Legacy Ottoman Hotel

The location is a plus, but the service and upkeep have slipped. During our 10-day stay, housekeeping often left us short on towels, sometimes none at all and sometimes just one for two people. Staff try to seem professional, but rarely smile, and when I raised problems they weren't resolved. I've stayed here many times and used to leave positive reviews. After comparing it with a local 3-star hotel where staff greeted me warmly and housekeeping was consistently helpful, I wouldn't recommend Legacy just for its 5-star label. It no longer feels like it lives up to that reputation.

The building is lovely and the location is good, and the staff were kind and helpful. Still, our room smelled of sewage, which is not what I expect from a 5-star hotel in central Istanbul. It seems we weren't the only guests with this problem, and the comments suggest it may be ongoing. If you can put up with the smell, book it.

The location is nice, and breakfast was good, but I wouldn't recommend staying here. We booked a City View room for three nights, November 20-22, and got a cheaper room overlooking an awful backyard. We couldn't move the next day, so we asked for a discount instead. They said they'd follow up, but a month later they still hadn't. The bill was corrected by email, yet they never returned the 80€ we had overpaid. The hotel was fully booked, and since we were traveling as a group and another couple had the same problem, it seemed they had overbooked on purpose. Service was poor. The room wasn't clean either, with dark hair everywhere, including on the bed, and the pool was too cold. At breakfast, the customer relations guy used guests' phones to leave 5* reviews, which wasn't okay. There are better hotels nearby.

My atrium-view room had no natural daylight, was noisy because its window faced the lobby, and smelled strongly of smoke despite being marked non-smoking. It also felt run down, with maintenance problems, frequent hot water outages, and bathroom pipes that made a lot of noise. The hair dryer overheated after about a minute. The pool was too cold to enjoy, and spa services seemed overpriced for what they offered. Housekeeping took away the bathrobes each day, even when unused, and never replaced them. They weren't in the room when I arrived either, so I had to call reception to ask. The key cards often stopped working, which meant repeated trips to reception. When I reported problems, staff often suggested paying extra for a better room. There was no second nightstand and the closet had only two hangers. The hotel felt closer to a 3-star standard than the advertised level, and the stay didn't meet expectations.