet tables.

The hotel has the convenience of Uchisar close by with some altenate and equally spectacular views of the castle available up close and different vantage points to take in the stunning scenery.