Hi and welcome to the Ionia Guest House channel. We're a small rural bed-and-breakfast in southwest Turkey, about 30 minutes from the ancient city of Ephesus. We have four spacious guest rooms, a restaurant, and a swimming pool. We hope you'll consider us for your next holiday in Turkey.
There's a doctor in my country who built a brick and mortar luxury bungalow alone everyday after work and only used some help when needed to lift heavy stuff. He succeeded and featured in the news.
What a Relief, an Alex Free Zone! The woman gets on my wick. Everything and Everyone has to be Like Her. She would not have had a clue what you were trying to achieve. I would never stay in one of her identikit rat race places, but I would come to you Any time- Those rooms were wonderful . But both you and the cameraman should know you should Never look at welding without a mask! You can go blind!
Thanks for the compliment! And yes, good advice: we try to be more careful with welding nowadays! It only takes one experience of your eyeballs feeling like crushed sand to realize how important the mask is.
@@JasonNoble It is called Flash. It is very painful and can cause permanent damage to your vision. That is why welders work behind screens and with masks. I am not a welder, but someone very dear to me was, and he taught me a lot.
Yup. I thought you/they were coo-coo, but the place looks so beautiful. It would be a great place to go if you want to be isolated. If it was soundproofed so you couldn't hear your other hotel guests, I'd totally be 100% good with going there. But- I have to check and see what our State Department says about travel as well. Maybe travel by ferry from Greece would work?
Thanks! :) The straw bale construction is great for insulation but also surprisingly good at soundproofing. Same principle I guess: there's a lot of mass in the walls. We've done tests with turning up loud music in one room and checking whether you can hear it in the neighbouring room, and it's impressively quiet. Better than normal construction methods by far. Ferry from Greece is one way to get here, absolutely.
I know your cat was working very hard as well!😆 I am always amazed by people like you two. Your ambitions payed it's price! What you created is simply wonderful. You all can be very very proud of yourselves because Iona Guest House is beautiful. I wish I could visit you one day! The best wishes for both of you for the present and for the future as well ❤
You two, are amazing. Building this unique hotel in Turkey amongst all the odds. And such hard work; but getting along well while doing it. I wish you all the very best. Greetings from Canada.
Very kind! We genuinely did most of that building ourselves with one guy helping, I promise. But consequently it took ages! I think about two years to get the first building into a decent shape. The documentary is very cleverly edited to suggest we were a little faster and more complete than we really were. Even now, nearly ten years after we first came to Turkey, we're only just finishing our house (building 3 of 3, up at the top of the hill past the pool). Amateur building is satisfying but slow. And sure, we do get some outside help from time to time. Electricians in particular, so we don't kill ourselves with bad wiring decisions! With the house, for example, we were so tired of plastering that we got a couple of professionals in to help. But I'd say at least 75 or 80% of the work is us.
Cheers. We're hanging in there. The covid period was tough for obvious reasons -- but if you're in the restaurant business I'm sure you know the feeling. Anyway, things are looking up lately. We're in it for the long haul.
Gosh what a splendid place - I'd love to stay there! The only downside with this series is Alex not going there to give her verdict once done. I wish these guys success - hope the earthquake didn't affect them.
Hello and thanks for the kind words! I agree, it was a bit of a shame that we never got to meet Alex in person. (I believe she was brought in as the voice of the series after a lot of filming had already taken place.) The recent earthquake was very shocking and sad but fortunately for us the epicentre was about 850 kilometres away so there were no direct effects here.
@@JasonNoble Well, that's a relief to hear you escaped damage from the earthquake - would be so frightening & devastating. What is the name of your Channel so I can follow you? We are down in Tasmania, but all our family are in UK, one of my nephew's just visited Turkey & had a great time from what I hear. I'm sure your business keeps you both occupied, but I wonder if you've visited Göbekli Tepe yet? There's so much History to discover in your region, I wonder if you ever find ancient artefacts? Hope you are all well up there including your dogs! Thanks for replying G
@@SmallWonda Our channel is just called "Ionia Guest House". Thanks for your interest! Glad to hear your nephew enjoyed Turkey. And no, I have not yet visited Göbekli Tepe. It's definitely on my list though! Ironically, building a hotel is a terrible plan if you like to travel, as we are generally stuck here. :) Have not yet found any ancient artifacts, but there's some ancient stonework in plain view in the village, e.g., Greek or Roman drinking fountains that get used now as water troughs for sheep. And a sarcophagus was dug up in a farmer's field only about a kilometre away, so we are always on the lookout!
@@JasonNoble I think he stayed near Phesallis, where there are some Roman ruins. I've signed up to your YT channel - it's always handy to know of decent places to stay & visit - if not for myself, as I can barely get in the car these days, but for others. I suspect Alex would say, you have to factor YOUR vacations into the equation! I always have to smile when people say they want to retire & have a B & B or holiday lets!! Never done it before, have you?!! It's like dairy farming, there ain't no rest days! But somehow you have to look after yourselves. My parents did farm holidays & it was hard work - they have a theme park or two now, so I have a bit of an idea how that goes. I shall watch your videos next. Keep well, Gina
It’s absolutely stunning. I can’t believe 2 people built that from scratch, amazing and so beautiful. A gorgeous couple. Can I hear an Aussie accent 😊 ?
@@JasonNoble Thought so, but a tinge of a mixture too😊 Aussie here, Victorian. Was watching Restoration Australia last week, they were putting cement on 1800s old cottage, same as u were👍
@@bernadettelanders7306 Yes, I spent a long time teaching in the UK before coming over to Turkey so my twang has softened up quite a bit. :) Interesting you mention 1800s cottages: I'm sure you're right that our plastering techniques would be really similar to the historical ones!
Cheap, cheerful and invariably sunny! I lived 9 years in Istanbul, and can’t think of any three words that would be worse suited to describe it! It’s the rainiest city I’ve ever lived in, with freezing winds six months a year, very expensive if you’re earning local currency, and anything but cheerful, with 18 million people, crazy traffic and crowds and scammers everywhere…
Live close to Turkey and agree it is freezing literally, heavy snow frequently , airports come to a standstill. Essential to become fluent and yes Turks tend to stay within the country for holidays. Turkey is a huge country, bigger than most foreigners imagine.
As a fellow DIYer I know how hard you have worked to get your project done, plus all the political rubbish you've had to endure. (Why can't people just get on with each other!!) Against the tide you have worked your socks off and learned skills along the way. Amazing. Well done both of you! Inspiring.
Happened upon this video and watched - didn't realise that you have your own channel till reading these comments & saw that Dean & presume Nala the cat visited you too. So pleased to see you are still doing ok. Such hard work and determination you deserve it. Turkey is one of my all time favourite countries that would be wonderful if could visit again one day. I will now go see your other uploads to see how things are going.
@@JasonNoble Ask her to make some for sale. A memento of your beautiful hotel. £350 each 🙂 add a few cushions for £50 each 🙂 and make sure Sirem learns to crochet, if she doesn't already ;-) Make sure the hotel name is on the care-instructions ;-) . I bet they'd sell.
I love it how he says that all he needs to know he can find on RU-vid. In a sense it's true. The skills I have learned and still learn thanks to RU-vidrs sharing theirs, is amazing. If it's enough to build a hotel.. not in my case 🙂, but I admire the ambition of them both.
Thanks. It's really true though: RU-vid has been such a resource for us. People who did this kind of thing fifty years ago or more must have had a much tougher time acquiring all the skills they needed.
@@JasonNoble Do more videos about the area and do them regularly, in time your subscriptions will increase and eventually you can monetize them for some extra income.
You, dear hoteliers, have more skills than I am accustom to seeing in any two humans. Your stamina is now legendary in my small world. The best to you both. You're amazing people!
Oh this has been my dream. I was born in Ethiopia. The country has a big tourism industry but I would die to have a ver small and intimate BB&b in the many less traveled areas. I don’t think I will have them money but I am determined to make it a reality
LOADS of Turkish workers can be useless and think they can pull the wool over foreigners eyes. Talking of eyes, they rarely use eye protection. Stood and watched yesterday.
Oh la la!!!! What courage and hard work these two have poured into their dream. I am very very impressed! Gorgeous!, Lovely! BEAUTIFUL! God bless them both!!!!!
Merhabalar Sirem and Jason. When I watched this at the very beginning I thought it was sheer madness to build your own place from scratch, given your lack of building experience and the extreme hard work involved. At the end I was in awe of what you were able to achieve, especially given the hard blows to the Turkish tourism industry in recent years. All I can say is 'aferin', well done to both of you and I wish you every success in the future
Thank you very much, Alan! Yes, if we'd known then what we know now, who knows whether we would have even started the project? But I guess it's always the way with these things. Sometimes you just have to do a Cortez and burn the boats so you can't go back. :) The end is finally in sight, with just some interior fitting work needed on our new house, and then we'll be able to take a break from construction at last and focus on the hotel as a business. Hopefully we are entering a post-corona era and tourism in Turkey will be healthy for a couple of years at least!
Incredible journey and commitment, I hope to stay one day soon, and do some beautiful filming of the area. So good to see authentic and personalised accommodation, Anna from Australia
Please market your place to Messianic Hebrews that would love to see where Ron Wyatt discovered Noah's ark. Get into contact with A Rood Awakening ministries or Mary Wyatt Lee.
You have one of the 7 wonders near you, why not plan a tour that takes them from one to the other incorporating more sites on the way? I know that this can be a constant stream of income to you. your place is absolutely beautiful. fly them there and get a Messianic tour guide!! I am in South Africa and would have loved to do this kind of tour and staying in a remote beautiful place like yours.
Thanks for the kind words and the suggestions. One day when all the construction is over we should definitely take stock and consider these kinds of business options.
Jason and Sirem, I found you when @1bike1world stayed with you a couple of years ago now and I've followed you ever since. I didn't know until today that you had RU-vid videos of your beginnings at Ionia Guest House. Today I watched them all. Fascinating to hear that you began by watching RU-vid videos to learn the steps of each process needed to build your eco-friendly dream hotel. Clearly it was a tremendous amount of back-breaking work but the result is beautiful. May your dreams come true with many years of a full house of happy customers.
So interesting to watch the build from the ground up. Your posts on IG are always so inviting. Covid, fires, floods, eathquakes..it has been tough on the tourism industry..how are you faring now? (Valarie)
