We stayed in the Crowne Plaza in the old city of Istanbul for a week during spring of 2011. Entrance to the lobby at check in was through a fashion store since reconstruction of the roadway in the front of the hotel prevented vehicle access, however, this was only a minor inconvenience. The lobby is very well appointed, with very high ceilings and quality furnishings also true of the hotel in general. Our room was first class with plenty of space and tastefully furnished. There is a very well kept indoor pool staffed permanently with attendants.

Check in was very efficient and the hotel staff were very helpful and friendly at all times.

The restaurant is not too large, in an open area immediately adjacent to the lobby, meals are also available in the lobby area itself. The menu is not particularly inspiring but offers reasonable fare. There are many restaurants of varying size in the general vicinity of the hotel offering both local and international dishes and open throughout the day. We had breakfast and some other meals and on those occasions when we ate dinner in the hotel we chose the lobby area since the atmosphere was more convivial than in the restaurant itself.

The location is extremely convenient and very close to several significant attractions many interesting features are within walking distance easy access is also available by very regular tram service in the street immediately outside the hotel. Tours can also be arranged very easily at a travel desk situated in the lobby.

A very good hotel which we would definitely stay in again and can thoroughly recommend.

we booked this hotel given its location (but later we saw there are so many other hotels in the old city) and because we knew that only a 5 star hotel in turkey could be as comfortable as a 3 star in western europe. Location is ok, however we had such a negative time in this hotel, although most of the day we were out in town. The hotel's most customers were men from Arabic countries (which is no problem in itself) but in the evening hours they would stay in groups in the corridors and talk loudly and we had a hard time sleeping at night. Furthmore, sometimes they would even knock on our door which was very disturbing...we thought they were trying to break in our room. We did not have breakfast in the hotel because it's unnecessarily expensive (17 Euro)...it is easy to have breafast in the surrounding cafe's. In overall we were dissapointed and will not go back again when visitng Turkey. Staff is also very wierd...not smiling at all.

Room was okay a bit small and generally just a wierd floorplan. Staff at front desk and room service guy were good. Right next to the Laleli Mosque
We have stayed at other locations in Istanbul before and preffered them but good to try a new place. We explored the 2 mosques nearby and the university areas before heading off to the main touristy areas.

Spent three nights here and enjoyed the location. The tram was only a block away and definitely the fastest way to get to the top tourist locations. The neighborhood is very pleasant for walking.