hotel antique khan in damascus?

The khans in Damascus are all used as markets. However, a handful of old Damascene courtyard houses in the Old City have been converted into small boutique hotels in the last 5 years. They typically have around 10 rooms each and cost anything from £70 to £200 a night. The best are Beit Al Mamluka, the Talisman and Old Damascus.

Hi
I am staying here with my family at the beginning of April, and will be able to post a review when I get back from Syria on 22 April, if that isn't too late for you to make your plans!
I guess it should be fine, I spoke to the people there and they were courteous and helpful with good English; there are a lot of these boutique hotels and I think they are all pretty good quality. This one seems to have a good location too.

that would be great volette, thanks

Hi there
Just back from amazing, fantastic holiday in Syria, travelling around by public transport, a country that is the least threatening of any of the 55 I have visited..
I will write a longer general report later with hints etc but wanted to let Cockneywobble know that the Hotel Antique Khan is fine.
The location is perfect for exporing the old city, just off Amin Street - walking south down the street from the Street called Straight intersection, turn right when you can smell the bread froma nearby bakery - it is in a very unassuming little alley, just before arriving at a square - if you get to square you've gone too far. - a taxi cannot get right up to the door but it can get close. The place has only been open for a few months so is not particularly well-known yet. A converted mansion, it has just 8 rooms in use at the moment, overlooking a gorgeous little courtyard Rooms are smallish but have all the Aladdin cave features you'd expect; painted wooden ceilings, brass handbasins, islamic chandaliers. A lemon tree grows in the courtyard, where you take breakfast (fine, the usual eggs, cheese, olives, toasts, jam, cooked meat etc)) at the hour of your choice. Rooms have modern facilities too - multichannel TV including BBC World, minibar, digital safe (ours was not working), controllable air conditioner. The place is very quiet - assuming th other guests are not noisy you don't hear a thing at night, even the call to prayer is muffled. Othert people staying tyended to be middle aged Europeans clutching their Lonely Planets, either travelling independently or in small groups. The hotel also has access to a reasonalbly priced airport private taxi service - they'll send someone to meet you off your plane for $45, and take you straight to the hotel (book taxi at time of reservation); to return to the airport costs 1500 lira (about £22). As I say the walking access to the Hamidiyya souq and other parts of the old town is excellent. Like everywhere we went in Syria, it is perfectly safe to walk in the area at any time.
It is cheaper than some of the other boutique hotels, we paid (in high season April) $US160 for a triple (2 twin beds and an additional camp bed), including breakfast. At this time of the year the hotel is full so book ahead - by phone with follow up email (internet access is very slow throughout Syria so replies can be delayed). They even rang me on my mobile (reception for contract phones is excellent throughout Syria) on the day of departure when I was travelling to Heathrow to check the reservation. Throughout the country, always ring the day before to confirm.
Downside? The staff are new at this and not particularly well-informed -a bit shy, and dozy. The chap who is on in the morning - the manager I guess - is far more on the ball. If you need to rely heavily on the hotel for infomation, it is patchy here; eg they did not know about the bus stations. Also we tried to pay by credit card but the phone line was down so we in the end had to pay cash (a general warning -there are ATMs everywhere for cash advances but by no means all work or are stiocked. My husband's MINT cards refused to give him any money at any of these although he had told MINT he was going on hols to Syria. I m,anaged to get out money with Barclaycard but not at every ATM). Also on two occasions (in the 4 days) the water in the shower was only tepid.
Hope this has been useful; let me know on the forum if you want any more info.
will write up more hotels etc later, also on trip Advisor. Since I speak some Arabic we were able to travel around quite extensively and I have a few tips

Hi, thanks for the reply. It sounds great - I shall let you know how i get on. Glad you had a good trip

Good luck Cockneywomble.
Sorry I canlled you cockneywobble, it was a typo!
Let me know if you need any more info before you go

Hi, just a quick note about the antique khan. The rooms are clean, beautifully decorated but perhaps a little on the small side, and the hotel is really pretty and quite good value for a boutique hotel. The location is excellent.
However, I was alot less impressed with the management. When we checked in we asked if we could stay for an extra night. They said this would be fine. In the morning they changed thier mind and said they only had one room rather than the three we needed. We booked two rooms else where. By the evening they changed thier minds again and said they had a large group coming in and now they couldnt even give us one room for the extra night (at this point I got a bit cross and told them that they would have to find a decent room somewhere else since it was for my parents). finaly, the group cancelled and they gave us three rooms, but not before i wasted an afternoon searching damascus for a nice hotel room at very short notice. I asked about organizing a tour to some sites outside damascus with them and they offered me a minivan for $200 for half a day, i refused and got one for a lot lot less from a shop near the mosque.
But the thing that really wound me up - they told me it would be fine to pay with visa (I was concerned after volettes post). When i came to pay at 9pm the evening before we were due to fly out the next morning they told i couldnt pay by visa and now had to pay in cash (over $900). When i said i didnt have it (last day of my holiday) I was told i would have to go to an atm. No help was offered in finding one that worked, and most of our cards had already been blocked by the banks after trying to use them earlier that day. Luckily one of our party had enough pounds left to cover the tab but then they tried to give us terrible rates of exchange (he first changed dollars to syrian pounds at a very favorable rate to them and then changed syrian pounds to uk pounds at nearly 10% less than the official exchange rate. when i complained he said it was fixed hotel rates and only when we threatened not to pay at all would he give us a rate similar to the banks. a shame since its a lovely hotel and it wasnt the way i wanted to end an otherwise great trip