Stay Report: Novotel Istanbul Bosphorus (Istanbul, Turkey - November 2021)

 Stay Report: Novotel Istanbul Bosphorus
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I was meeting people in Istanbul and needed a hotel close to them.  They were staying in the Karakoy district of Istanbul so when I looked for nearby hotels I found the Novotel.  Novotels are part of Accorhotels and they are described as more upscale than ibis but less upscale than Sofitel.  I have stayed in Novotel before and thought it was a decent stay so decided to book the hotel again.  

The hotel is located in the back part of an entertainment section in this neighborhood where there are clubs and restaurants.  The back of the hotel faces this area while the front faces the river; there is still a lot of construction and renovations being done around the hotel so there are not a lot of services near the hotel.  The hotel is a 3-minute walk to the main street and from there you can access the tram, taxis, as well as walk another 5-7 minutes for more restaurants and services. 

As you enter the hotel, you pass the elevators to go towards the check-in desks on the right-side.  There are only two check-in desks and that was not sufficient for the size nor amount of people checking-in; it was a bit chaotic and there was a long wait depending on what time you checked in.  Further into the hotel is the bar and restaurant and on the left side is the small 'business' area with computer and printers (although the printer did not work for me so I had to send it to the front desk to print out - which a lot of people seemed to do).  I checked in, received my key and proceeded to my room.

The room was spacious and had all the amenities of a nice hotel.  You entered into the a hallway on

which the right-side of the hallway are closets that run along the hallway.  The closest consists both of a standard closet next to another closet with shelves; the closets provided a lot of storage places.  On the other side of the hallway was the bathroom which had the sink in the middle, the toilet on one side and the shower on the other (the shower had a window to the room and I do not know why so many hotels are doing this?!!).  As part of being a full-service hotel, the bathroom did have nice amenities including fair-trade products such as soap, shower gel, shampoo, and other products.  Additional bathroom amenities included very big and nice towels, which were good quality and very large towels. 

At the end of the hallway was the main section of the room which had two beds with nightstands on either side as well as reading lights.  The beds were bigger than a twin but definitely smaller than a full  so were both bit small in terms of length and width but they were comfortable enough and provided a comfortable sleep; the duvet on top was also comfortable as well.  Between the bed and the long window was a chair and a couch which was nice to sit and enjoy the view; in front of the bed was a desk to work on and a TV mounted on the wall.  In the bedroom section but connected to the closets was a section for the coffee maker, a fridge, and a safe in the room.  These were in the nook in the closets and provided a nice touch.

As a full-service hotel, there were many amenities that were provided. The hotel contains a bar, a restaurant, a pool, a fitness center,  a spa, free wifi, laundry services, room service, and a barber shop.  Most of these amenities were located on the basement level - I went during COVID so not all amenities were available.  The amenities I used were the free wifi, which was average and decent; and in the time of COVID a PCR test I booked through the hotel.  I needed a PCR test for arrival into my next country so I emailed the hotel and booked a PCR test through the hotel; if I had one in the morning I would have the results by the evening so I booked it for late morning.  The hotel got the timing wrong and I only found this out the night before when I went to confirm my appointment which turned out to be early morning and not late morning; all went well and I got my test done and the emailed the results to the front desk to print out (as the main printer was not working).  

In the end, it was an average stay at the Novotel.  The full service amenities provided by the hotel were nice, the location of the hotel was decent but this did not compensate for the poor customer service.  The hotel provided poor to minimal customer service.  The Novotel provides full service amenities, but not the full service customer service.