Sofitel istanbul Taksim : a very nice hotel but subpar service

I recently stayed for 3 nights. I had a good stay, the hotel is great, they take good care of customers with high ALL status. But the service is very far from what you can expect at Sofitel, as it was also reported by Escape4 and what you can see from customers comments on the hotel webpage + TripAdvisor. Sometimes, it’s very amateurish. What is saving the whole thing is that the great majority of the staff is very nice. This bad service seems mostly due to the very young and unexperienced staff. I have the feeling that the hotel recruited quickly a lot of low paid very junior staff when Covid restrictions ended and travel restarted. They seems poorly trained and not very motivated, but often smiling and trying to be nice so you forgive easily their mistakes. One of the problem I have identified is that a significant number of staff speaks poorly English and this creates miscommunications and misunderstandings. Fortunately, the senior staff is very good and recovers most of the problems. Among those, I want to cite and thank particularly Mr Ahmet Sadi who was very nice and helpful throughout my entire stay.

This is the building from the rear (from the terrace of lobby bar/restaurant):

I checked-in in the middle of the night (at 3 am ! and the number of people still on Taksim sq at that time was just unbelievable). I booked a superior room and was kindly upgraded to the Opera Suite which correspond to a several level supgrade. This was much appreciated of course, and knowing that the hotel was fully booked. The rooms features and amenities were explained to me, drink voucher was given.

Good news : the Club Millésime is still there. I was afraid it was suppressed as this Sofitel was not listed anymore on ALL site for hotels having a club. No welcome letter was given/present in room.

I booked a ALL Visa card rate giving 50 EUR credit for F&B. I asked how it was working, but the agent on duty at night had no clue and I think he did not really understand what I meant. At 3 am, I couldn’t care less and postpone this clarification to the next day. The next day, I asked again and it took 3 persons to understand the demand and gave me the answer (I am glad I bring with me a printout of the booking and the conditions, otherwise it would have been more difficult, as they were not seeing it in their system). With Accor, it’s often not simple…The answer I finally got was simply that I can charge the room for F&B and, upon checkout, they will deduct up to 50 EUR from the bill.

Pictures of the lobby

The room was quite spacious with first a part with guest toilets and a place where minibar, Nespresso machine and kettle are. The main room is divided in 2 parts : living room with a big sofa, and the bed part with a desk. Plenty of storage place. 

Welcome amenity was a plate of Turkish pastries

Beautiful view on Taksim Sq and the mosques, whatever the time of the day or night. Soundproofing was excellent (needed when you see the crowd on the square at any time) 

Very large bathroom. Hermès products ;)

There was a turndown service with chocolates given every night.

Club Millesime

it is located at level B1, i.e. one floor below main lobby. It is adjacent to the breakfast restaurant called La Table. Club-eligible guests take the food at the buffet in the restaurant and can eat it in the lounge, which is the best place to be as the main restaurant get very crowded and noisy. But the access to lounge was not policed in the morning (I was never asked for my room number in the morning, while they always asked during the rest of the day). Too many junior waiters in the Club : one morning, I think I had to request coffee 5 times.

During the day, the club proposes soft drinks and some cakes and fruits. 

To illustrate the young and unexperienced staff, I was once at the lounge early afternoon and they were chatting and laughing loudly in an adjacent room. Or, when a waiter was alone, he/she was seated somewhere and sending sms on their phones looking bored. But when you wanted something, they were immediately “going back to work” and were always very kind. But that should not happen in a Club lounge at Sofitel.

I asked the front desk and the Club attendants what was the happy hour time for cocktails in the evening. No one understood the question. As the lounge is open from 6 am to 8 pm, I guessed it was from 6 to 8 pm, and apparently that was it. There is no menu for the drink offer in the evening. I ordered some wine. If you don’t speak Turkish, you can’t order something too complicated as the English level was quite poor.

For food in the evening at the lounge, the selection was more limited than in other lounges that I know, but the pizzas were very good. But, the lounge was always deserted in the evening. It is true that they don’t advertise it enough for the eligible customers (may be that’s voluntary, I don’t know).

In the main lobby, there is a restaurant and bar, with both indoor and outdoor seating (very nice view on Bosphorus). The staff here was not so pleasant (not proactive, not smiling). This is the place to redeem the drink voucher.

There is a rooftop restaurant with very nice view as well. It seems to be very popular and I couldn’t go any of the days I was there as it was always fully booked. 1st evening, they told me in a semi rude way that it was full and I was not even allowed, as a guest hotel, to just have a look at the view from the terrace. I was clearly “bothering them”. The next day I called form the room to see if they had space and they just said “not available - Bye” and hung up.

One night, I had a room service and this was the most amateurish part of the service. Around 21:00 I called to order a soup and a mixed grill. they repeated the order and said it will take 20-25 min. 30 min later, phone call : 

• “Sir, did you order a salad” ?
• me : “no, I didn’t”
• “What did you order?”
• me : “a soup and a mixed grill”
• OK

At 22:00, still nothing. I was starving and starting to be exasperated. I called again :

• “What did you order?”
• me : “a soup and a mixed grill !!!!!”
• “I call you back”

22:05 : call back to say that food is on the way. 

22:10 : knock at the door. I open the door but see a pizza on the tray ! I was hesitating between laugh or cry… Sorry, that’s not for me.

22:15 : another knock at the door and this time it was the right tray. The waiter had a credit card machine but I told him I want to charge the room so I signed the bill and start to eat. But it’s not finished…

22:25 : knock at the door again. The same waiter tells me that there is a problem because he can’t add the charge to the room for an unknown reason so I can pay by card. I refused again to pay by card as I needed to charge the room to benefit from my 50 EUR credit. He told me I will need to go to the front desk when I’m done with dinner to sort this out.

23:30 : I go to the front desk to solve this major issue…and the person on duty looks at his screen and ask me : “are you talking about a room service charge tonight for XXX TRY ?” Yes, that’s it. “I don’t understand why the waiter asked you to come because it’s on the room and everything is OK”…Accor, why are you making it always so complicated ???

There is a spa and indoor pool on level B2. Not bad at all. Good place to relax after a warm day in Istanbul.

There is also another pool on the roof that I discovered by chance trying to have dinner at the rooftop restaurant. But it is not used as such and not advertised anywhere (and there his no loungers).

I requested a late checkout. They wanted 3 pm but I really wanted 4pm and it was granted by the kind Mr Sadi after 30sec of discussion. Checkout was without issue, no error on the bill (the 50 EUR credit was well applied). Points posted within 24hrs.

Overall, it is a very good hotel with strong fundamentals, but too many irritants or complications due to inexperienced staff and obviously poor English skills. The location is great, right on Taksim Sq at the beginning of the famous pedestrian street (Istiklal) with the old tramway. 

I think I would return because the nice rooms, hotel equipments and Club Lounge outweighs the service flaws. But if the price is right of course and they really need to bring the service level up to Sofitel standards