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Review of Grand Hyatt Istanbul

I was aware that Grand Hyatt Istanbul was an older...

I was aware that Grand Hyatt Istanbul was an older hotel with aging rooms so I was not overly interested in booking there in the past. I was unimpressed by our stay at Park Hyatt a few months ago so I finally decided to try GH once and for all. I am glad I gave a chance to GH which exceeded my expectations and I will probably return in the future especially for stays where I value extra space over a more modern room.

The location of GH is one of the best in the city near Taksim square. I like the area around Park Hyatt as well but it s not close to public transportation so it normally requires to take the taxi or have a longer walk to take the metro.

Given the low occupancy of hotels in Istanbul at the moment I was not surprised to be upgraded to a Grand Suite as a Hyatt Globalist guest. The suite was aging as expected but I found it to be reasonably well maintained. The room was very spacious at 80 sqm which is one of the largest suites I have seen in Istanbul, bigger than St.Regis, Ritz Carlton, Renaissance, and Park Hyatt, all of which only have 1 bathroom but GH had 1.5 (Conrad suites do too). GH is close to a busy road but there were double windows spaced at least 10 cm apart which was great for soundproofing and we could not hear traffic at all.

Bathroom amenities were Aromatherapy instead of the no-name generic inferior products at some Grand Hyatts in the Middle East such as Dubai and Doha, so I was glad that GH Istanbul did not cut corners in that regard.

The Club Lounge was closed during our stay due to covid and instead they provided Globalist happy hour in the hotel bar near reception which had individually wrapped hors d oeuvres and desserts. In addition we could order three different warm appetizers prepared in the kitchen and brought directly to our table. They also accepted to prepare cocktails rather than only offer cheap booze which contributed to making happy hour feel more upscale generally speaking than the lounge offerings at Conrad where we stayed a few months ago. Also the GH bar was very quiet due to the circumstances; at times we were all alone so it could not have been a more private and relaxing happy hour. My main takeaway was that it was one of the best happy hours I have seen in Istanbul except perhaps Hilton Bomonti.

I found the breakfast buffet to be quite good, entirely served by staff as a covid precaution. There was also some variety in the buffet choices from one morning to the next and in my opinion it was a better breakfast than other hotels of that caliber such as Renaissance or Conrad.

Service during our stay was good all around, either at reception or in the restaurant where they offered proactive service; I felt service at GH was a notch above Conrad.

Wifi worked well during our stay with speeds of over 50 Mbps. I would note that many Istanbul hotels have subpar wifi by worldwide standards; from memory GH was the fastest wifi I have seen out of about a dozen of hotels in the city.

In the end I tried GH and in this price range I was quite happy by what I received. The room is old and for sure the suites at Conrad are infinitely better but GH is a good choice for Hyatt Globalists guests who want more space available. In addition, the location of GH is a plus, the service was excellent, and happy hour + breakfast were better than other hotels in this price range. GH can sometimes be booked for almost half the price of Park Hyatt which does not have new and modern rooms either consequently I found GH to be better value than PH. For a future stay where I don t mind a smaller suite and if I prefer newer hardware, I will try Hyatt Centric Istanbul, but I am certainly not opposed to returning to GH.