Elite World Grand Istanbul Kucukyali Hotel

The cost is very reasonable, and there’s a hair salon and massage experts on site too. I really liked the hamam, sauna, and pools. The breakfast buffet had an amazing range of food, and the facilities and rooms were beautiful and clean. The sea and princes islands view was great. This hotel really does deserve its 5 star rating.

I ate at the grill a few nights this week, and the chef made excellent meals for my dad and me. Everyone was friendly and accommodating. Yunus, Serben, and Yusuf were especially kind, suggested dishes, and gave us useful information about places to see while we were in Istanbul. Many thanks to the staff for being so warm and professional.

Aleyna greeted me with respect each morning when I had breakfast at the Elite Restaurant, from January 3rd through January 12th. She’s a wonderful, amazing chef, and her expertise has been a big part of making my stay in Istanbul phenomenal. I’ve been a guest at the Elite World Grand since January 2nd, and I truly appreciate her. I hope she gets promoted soon. Thank you so much, Aleyna.

Theft was the worst part of our stay. On our last day, we realized that shopping bags had gone missing from the room the day before. At first we found one and wondered if we’d left it in the restaurant, but we’d already taken socks from it, so that couldn’t have been what happened. Then we found the other missing bags. The staff didn’t seem very sorry, though they said they’d investigate. While we were on the way to the airport, they emailed that security footage showed the bags were empty. One was a big Victoria Secret bag that definitely wasn’t empty. Even if it looked empty, they had no right to take it, since I might have wanted to keep it as a souvenir or gift bag. They also left other truly empty bags alone. There were two shoeboxes too, one empty and one with girls’ shoes, but I might still want the original box for my leather shoes. We’d chosen this hotel because my husband was speaking at the Istanbul Software Testing Conference. Never again, I guess. The bed and pillows and blankets were otherwise very comfy, but they didn’t seem to have a big enough sheet, so they used two bedsheets and one kept shifting away. There wasn’t a toilet brush in the bathroom. Our laundry wasn’t returned on time, so we had to ask for it on the morning we left, and they charged us at first, though in the end they agreed not to. The gym, spa, and breakfast were really nice. At breakfast, staff kept taking our plates so quickly that we had to stop them at least once each morning because we weren’t finished. Once, while I was on a phone call and drinking the last two sips of tea, with nothing else left on the table and the tea glasses being clear, someone came to say breakfast ended in 15 minutes. The gym was well equipped, but I couldn’t work out the cleaning setup: there was spray, but no paper towels or wipes.