Ramada By Wyndham Istanbul Taksim Hotel

The location is easily the best part. Convenience stores, restaurants, a Watsons, Taksim mosque, and Istiklal Street are all within walking distance, and it felt safe even at night, with a visible police presence year round. The Starbucks outlet in the lobby, run by hotel staff and combined with a bar, had excellent coffee and sandwiches. Breakfast was about average. I chose this Ramada in Istanbul because I’ve trusted the brand in other cities, but this location was a serious letdown. My standard room was clean and had plenty of storage, though it was cramped, with barely enough space to walk. The hotel uses one climate system for the whole building, so you can’t adjust the temperature in your room. It became like a furnace. In winter, opening the window might cool it slightly, but then noise and possible rain or snow come in, making the stay very uncomfortable. The WiFi was completely non-functional throughout the room and lobby. There wasn’t real room service, just a very limited set of fast food items ordered through an affiliated website. They arrived hours later, cold and stale. The managers were experienced, helpful, and knew the area, but requests made in person or by phone had to be repeated several times before anything happened. Most bellboys didn’t speak English, and even those who did sent basic requests, like hailing a taxi, to management. The desk manager would then tell the bellboy to do it anyway. If you need a central place on Istanbul’s European side and only plan to sleep at the hotel, this might work. Otherwise, steer clear.

The hotel was very clean, which matters most to me, and the free breakfast was one of the best complimentary hotel breakfasts I’ve had. Taksim Square is only a five-minute walk away. I was pleased with the stay apart from the front desk’s poor handling of my lost hat. They said they’d found it and locked it away for me to collect in the morning, but I kept asking for it over the next three days and checked out without it. Each clerk passed the job to someone else. One big warning: test the basement pool before jumping in. It isn’t heated and was ice cold when I jumped in. It took me five minutes to catch my breath. If the water weren’t circulating, it would be an ice skating rink.

Maybe it was just a bad day, but this was our spa experience. During the massage, we could hear everything outside the room, so it was hard to relax. The therapist massaged my face after my whole body and toes without washing her hands. After our Turkish bath, nobody disinfected the marble we’d been lying on before the next clients entered. That makes us think it may not have been disinfected before we went in either, which is unacceptable in a place with such high heat and humidity. During the clay mask session, the therapist used the same brush on me and my partner. It didn’t feel hygienic.

My husband and I liked the hotel overall, with some exceptions. The room was spacious and clean, the breakfast buffet had both savory and sweet pastries, even if it wasn’t a classic European spread, and the location was the hotel’s main advantage. Reception communication was difficult because their English was very basic, and some employees didn’t speak English at all. The most serious problem began before we arrived. We paid €55 for the hotel’s transfer service. Don’t take it: there’s a bus stop right behind the hotel, and the Hawaist bus goes straight to the airport for €14 round trip. Our van stopped at the roadside, the driver got out, and then we continued without him explaining anything. Later, on the highway, he stopped at an intersection. There was no emergency lane, it was 10 pm, and the driver didn’t speak English. Cars and trucks were speeding past us. We tried many times to contact the hotel without success. When we eventually reached them with the driver’s help, reception apologized and said another car would arrive in 20 minutes. It never came. We waited an hour in an unsafe spot. Instead, someone brought the driver a bottle of engine oil, and we set off again. At the hotel, reception didn’t mention what happened and asked us to pay. I asked why, since we’d been delayed and put in an unsafe situation. The receptionist calmly said they could only charge €40 instead of €55. Frustrated, I contacted the call center on WhatsApp. They apologized politely and said they’d talk to the manager, but they kept delaying a solution day after day and eventually stopped replying. I find it unacceptable for a large hotel chain to treat customers this way.