Golden City Hotel Istanbul — Hotel in Beyoğlu

What would make it a 5/5 and plus experience: the hotel is inside a neat building, very conveniently located on the Karakoy waterfront, which is newly renovated and very pleasant. The view from the upper floors’ rooms and from the rooftop restaurant and terrace is outstanding, breathtaking, and has no rival in the neighbourhood: the golden city hotel is the only one directly facing the waterfront, with no other building in sight. The hotel is also at walking distance from the Halic bridge and metro, from the Karakoy trams ferries and funicular, from a quantity of good restaurants, etc. The staff are very kind, welcoming and helpful. Cleanliness is very, very good. The double room (floor 9, room 904, view of the sea and city) was quite small, the furniture outdated, but the beds were very comfy and in the room, there is all that you need. BUT... What makes it a 1/5 experience: the WINDOWPANES in the rooms are completely inadequate. They are old, worn out and mostly broken: the windows can barely be shut. This results in: 1) a very, very noisy environment (24 hours of dense traffic from the streets and from the sea, loud music from the surrounding restaurants and bars, loud voices of the passers-by on the waterfront): I had earplugs, but they couldn't really help, the situation is grotesque, just like you had the windows wide open. 2) a very, very discomforting internal climate. it was rainy, windy and 5°C when we were there, and the chilly wind entered the room bringing cold air and humidity. To compensate, we had to keep the heating on, resulting in cold/hot currents. BASIC and due maintenance work, replacing the windowpanes, would solve the problem 100%. The same problem was experienced at the rooftop restaurant: the windows are worn off and not shutting properly, thus making the otherwise wonderful tables close to the windows unenjoyable. Another issue to be faced is the BREAKFAST: the stunning view is not enough. The food quality is very poor, especially considering the rating of the hotel. The cooked food is all defrosted and of poor quality, including pastries and puddings. The coffee/tea/chai come from an automatic machine (only 1 machine, fro the entire hotel): this is unacceptable from a 4** hotel, in a Country which is worldwide famous for its tea and coffee millenial traditions. Furthermore, the machine is a low quality one, and the products are very mediocre. On the thrid day, this machine was "out of order" and there was NO...

A dreadful hotel. Arrived late and we were checked in (apparently reluctantly) by a very unfriendly guy on reception. It felt like he was doing us a favour. Room was small and sparsely furnished. Very basic fittings and a small window overlooking a very busy road. Noisy because of poor double glazing. Aircon MAY have worked, but you need a degree to work out how to use it. Why do these control panels have around 8 button when you only need 3? Breakfast was basic at best. Very limited choice and no facility (it appeared) to ask for anything to be cooked to order. Coffee machine (which we were later told was “new”) clearly had not been commissioned properly as it only spouted out half cups of undrinkable hot liquid (which in no way could be decribed as coffee). Main hotel building is on a busy road with NO view of the Bosphorus. Photographs on the hotel website are a master class in deception. They are totally unrepresentative of what you find in reality. The hotel has NO facilities at all. Not even anywhere to sit and relax. The reception area would not look out of place in a funeral directors. Anyway, the bottom line is that we had booked for 5 nights and checked out after just 1 night. The receptionist just shrugged her shoulders and wasn’t remotely interested in hearing why we were dissatisfied. Although she made no attempt to ask, I made our reasons very clear to her. Having left the hotel I contacted Hotels.com to see if they could negotiate any refund for the unused 4 nights, although I was neither hopeful or bothered to be honest. It was no surprise to me at all to hear the the manager had refused. So much for customer service! If you are considering booking this hotel, my best advice is to take a look at the Momento Golden Horn hotel, which is literally 200m down the road towards the city centre, and a million miles away in terms of quality of accommodation and the friendliness of staff for around the same price as the...

Price: €100-€150 per night View from Panoramic Room: Breathtaking views of the Bosphorus Strait

I went with my wife to the golden city hotel for our honeymoon, and the experience blew me away. The hotel is located in a prime spot, just a short walk from the metro leading to Taksim and the tramway leading to Sultan Ahmed. I stayed in a panoramic room on the 9th floor of the hotel, and I could see the entire Golden Horn (an offshoot of the Bosphorus straight) from my window. The views were breathtaking, and I could spend hours sitting there and enjoying the scenery. The room itself was also very spacious and well-appointed. The bed was incredibly comfortable, and the bathroom was spacious and had a large walk-in shower.

The hotel staff was also amicable and helpful, especially Mr. Ali and Mrs. Gulsana. They were always happy to answer any questions I had, and they went out of their way to ensure I had a great stay. The breakfast buffet was good. However, I wished it included more local foods.

Overall, I had a fantastic stay at the Golden City Hotel. The price was very reasonable, and the views from the panoramic rooms were simply stunning. I would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone looking for a luxurious and memorable stay in Istanbul.

Pros:

Stunning views of the Bosphorus Strait Spacious and luxurious rooms Friendly and helpful staff Excellent breakfast buffet Great location, close to the city center, tourist areas and waterfront Excellent value...