Armada Hotel, Istanbul — Hotel in Fatih

Armada City Hotel is tastefully decorated and tucked away on the edges of Sultanahmet. The hotel had a lovely scent throughout, which was a nice touch. Expansive lobby with a lounging area on the side, which our family of 11 overtook in the evenings after a long day of walking in hilly Istanbul streets. The rooms are on the smaller side, and the housekeepers did a fantastic job daily. The restaurant on the third floor has an amazing view of the Bosphorus. I often found myself on the window-side table watching the faraway boats sail away, glistening in the early morning sun. Occasional seagull aiming for your breakfast will wake you up from your reverie, however. There's an open terrace bar/cafe on the other side with a lovely view of the Blue Mosque, especially when it's lit at night. We stayed here for 5 nights and here are a few things we noted:

As many other reviewers have mentioned, breakfast can be quite boring if you're here for longer than 2 days. While there is an attempt to provide variety, it was the same everyday. I really hope the hotel executives will listen to these honest reviews and implement changes. Similary, as others have noted, the hotel staff weren't the friendliest. Our first night we had dinner at the restaurant around 9 pm and although the restaurant was open till 11/11:30pm, the waiters were in a hurry to overturn the room for breakfast the next morning, hence they kept removing our plates without asking when we hadn't finished our meal yet. The security guard was perhaps the least friendly of all, ironically. Here's a person we saw at the door multiple times daily during our 5 nights stay, yet we did not see a single nod, smile or any form of welcoming gesture, which we thought was very strange. At the front desk, Nadida provided wrong information, which was frustrating to say the least. Our group departure was early (7am), so we asked for a takeway breakfast. She said it was 3 euro each, but since it was just ham sandwich and other bits, we declined and opted to have the regular complimentary breakfast at the lobby. She mentioned that it would be cheese, bread and tea/coffee. That was fine with us, however, she said that would still be 3 euro per person as well. I knew that wasn't true so instead of dealing with her dismissive and rude tone, I spoke with Ismail/Ibrahim later that day to arrange the complimentary lobby breakfast without a charge. Nadida definitely needs training in interpersonal skills to interact with international guests! Not all was doom and gloom at Armada. Ismail in the front desk was helpful and so was Noor. Noor was welcoming and provided good recommendations for the city tours/activities. Perhaps the star among Armada staff is Fruat, the bellboy. He went out of his way to help us interpret to our taxi driver, provided great recommendations for shopping, and would receive us welcomingly every time we saw him. Frankly, attributes that one would expect from all staff members at a hotel of this stature. I really hope the hotel recognises Fruat's wonderful contributions in elevating the guests' experience at Armada. There are a lot restaurants nearby the hotel to choose from. The Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, Basilica Cistern, Sultanahmet train are all within walking distance from the hotel. Minifridge, safe, hairdryer, kettle, tea/coffee are provided in the room. Shower gel (that functions as a shampoo apparently) is provided but I think I saw a note that said shampoo can be requested if needed. Enough storage space in the room. TV is a bit small but we didn't use it much. Iron can be requested from the reception. Wifi was good. Walls are thinly insulated so you might hear your neighbours. Thing to note about the bed- a double(queen) bed is actually two single beds joined together.

Overall good. Improvements in abovementioned points will elevate the hotel from good to...

Stayed for 4 nights as part of a tour group. First the good. The hotel is well located and is in the main clean and our room was a good size , well furnished and equipped. (Though of course the safe was not working - This seems to happen so often in hotels we don't bother trying to get them fixed nowadays) The public areas are decent and the roof terrace is excellent. The hotel seems to employ plenty of staff. The not so good. The hotel is quite atmospheric and a lot of thought has gone into its design/finish. However don't be fooled. This is a "New - old hotel" and was only built about 20 years ago. Breakfast was a bit of hit and miss affair with a not particularly exciting choice. One morning we had to wait for coffee cups on another morning it was spoons. Really! We had one evening meal on the roof terrace and found the menu to be lacking in choice and quite expensive for what you got. The staff overall were mixed. Some very friendly, some bordering on micro aggressive. Example being some of the breakfast staff who when faced with a 50/50 space situation in the breakfast room expected you to give way to them! The bad. Our room was noisy and the rooms seemed to have thin walls maybe made worse in our case as there was a door in our room giving access to the next room . Clearly sufficient sound proofing had not been installed to overcome this issue. The VERY bad. On the Saturday of our stay there was wedding happening in the hotel and as the wedding was being held on the roof terrace we asked to have a drink in the Radio Bar downstairs (Yes its an actual bar) as we didn't want to intrude on the wedding we were told ......."No that's not possible" by a lad who must of been all of about 19. Really! We can't get a drink in one of your hotel's own bars!! Worse however was to follow. On retiring to bed at about 11pm it was clear that the wedding reception was going to be a bit of a late one, and as our room was directly below the terrace where it was being held we suffered the brunt of it. The actual wedding reception finished at about 12.15 Hurray! Not so fast though, because then the hotel staff started rearranging the roof terrace for the following day by dragging the furniture around on the tiled floor directly above our room. At 1.15am I got the hump and went downstairs to see when it was going to end. The last of the wedding guests appeared to be leaving so I went back to our room. Final furniture moving finished at about 2am. We had to be up at 6.30 so a maximum of 4 1/2 of sleep was had that night. MAIN thing I want of a hotel (especially an supposedly upmarket one like this one) is a good nights sleep....

Had a great stay at Armada Hotel recently.||Great location, a short walk to Sultanahmet, Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque. Near the water (Sea of Marmara), close to Kennedy Cad. walking through old archways to the shore.||You can see the seas from the windows in your room (if you're lucky to get one facing that direction), from the great rooftop terrace or the breakfast area - one side views of the water (even spotted dolphins one morning), the other, views of Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque.||Nice lobby, with a small pond of turtles, memoiabillia, historical artifacts.||The room (Queen size bed) was clean, comfortable, cutely decorated with nice touches (like paintings on furniture), nice colors, slippers, plenty of soaps in the bathroom, lots of storage, best bath towels (absorbent and big), teas, coffee, water bottle and another one in the mini fridge. We had room cleaning once and the lady did a great job, bringing more water, swiping the floors, making the beds, putting the bathroom back together. |Nice touching gifts - like the nice bookmarks we found on the nightstand!||Staff was nice and attentive, from the booking phase, to check in, they brought us lemonades till they finished cleaning our room, to every day help. At the end, they were nice to call for a taxi for the airport on our behalf and they helped with luggage and all, made sure we left early to make our flight due to road closures for May 1st holiday.||Even if the hotel is lively, has a bar and a restaurant, it was quiet, no issues at night, got great night sleep. Comfy bed, pillows, comforter.||The breakfast buffet is one of the best we ever had, they do put lots of hotels in US to shame! You can get your regular cereals, omelet, boiled eggs, but you have great fruits (best watermelon) and fresh vegetables, Turkish pastries, cheese-s, jellies (quince, apricot, orange), tahini, home made yogurt, local treats. Nice coffee, try the Turkish chai/tea and the Cherry juice is a must! Once again, nice service and great views all around.||Great hotel to stay while visiting Istanbul. Affordable, pampering, nice experience. And since it's Istanbul, the hotel has its own cat that greets you! Wonderful location, staff, view,...