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

I stayed at a couple of beach resort-style Rixos hotels last year and generally had a good experience, so this time I wanted to try a city-style Rixos to compare and booked a room at Rixos Pera Istanbul.  The elite benefits were not the best in part because they do not have many suites in the hotel, but the service was truly five star and I can recommend it.  

Room

I wanted to use one of my Suite Night Awards because I have many which will expire unused at the end of the year, but unfortunately I found out that Rixos is not an eligible brand for those upgrade certificates.  Instead I booked the entry level room and hoped for the best at check-in.

Rixos was almost full during my stay and suites were fully booked.  The upgrade I received was to a premium room which has a view of the Golden Horn.  The room was only 28 sqm, a far cry from the several large suite upgrades I regularly get at many other hotels in the city.  The style of the room was very classic to match with the old historical building of the hotel.  I liked the hardwood floors (no carpet) and everything was in good condition, but the main negative was that the room was hot – they deactivated the air conditioning due to the summer being over but on sunny days the room would get uncomfortable despite cool weather outdoors (20C) and opening the windows was not helping much unless wind was blowing in the right direction.  There were comments about noise issues at this hotel before because of the busy street intersection, and obviously with the windows open the traffic was very audible.  However I think the windows were double-glazed so when I closed them the noise was not problematic.  

Dining

The hotel was separated in several buildings and also included many venues that when walking by on the street in the past I had no idea were actually part of the hotel as they have a front door on the street for example an English Pub, a coffee shop, and a courtyard near a chapel with an outdoor bar.  All nice charming venues which actually attract several non-hotel guests.  The hotel now has a lounge, which similar to Fairmont is pay-for-access.  They charge 50 EUR per person for it and includes butler service.  

There was also a rooftop restaurant where breakfast was served for guests who did not have lounge access.  I am not sure Rixos Pera is fully aware of the Accor Diamond benefits – my stay was not during the weekend, it was during the week, so technically I should not have received free breakfast but they told me that I would not have to pay.  The venue was wonderful with panoramic views but it was very crowded at the time I went.  They had a staff-served buffet which I found to be above average for hotels in this price range – they food was excellent quality and had some options generally not found in competing hotels, instead of limiting themselves to traditional dishes only.

Service

Service was highly polished and was the strong point of this hotel.  First off I received a welcome at reception from the front office manager who was also making the rounds in the restaurant during breakfast to greet guests.  He offered me a tour of the different parts of the hotel, and once settled in my room I also received a call from the guest relations supervisor to make sure I was happy with my room.  Housekeeping staff were friendly and polite when meeting them the hallways and asked me when I wanted service.  When I went to breakfast the first morning the lady at the entrance welcomed me by name as soon as I arrived, without evening telling her my room number.  That means hotel staff must memorize guest names by looking at pictures of guests who checked in, which is only done in the top tier service-oriented hotels.  

When chatting with staff about my overall impressions of the hotel and the fact that the weak point was not having a suite upgrade which I can get at many other hotels in the city, they acknowledged that they are limited in what they can do because they only have 7 suites.  However they said if I come back in a less busy time of year they will do their best to accommodate me and considering how service was during my stay, I don’t doubt that they will.  

Wifi

Wifi worked well with download speed of 45 Mbps however upload could have been better, below 5 Mbps.

Overall

Overall Rixos Pera is the best fit for people who care most about excellent service and might care less about having a spacious and/or modern room.  I found Rixos to be almost the mirror image of Sofitel Taksim nearby where I stayed a couple of days earlier and had a nice modern suite but where service was a work in progress.  So it’s nice that Accor loyalists have choices on the entire spectrum.