Divan İstanbul — Hotel in Şişli

I stayed three nights at Divan Taksim, and since the hotel insists on calling itself a five-star, I will judge it as one. In my personal system, five-star hotels come in three levels: 5A for genuine luxury, 5B for solid international standards, and 5C for those that carry the label but don’t live up to it. Divan Taksim sits firmly in 5C—and on some days it feels more like an ambitious four-star trying to bluff its way into the club.||Arrival & First Impressions — 2/5||The lobby gave me flashbacks to the 1990s: dark wood, bulky furniture, and carpets that have seen too many suitcases roll over them. Too many knickknacks clutter the space, and scent machines pump artificial fragrances into the air to cover up the tired smell underneath. Instead of elegance, the first impression is more department store perfume aisle.||Room — 2/5||My room faced the park, which I hoped would be quieter than the main road. It wasn’t. The noise of sirens and traffic carried into the room night after night. The décor was dated but serviceable, yet the details were impossible to ignore: towels that were stained and fraying and bed sheets with small holes. A five-star should never put laundry like that in a guest room. Even the in-room telephone doubled as a nightlight, glowing until I yanked the plug.||Sleep Quality — 1.5/5||Between the sirens outside and the glowing gadgets inside, sleep was a constant battle. And the front desk didn’t offer an apology, let alone a solution. In a real five-star, comfort and rest are non-negotiable. Here, sleeplessness was included in the price.||Breakfast — 2.5/5||Breakfast looked impressive at first sight, but after a quick inspection it boiled down to a pastry-heavy, forgettable spread. Perfectly fine for a four-star, deeply unimpressive for a five-star. It filled me up, but it didn’t impress me.||Facilities (Pool & Hammam) — 2/5||The pool was cold and underground - more municipal than majestic. I stopped by the hammam once, and it was actually cold. A hammam that doesn’t feel warm is like a minibar without drinks: technically present, but completely missing the point.||Service — 2/5||Restaurant service was fine—smooth and competent enough. The front desk, however, was indifferent to the point of parody. When keys failed repeatedly, no apology. When noise ruined sleep, no sympathy. A five-star front desk should anticipate problems; here they barely acknowledged them.||Location — 3.5/5||Being right next to Taksim and Gezi Park is the hotel’s trump card. Everything is close, but everything is noisy. A fantastic location if you want to be in the middle of it all, a terrible one if you want peace.||Value — 2/5||Charging five-star prices while handing out holed sheets, frayed towels, cold hammams, sleepless nights, and nonchalant service? That’s not value,...

We stayed several days at this hotel, which is one of the most expensive 5-star hotels in Istanbul, but we chose it because we stayed at Divan Ankara couple years ago and that hotel was truly phenomenal, hoping this one will be the same, but unfortunately turned out to be not as much... |The Good: - Hotel location in Taksim center is excellent, with the Meydan and metro station across the street, you can literally go anywhere in Istanbul easily. Hotel is in an old building but elegantly furnished. Rooms are small but functional and well organized, bathroom is upscale. Overall attention to detail was excellent. Our rooms were very quiet despite being on a very busy traffic street, beds and pillows were comfortable, had good rest and night sleep. Housekeeping and cleaning were done every day. Breakfast was rich in variety and really very delicious we enjoyed. The Turkish hammam and sauna were very good. |- The Bad: - The reception staff seemed depressed and irritable, no smiles, always on edge, was not comfortable to deal with, especially that our room cards stopped working frequently and we had to go to reception often to reactivate. Moreover, they had this weired thing of the elevator only stopping at the floor where your room is in. We reserved 2 rooms, they gave us rooms in 2 separate floors, and such restriction was really annoying as our family could not check on each other and had to gather at the lobby most of the time. When we asked, they said it was for security reasons, which was silly as one could use the stairs, although it was cumbersome to use several floors upstairs. |- The Ugly: - The hotel is just too expensive for what it offers, we had to leave for a little cheaper nearby hotel later on. |There is an indoor swimming pool, which is heavily advertised, but was pretty much unusable due to ice cold water. They claimed the water temperature was 28C, which was a joke, i have been using warm pools all my life and the temperature of the Divan pool would be more like 15 C. We did not appreciate the hotel being dishonest about it. |The hotel has a nice terrace with restaurant, but we could not use it because of so many people smoking heavily. |In summary: - if you are really rich (e.g. travel business class) or someone else pays for your stay, need comfortable sleep and good breakfast, and don't care about swimming or cigarette smoke, then I guess you should be quite satisfied...

This was the worst 5-star hotel stay I’ve ever had.

The problems started right at check-in.

The receptionist asked, “Which card do you want to use?” and I replied, “The one I used during the reservation process.” He then said, “I don’t know which card you used,” so I had to pay again with a different card because he couldn’t charge the one I had already provided. Later, when he asked for a €100 deposit, I told him to take it from the same card. He rolled his eyes and, after two failed attempts, asked me, “Sir, which kind of card is it?” When I said it was a debit card, he rolled his eyes again and said, “I cannot use this card—it needs to be a credit card.” The whole process was frustrating and unprofessional.

I explained whole situation to manager. As an apology, they offered me a juice, but it never arrived. Instead, they gave it to another group in the restaurant. When I asked if it was my juice, the waiter just said “oh, yes! sorry,” and asked group if he can take it back but the group kept it, and I got nothing since I was in a rush and couldn't wait 10 more minutes.

After first night in my room, I wanted to make tea but found there were no cups. I called room service to request them but since their English was not best and called again after 3 minutes to confirm they understood what I wanted. While I was still on the phone, room service arrived. When I mentioned this to the receptionist on the phone, he rudely said, “So what do you want from me?” in a very unpleasant tone.

This hotel has terrible service and does not deserve 5 stars.

It was an incredibly disappointing experience from start to finish.

I never had such bad experiences in any other hotels I stayed around the world.

Try to avoid it...