Location: Location is fantastic. It is extremely easy to get to Sultanahmet area (major tourist attractions), Eminönü (port for tours / New Mosque / Spice Bazaar) but also close to İstiklâl Caddesi, which is a famous pedestrian street / nightlife location. I found the most fun place was Nevizade Sokak (Street). It had a great vibe and a young / hip crowd. The tables outside were packed with people in the middle of February. The one downside to the location as of this post is the proximity to a ton of construction which causes a good amount of traffic and some slight irritation getting from the hotel to Taksim Square. It is a mini version of the Big Dig.

Rooms:I found the rooms to be fine. The rooms on the higher floors can have a decent view of the Bosphorus although it is somewhat obstructed by other hotels closer to the water including the Ritz Carlton. The wash rooms are quite modern, shower had good flow, and the room was clean. The TV / remote was frustratingly difficult to use and had poor reception but I rarely watched and it may have been isolate to my room.

Campus: I enjoyed the campus of the hotel. The pool seemed nice although once again, I was there in the winter (February). I'm a fitness freak and the fitness center was quite nice for a hotel, with an appropriate number of treadmills, weights and space to exercise. My favourite location in the hotel was "The Library" which is a nice room with couches, pool table, TVs and an old-fashioned bar. I enjoyed some nice Turkish wine in this room after a long day of sight seeing.

Service: I had great service in the hotel and I'm just a Platinum (mostly a Hilton / Starwood guy). There was an issue that my reservation for two doubles came out as a king bed at check-in. The check-in agent was extremely apologetic that my room was not ready and comped myself and my travel companion a free drink at the bar. The concierge is fantastic and security is great.

I had a very pleasant stay on my vacation / mileage run to Turkey. It seemed that 5% - 10% of the plane from EWR-IST (Feb 14, return Feb 18) was FlyerTalkers and a large group of them ended up staying at the Hyatt, coincidentally, so it seems there should be a good sample of recent reports.

I had noted all the reports of taxi scams on FlyerTalk / Trip Advisor and it paid off. I took a photo of the license plate before I got into any cab which I did not take from the hotel. We were in a cab from Sultanahmet to the Grand Hyatt. The cab driver said he "couldn't get to the hotel due to the construction", even though I told him how to get there. He then hit a button and set the meter to 47.60 turkish lira for our 25 lira ride (according to the taxi book provided by the concierge), and started yelling at us / telling us he would take us back to the Hagia Sophia. My friend and I opened the doors and refused to close them. We gave him 30 turkish lira (the high end for the trip) and told him if he wanted to collect the rest, he could walk with us to the Grand Hyatt and talk to the concierge or file a police report. I repeated the word "hırsız", which is "thief" in Turkish, so he knew that we understood the scam. We did not close the doors, and left the cab.

I gave the concierge my photo of the license plate, left them a statement, and personally watched them call the Turkish police. Hopefully a reprimand will cause him to think twice before he scams another tourist. Istanbul is a great city but as a tourist, you really need to be prudent.

Advice: If possible, go to high end hotel in whatever area you are and have them find you a cab. A cab from the hotel is significantly less likely to try to scam, based on conversations with the concierge.