Despite being HH Gold: Simply dreadful service. Very unresponsive. No room book. No soap, tea, coffee replenishment, no turn down service, telephone did not work etc. No room book. And that was on the exec floor! Worst Conrad ever stayed at and way down my list of regular Hiltons.

Both of us are Hilton Gold VIPs and have stayed at a large number of good hotels over the years, due to extensive work and personal vacation travels. Regular hotels stayed at include the Shangri-las, Sheratons, Tajs & Hiltons/Conrads.

In the past 6 months alone, we have stayed for at least 6 nights at the Conrads in Bangkok & Hong Kong, which were superb. All the more reason why we thought the Conrad Istanbul was such a let down in comparison.

Things started well - as Hilton Gold VIPs we were 'upgraded' to the Butler Floor on check in. However, that proved to be more of a hollow promise, as we were put in a room with the view of the busy road rather than the Bosphorous which we had requested at booking. The telephone and bathroom scales did not work, neither were there any notes explaining the facilities of the hotel. Shower temperatures were hit-and-miss.

During our first breakfast, confusion reigned - we went along to the Lounge located on our floor where we could see others having breakfast, but were stopped by the 'Butler' who told us we had to proceed one floor down - no explanation was offered. When we got to that floor, the staff there insisted we had to return to our floor as that was where we ought to have our breakfast. It took a long telephone call between the staff before they finally agreed that we should eat on the 14th, as opposed to 15th floor! Interestingly there was a difference in the breakfasts served: the 14th floor only has a limited cold buffet as opposed to the cooked breakfasts on the 15th floor.

Throughout our stay, we had to ask for items which are regularly provided at other top hotels e.g. bottled water and soap were provided sporadically - some days we got none, even though the bottles were clearly empty and the small bar of soap we had to start with was down to the size of a thumbnail! The same happened with the evening turn-down service.

We quickly learnt that staff advice on the time it took to get to destinations were usually wildly optimistic, given Istanbul traffic and the long queues for taxis outside the front door of the hotel, especially at dinner times.

The Butler floor concept was never explained to us, neither did it ever become apparent what the benefits were - as far as we could tell, the butler acted more like a guard dog sat at all times by the lifts, who ordered people, including guests, around, but never did anything positive.

Throughout the time we were there, they were refurbishing, and also crowing about the fact they had just won 'Business Hotel of the Year, Europe', which we didn't see any justification for.

We have twice written about the above matters since, and despite it having been nearly 2 months, have not received a single response from the hotel.

Compared to nearly all the other hotels we have stayed at, especially fellow Conrad hotels, the Conrad Istanbul was definitely second rate. We would NOT recommend it.

I stayed at the conrad 2 nights, and found that as far as hotels go, it is nothing exceptional. Of course, all the amenities are there, but most of them are not included in the room, and cost a fortune. (9$ for 30 minutes of internet, and you cannot use less than 30 minutes; 4$ for a tiny glass of milk). This hotel is expensive enough that customer service should be about given little things to keep guests happy instead of trying to sock them for the details.
Also, I discussed this hotel with a colleague of mine who mentioned that the conference organization capabilities were quite weak. Never use internet from the room. For about 2 hours use, they wanted to charge her 500 or so Dollars.

Also, it is quite inconvenient since it is so far from the downtown, and makes walking to the center quite impossible (Watch out for taxi cab drivers that are moving around the fare meter amount, and taking you in circle to increase the amount even more).

All that said, Istanbul is a wonderful city, and I would definetely go back again.