Goldorak

Introduction First time for me in a Rixos, or in general in one of the brands that joined Accor recently. I could have returned to the very good Mercure Taksim, but I wanted to try something new and this hotel looked vey nice on the website and in a good location, so let’s go. It was a 3 night stay.It il located in Pera/Beyoglu, 5 min walking from the famous pedestrian street (Istiklal caddesi), where the old tramway Taksim-Tünel is passing. So this is a very nice location for visiting. Some of the rooms offer a great view on the Golden Horn. Unfortunately, the hotel is also located along a major road (2x3 lanes) with intense traffic, so this is noisy and I will come back on that in the room section. Check In Front desk agent was very courteous, but as most of the time, no acknowledgement of status/loyalty. When he gave me my key, I enquire about the room category I was attributed and it was a Premium room with Golden Horn view. This was what I booked so I asked about the platinum upgrade and the agent looked a bit confused. And I was told that the hotel was fully booked so no upgrade was possible unfortunately (of course, I checked ;-) and it was true), but he promised that the room was nice.The lobby is very nice as you can see on the pictures Room Indeed a nice room. Welcome gift was rather generous with the fruit plate, chocolate cakes and a full bottle of Turkish red wine. No drink voucher was given, but I didn’t claim as the bottle of wine was more than enough ! No welcome letter was present in the room.In term of amenities, the room had a safety box, slippers, bathrobes, kettle for instant coffee (an espresso machine would be clearly expected IMO in that kind of hotel and room category IMO). The bed was very comfortable. The lights were rather low in intensity, so the room was a bit dark at night even with all lights on.The view from the room was beautiful, especially at sunset. You can also see, on the 1st picture, the major street/road I was mentioning above.If you look at reviews of this hotel on Trip Advisor, you will see that the major criticism made is the noise. And I can only confirm this. This is really the major inconvenient of this hotel. Soundproofing is extremely bad for outside noise (at least you don’t hear your neighbors speaking). The street noise is very bad and 2 evenings out of 3, I was also hearing some loud music late at night. So if you stay there, bring ear plugs otherwise it will be a sleepless night, seriously (I always have some with me, so I was OK !). Dining The hotel has several cafés and restaurants but I didn’t try any. There are tons of restaurants nearby and it was nice to eat outside as the weather was just great. The breakfast is taken in the restaurant of the top floor offering the same view as from my room. Checkout I requested a late check-out at 4 pm and it was escalated to the guest relations manager who said me that they were sorry to not be able to upgrade me, so the 4 pm was no problem. Overall A nice hotel with good staff. The lack of soundproofing is certainly an important problem. Status recognition was definitely there, but I have to say that I didn’t feel at all I was with Accor. There was not a single sign of this hotel being part of Accor. No flag, sign, not even the LCAH leaflet/enrollment forms at the front desk, nothing in the room.Would I return ? I could of course because my stay was good overall, but I was certainly not wowed. And now that I discovered that there is a Sofitel, I will definitely give it a try next time I go to IST. And the Mercure Taksim remains certainly