Boutique'ish luxury

100   Recommended
Room 501 , Empire Suite
November 1, 2017 by

 Map | 4 Reviews | 75% Recommended
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St. Regis Istanbul
 Map | 4 Reviews | 75% Recommended

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Room 501

Empire Suite

Liked:
Location
Service
Food
Amenities
Room
Stats
Room
Empire Suite

St. Regis Istanbul is one of the smallest hotels in the St. Regis family at only 120 rooms, but it perfectly embodies the brands "bespoke luxury" ambitions. My wife and I stayed 4 nights in late October and had a wonderful time, especially given my 144EUR BRG rate.

Check In

Arriving around midninght with a taxi from the airport (40min, 75TRY), we were warmly greeted by the doormen and led to one of the two seated reception desks. We glad accepted the offer of welcome drinks that were quickly delivered from the bar. The receptionist informed us that our SNA upgrades to a "St Regis Suite" had cleared 4 days earlier (which we knew), but that as a P100 they'd upgraded us one category further to an "Empire Suite" (which was a welcome surprise). As Platinum gift we chose the (full) breakfast at the ground floor "Brasserie" restaurant. With check-in completed a Butler escorted us to our 5th floor room.

Room

Living/Dining room w. guest restroom, seperate bedroom with bathroom and walk-in closet.

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Very stylish and St. Regis'ish wood/leather decor with original art pieces.

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Fresh fruit restocked every day and nuts/sweets welcome gift served in room twice.

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Nice view to park across the street and sideways to the Bospherus.

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Well-stocked minibar with full size bottles.

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Large bathroom with tub/rainshower and large-size Remede toiletries.

Service

The personal service is where this place really shines. Since it's a comperatively small hotel, you meet the same people a lot, who always greets you warmly and go out of their way to assist you. Everybody speaks impeccable english. Housekeeping, butlerservice, reception and restaurants are all staffed with plenty of experienced and well-trained staff.

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Hotel gym is a basement room with no windows, with limited, but quality Technogym equipment. If elevation training is your thing and weather allows, I'd recommend cardio training in the park across the street instead.

Dining

We had breakfast everyday at the groundfloor Brasserie. The service and quality was excellent, but the selection (buffet cold fruits, cheeses, meatcuts pastries and hot choices to order) is limited due to the comparatively small size of the hotel.

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Full buffet and menu was offered for Platinum breakfast.

Breakfast hours (6:30-10:30 on weekdays) are limited and stricly adhered to, since the Brasserie converts to a lunch spot right after breakfast.

We had diner once at the top floor Spago restaurant, which is a classy place with a high-end international menu that was very tasty. It was however, a show-off place for locals socialites smoking big cigars, and we went to of the many other great and more low-key dining options in Istanbul the other nights.

Brasserie and Spago both have outdoor serving, weather permitting.

Location

St. Regis is (together with Ritz Carlton, Park Hyatt and most other luxury hotels) located in the upscale Nisantasi neighbourhood north of the classic tourist hot-spots. Taxis are cheap and plenty, and reliable public transportion is 10-15 minutes walk away (uphill Osbeyman for metro, downhill kabatas for tram/ferry and cable car across the park to Taksim). Lots of restaurants and cafes close by.

Some taxi drivers didn't know hotel name or street, but mentioning the Macka Park across the street helped even with those that spoke no english.

Uber (XL only in Istanbul) was always 2-3mins away from the hotel, and much more comfortable than regular taxi (Uber XL to airport 100 TRY).

Overall

Hotel decor, design and staff is of one of the highest standards I've experienced in any St Regis hotel. The comparatively small size makes the staff interaction much more personal, but also means that the shared functions offered (eg. reception, breakfast and gym) are smaller in size (but not in quality).

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