Swissotel The Bosphorus Istanbul - Istanbul, Turkey 

One of my favourite stays in Istanbul, amazing views from the rooms of the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, The beauty of the lobby really strikes you as you walk in, its very spacious and grand, and gives a great first impression, and again that view !! Service was the best feature though, always attentive and helpful, the concierge was above the call of duty on a few things that we needed sorted out in the city in regards to new restaurants and activities that we had in mind, (they were able to book us a great table at the very sought after Sunset restaurant, usually hard to get) 10/10 for service. Cant beat it. Pool was fantastic, on a par with the Istanbul Hilton, and that is saying something if you've been there too. Its Huge !!! therefore always a good amount of space for everyone. Restaurants we didnt do, as we were always out to eat, but they look good too, probably as you would expect, the Swiss Chalet was fun though !! As was the rooftop bar !! night time views of the Bosphorus are probably unparrelelled. Great stuff, will be staying there again when i am in town for business next month.

Istanbul is a fabulous city and I have been a couple of times. On this occasion I decided to stay at the Swissotel as it was a weekend away for my husbands birthday. The hotel is okay, but not more than that. It's definitely not well located if you want to go to the old city or if you want to be able to walk to different restaurants and bars etc. My main problem was with the staff and their complete inability to speak English! Not once, but twice did I encounter problems as they were unable to understand the most basic of English. My first issue was when trying to book one of the restaurants in the hotel for the evening of my husbands birthday. The restaurant was unmanned when I phoned to book so I was put through to another restaurant. It was clear that he was having difficulties but I felt confident that my table was reserved as he confirmed the details back to me. Unfortunately ,on arrivig at the restaurant, there was no reservation, no table for me and my husband and so we ended up leaving the restaurant and looking for someone else to dine. I was extremely angry at this as it was supposed to be a special occaison and the Swissotel managed to ruin this for us. The next day my husband was off to play golf so I thought I would treat myself to a spa treatment. I phoned the health club hoping to make an appointment but the person who answered couldn't even say hello in English! The only thing she muttered was phone back...charming! But, I persisted and phoned back half an hour later, only to find the same girl answering the phone - I asked for her to put me through to somene who could speak English and all she did was hang up on me. I ended up phoning the operator amd asking for assistnace but she told me that the line was occupied and that she would get someone to phone me back - I'm still waiting for that call. I am only pleased that neither of these matters were a case of emergency. I wasn't having a heart attack or trying to warn them of a fire in the hotel, but if that had been the case , NO-ONE would have understood me. I only ask that staff speak a courteous English but at the Swissotel they simply don't. Very disappointed and would never return - it ruined our weekend in Istanbul.