Turkey Travel Guide
Hotel Club Lounges / Ritz-Carlton Hotels / Istanbul Hotels / → All Tags
Inside the Ritz-Carlton Istanbul's Club Lounge
Over on Jaunted, you can get our inside looks at some of the world’s best airline lounges, so we thought we’d do something similar here and start talking about some of the hotel lounges we’ve frequented lately for our series on Hotel Club Lounges. Today, HotelChatter contributor Eric Rosen takes us along with him to the Club Lounge at the Ritz-Carlton Istanbul.
Though the regular service at an upscale property like the Ritz-Carlton Istanbul is often impeccable, getting a Club Level room here confers a host of added benefits and perks. The hotel has dedicated Club Level floors on the 11, 12 and 14 stories, but guests staying in rooms on other floors can also obtain club access for a premium fee added onto the room rate (about 65 euros per day, from what we can tell from the online reservations system).
Photo Gallery / Edition Hotels / Istanbul Hotels / In-Room Movies / → All Tags
At Long Last, We Go Inside the Edition Istanbul
Last week, HotelChatter Special Contributor Eric Rosen explored the historic back alleys of Istanbul and checked out the Edition Istanbul, a mysterious property which we've only heard about from afar. It's also currently the only Edition Hotel in the world.
The 78 rooms at the Edition Istanbul were designed by Gabellini Shepherd Architects in two different palettes: a soothing milky “Soaped Oak,” and the richer, more masculine “Dark Rosewood,” which is what this room on the 7th floor was.
Hotel Openings / Hotel Hype / Viceroy Hotels / Nicholas Clayton / Hotel Industry News / Turkey Hotels / Istanbul Hotels / → All Tags
The Viceroy Istanbul Will Open in Late 2013 with Sweet Bosphorus Views
A Viceroy will be in these parts soon.
Fresh after adding Cassa New York to their collection and seeing the departure of president Nicholas Clayton to Jumeirah Hotels, Viceroy Hotel Group has just announced the Viceroy Istanbul will open in 2013, a year earlier than we expected.
The hotel will be a part of the rising Nef Bebeköy Development.
Spread across ten separate buildings and over 16 acres of land, offering 58 guest accommodations, Viceroy Istanbul will boast spectacular panoramic views of the Bosphorus, the strait that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia, and direct access to a tranquil outdoor garden and forest area. The property will offer guests and residence luxury services including a casual and signature restaurant, banquet and meeting facilities, an outdoor art gallery, and a state-of-the-art full service fitness center and spa.
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Drawing Inspiration From Le Meridien's New Triple Decker Hotel In Istanbul
Going strong from their recent W Paris opening, Starwood barrels through yet another major opening in Europe, this time with Le Meridien Istanbul Etiler. The 259-room hotel is actually, as you can see above, comprised of three separate blocks all stacked on to of one another.
Kind of a cool concept, and we'd expect nothing less from Le Meridien, which is perhaps Starwood's most design-oriented brand. But the real art here doesn't have anything to do with picture frames or collectible key cards. Judging from these new images of the guest rooms, the views of the Bosphorus are absolutely killer.
Leading us to think that, of all the "blocks," you're really better off picking a room in the top third of the hotel. As far as inspiration, we think gazing down on gorgeous, sprawling Istanbul will certainly do the trick to get the creative juices flowing.
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Second Earthquake In A Month Topples The Bayram Hotel In Turkey
The Bayram Hotel in the city of Van, Turkey, survived last month's 7.2 earthquake with just "some cracks and a damaged elevator," according to a report by AJC. But another quake last night, this one of a lesser magnitude, rocked the city again, bringing down about 25 buildings.
So far, seven have been declared dead, though dozens are still missing. In some cases, the victims were actually journalists who had traveled to the city to report on the wreckage from last month's earthquake, which killed 600. The Bayram Hotel, along with another unnamed hotel, were occupied during last night's quake, and rescue workers are still working to locate guests buried beneath the rubble.
Edition Hotels / Istanbul Hotels / Hotel Openings / Bill Marriott / Ian Schrager / Hotel News / Hotel Opening Rates / → All Tags
Staying At the Edition Istanbul Will Be a Little Like Sleeping Inside a Sauna
UPDATE: Turns out that the color scheme in the two photos is totally different for a reason! There are two color schemes available to the rooms: Dark Rosewood (the dark one, pictured above) and Soaped Oak - the lighter color, visible in the renderings. For new pictures of both color schemes, see after the jump.
It’s heeeeere! We’ve spent every day of the last three weeks scouring Edition Hotels’ Facebook page and website to see whether they’d put up rooms of the Edition Istanbul, and although there’s still no joy on either count, we now have our hands on the very first picture of a room. Time to play a game of 'Is It Anything Like The Renderings?'!
The good news? In size and style, it looks almost exactly like these pictures of what the rooms were meant to be like, apart from one small thing – the color scheme is totally different! It’s gone from a cool ash color on the walls and floor to a much warmer, redder wood. And even the lamps floating from the ceiling have morphed from a silvery bronze to a gold color. At the time, don’t forget, we were told that:
Designed in conjunction with Gabellini Shepherd architects, the Istanbul Edition aimed for "quiet elegance" and "modern luxury" by using a color palate of bronze and silver-gold, with extensive use of pale and dark woods.
Unless the color balance has been touched up beyond recognition, we don’t see any of that pale wood. Not even on the ceiling.
Hotel Openings / Edition Hotels / Istanbul Hotels / Bill Marriott / Ian Schrager / Hotel News / Hotel Opening Rates / → All Tags
Edition Istanbul Will Open (Early) Tomorrow
Ah, there’s nothing quite like intrigue and confusion to get us all excited over a hotel opening. And an early opening? That gets us even more aflutter.
This morning, we noticed that the Facebook page of Edition hotels was suggesting that the Edition Istanbul was open. Open! Last we heard, our sources told us it was down for a March opening.
But, no sooner did we see that news, than we had an email from Edition’s PRs telling us that the hotel did not soft open today, and that the online reports were inaccurate. They told us that:
The hotel will soft open soon with the official launch in March/April.
So we called the hotel to clarify and spoke to a charming gentleman who told us that no, the hotel didn’t open today. But, yes, it’s opening soon – very soon. In fact, it’s opening tomorrow.
Hotel Refurbishments / Restaurant Openings / Hotel Restaurants / Istanbul Hotels / W Hotels / Starwood Hotels / → All Tags
Look Out London, W Istanbul Has Given Itself a Cougar Makeover
Minyon. "Titillating".
While we’ve been getting all breathless over the dishy W London, turns out the cougar matriarch of the European Ws, the W Istanbul has been quietly going under the knife. And now, just in time to steal London’s sassy new kid thunder, it’s peeling back the bandages to reveal its new look.
The hotel has opened two new restaurants, Frederic’s and Minyon. Frederic’s is an upscale Italian joint overlooking the Bosphorus with a 350-strong wine cellar, hearty ingredients (truffles, saffron, oysters), a revolving gallery of art that changes monthly and a cigar menu.
But the one we’re really excited about is Minyon, which is serving up international cuisine on small plates, to a backdrop art from young local artists, DJs, and a regular Wednesday night bash called Indie-Pendent Ladies (we likey). We can’t make the English tab on the website work, and sadly we don’t speak Turkish, but the pictures need no translation – stuffed avocado, salads, and a yum-looking crème brulee that we probably wouldn’t share. Also, any restaurant that describes itself as "titillating" gets a thumbs up from us.
WTF Hotel News / Luxury Hotels / Turkey Hotels / Hotel Woes / → All Tags
Someone Forgot to Pay the Electricity Bill at the World's Luxest Luxury Hotel
We're gonna need more candles!
Here's another example of why those hotel star ratings and hotel awards sometimes don't mean all that much.
The Mardan Palace in Turkey, which is a seven-star hotel that beat out the Burj Al Arab and the Dorchester for the title of "leading luxury hotel" from the World Travel Awards, has had the power cut off because of unpaid bills.
The hotel is currently using generators to power up its 546 rooms and has only three weeks to pay off nearly $2.6 million in debts. However, the general manager has assured the press that the hotel will clear up the power snafu:
Aksam [newspaper] quoted the hotel's manager, Cumhur Ozen, as saying the issue stemmed from an end of year budgeting problem and promised to pay the debt.
"We are a large company. We invested 1.2 billion dollars. We won't be worn out by small debts," Ozen said. "We will pay the debt."
In the meantime, all the hotel employees have been asked to go on their annual leaves at this time. And we're guessing this hotel doesn't have any robots to take their place.
Sneak Peek / Edition Hotels / Istanbul Hotels / Bill Marriott / Ian Schrager / Hotel News / Hotel Openings / Hotel Opening Rates / → All Tags
Sneak Peek at the Istanbul Edition, Opening This Spring
Christmas came early for HotelChatter! A tipster let us know that the website for the forthcoming Istanbul Edition was live, complete with photo renderings of the guest rooms, descriptions galore and even a few special room rate offers! So let's get right into it.
First up, let's talk about the rooms. After all, this hotel plans on being a seven-star hotel Strike that. The hotel has no plans for seven-star status but instead plans to be a "luxury lifestyle hotel."
Designed in conjunction with Gabellini Shepherd architects, the Istanbul Edition aimed for "quiet elegance" and "modern luxury" by using a color palate of bronze and silver-gold, with extensive use of pale and dark woods (check out the hard wood floors in the pics below!)
The hotel has six room categories (not including the Penthouse Suite)--Superior, Superior with Terrace, Deluxe, Deluxe with Terrace, Loft with Terrace and Deluxe Prime.
Guest rooms start at 320-sq.ft. and feature an entrance vestibule, bedroom area, work station and seating area with wall-to-wall windows overlooking the city. Amenities include down comforters and pillows, customized linen, custom designed furniture and fabrics, silk carpets, oversized closets, glass enclosed shower and rain showerheads, 42” Bang & Olufsen flat screen TV’s with full cable access, iPod docking station and best of all free WiFi.
Hotel News / Turkey Hotels / Missoni Hotels / Fashion Hotels / Annika Sorenstam / Golf Hotels / → All Tags
The Hotel Missoni is Hungry for Turkey, Opening a Hotel in 2013
Edinburgh...Kuwait...Oman...Brazil. The list of current and under-construction Missoni Hotels is an exotic one, and today we can add another city to the list: Antalya, Turkey. 2013 will bring a Missoni Hotel to the Turkish Riviera, and although this one will follow the pattern of the other Missoni by having the interior personally designed by Rosita Missoni, its exterior will differ greatly. It's going to have a celebrity-designed golf course!
Hotel MIssoni Belek, Antalya is bringing in Swedish golf champ Annika Sörenstam to create the 18-hole course, which will be just one of the attraction in the development around the hotel; there'll also be a country club, shops, residential villas and an olive grove. That last bit sounds much closer to Missoni's Italian heritage than gray days in Edinburgh.
Hotel Reopenings / Hotel Renovations / Historic Hotels / Istanbul Hotels / Hotel Spas / → All Tags
Istanbul's Grand Dame Is Getting a Little Nip and Tuck
Another week, another historic hotel revamp is nearly completed. This time it’s the turn of the Pera Palace in Istanbul, which is entering its last month of building works – it’s down to open 1 September. Just in time, too, seeing as we’re now more than halfway through Istanbul’s stint as European Capital of Culture.
The restoration has taken two years and €20m, and as well as a spruce up for the whole property, they’ve updated it with a spa. And although wishy washy hotel spas weren’t around when the Pera Palace originally opened in 1892, they’ve kept things traditional with a Turkish hammam, steam bath, sauna and Jacuzzi, as well as a modern gym.
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