Best Western The President Hotel Istanbul

THE PRESIDENT HOTEL

I stayed at this hotel the third times I visited Istanbul and really recomend it , because of its excellent services and accomodations.
If you can choose a room with view to Marmara sea and enjoy it , especialy at night.
The swimming pool and health center are good options ,and so does the free internet.

Superb location

I last visited Istanbul in November 2008. I choose this hotel based on reviews found here on Virtualtourist. For me the most important was location. This hotel surely has a superb location. All the major sites are within 2 to 10 minutes walking distance - in a pleasant neigborhood. If you want to venture further the tram stop is about 2 minutes away. The trams run very frequently.

We booked through the internet for five nights.
The price included the shuttle service from the airport to the hotel. It was great arriving and having someone waiting for us and escorting us in our first half an hour in this amazing, but very busy city.

The hotel staff was very courteous and knowledgable.

The room was nice and clean. But, don't expect it to be spacious like in the USA! Someone mentioned earlier that the walls between the rooms were paper thin. Yes, indeed they are. But, as most guests come "home" to sleep only, it was not really a problem. It may be a problem during high season when the hotel is more likely to be full.

Most mornings breakfast was served upstairs in a room with a fantastic view. Food was great, the breakfast buffet included the usual internation fair and some nice Turkish specialities. The fresh pastries were excellent. I usually ate rose jam on a nice slice of bread and some spicy bread with cold cuts and cheese. And some halva and nuts. And fruits. And ....

It seems that the hotel gets a lot of wedding business. If you spend the weekend in this hotel and prefer going to bed before midnight, don't ask for a high floor room, as the noise from the wedding reception may bother you.

We had a great stay, I would go to the same hotel again!

Unique Quality: Location, great views, terrace, pool, great breakfast buffet.

Best Western President Hotel

I stayed in the Best Western President - literally out the door and up the road is the grand bazaar (two minutes? walk) and not more than ten minutes walk is the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque etc
4-star, room with internet and good food
http://www.thepresidenthotel.com/
I suppose the best thing I can say about the place is I plan on going back this year!

Unique Quality: Easy walking distance of good sights

A good hotel

A very good hotel, with good service. Friendly staff made me feel welcome.
The hotel has a great location and is close to most sights, like Blue Mosque,
Aya Sofia, Hippodrome etc

The rooms can do with some refurbishment.

Unique Quality: Loacation

• Opinion of Price: more expensive than average
• Related to: Luxury Travel

Best Western The President Hotel Istanbul Photo: Street - Sultanahmet

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excellent choice

We stayed for one week at this hotel for our first time in Istanbul, and almost everything was great.
First, the location is excellent, because you are within walking distance of all interesting places, and you can have a taste of the more traditional Istanbul. This includes street selling booths, fruit sellers, men sitting at the doorstep of shops and houses, traditional bakeries and eateries, but also narrow and dirty streets. If you prefer a more European-style clean residential neighborhood, the area of Taksim, in the northern part of the city, is full of good hotels for you.

The hotel itself is excellent for the price (we paid 70 EUR/night with BOOKINGS.COM): A little swimming-pool with solarium, a wonderful terrace restaurant to see the sunset while having dinner, nice lobbies, free Internet, free gym, a cozy English-pub beautifully decorated, 24 hr room service, etc. The rooms are not too big, but they are well fitted, everything worked fine, (yes, including airco and warm water), lots of free TV channels, and the beds and bathroom were absolutely clean. Breakfast buffet restaurant is also beautiful, with a small terrace to have breakfast with a wonderful view on the Bosphorus and the mosques; the buffet assortment is good, but do not expect wonders. In general, the staff is quite helpful and friendly.

As a possible drawback, you must realize that the hotel is big, not very expensive, and packed with tourists like us, which means that service details are not always "exclusive". On top of that, we stayed during the peak season: waiters seem a bit exhausted and can make mistakes, the reception lobby is usually quite busy, the solarium is always full in the evening, etc.

All in all, an excellent choice if you want to see the real Istanbul being in the middle of it, but you also want a good level of comfort to stay a few days.

Definitely recommended.

Unique Quality: Beautiful terrace restaurant. Good buffet breakfast. Nice pool and solarium. Excellent location.

to be completed

good for value!!

I wanted to thank to the entire staff of The President Hotel for helping to make my first stay in Istanbul a very memorable one. Everyone went out of their way to make me feel welcome and comfortable. The location of the hotel is perfect and I will certainly recommend it to anyone traveling to your great city.

Unique Quality: 1-marvelous view of breakfast room and terrace restaurant
2-great and professional hospitality
3- you should try Ocakbasi Restaurant at Lobby

• Opinion of Price: N/A

Best Western The President Hotel Istanbul Photo: president

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Closest hotel to the Grand Bazaar

I have stayed at The Presidemnt Hotel on New Year's eve (2004). The gala dinner and the ball was wonderful. Both the service and quality of foods and drinks were perfectly balanced.

The accommodation and the friendliness of the hotel staff is worth to mention.

The rooms were recently refurbished and better than most of the 5 star hotels I have ever visited.

I congratulate the hotel management and staff.

Unique Quality: Very close to Grand Bazaar and Sultanahmet, great for shoppers and old city lovers.

Offers very affordable rates. Good value for your money.

• Opinion of Price: about average
• Related to: Family Travel, Business Travel, Historical Travel

Best Western The President Hotel Istanbul Photo: The President Hotel

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Best Western President Hotel Istanbul

A warning for new guests : This hotel gives many promises, but the service is terrible.
Our experience :
1. NO taxi as promised service to pick you up from the airport : we had to find our own way and pay the taxi by ourself in the middle of the night
2. Hotel was OVERBOOKED : at arrival NO ROOM available ! We slept on the couch.
3. First small (used!!) room 335 was only for 1 night : that was so : the next morning we where offerd to change to room 439 : Perfect room.
4. After 30 minites the phone : the receptionist forgot to tell us that we had to pay 615 Euro in stead of 395 that was booked ! Unexcepptable. Change to another room than : our third room in one day : again all luggage packed
5. Third room : very small : I never experienced such a room in a 4 star hotel !
6. No airco working : temperature up to 29 degrees in October !
7. During 3 days : NO SOAP in the room
8. During breakfast a lot of SMOKING people.
No possibility to sit separate.
The General Manager was very unpolite to my wife and did made any helpfull suggestion.
An experience after our honeymoon in April .........but now we do not want to have SUCH A BAD EXPERIENCE AGAIN !!