Ayma

Great hotel. Most of the staff spoke english. All in all a great hotel by any standard. Beautiful lobby and rooms.Only downside is that it is on a hill and in order to get to the metro and shopping district you have to walk up a considerably steep brick or cobblestone road.

Just returned back from Istambul where I was on a sightseeing tour for four days. The group was accomodated at this hotel by the travel company, so we did not have any other choice. The hotel is now called Center Hotel. I cannot say anything bad about the hotel except for the noise inside and outside. The streets are noisy all night and the windows are not well insulated. Besides, I was unlucky enough to get a room on the fifth floor with the restaurant above my room. I tried to ask for another room, but the hotel was full. Sometimes chairs were pulled continuously until half past ten at night, and it started again at five fifteen in the morning. Otherwise, the hotel was clean, the staff was extremely helpful, thanks for them. Very few of them could speak English but they tried to do their best. The room and the bathroom were big enough to use them for three nights. The breakfast was good and plentiful. Istambul is a great city with beautiful sights everywhere, but it is very tiring if you cannot sleep some hours at night. I do not think I will return to this hotel again. Next time I will try to find a bit more quiet area.

My daughter (19 y.o.) and I went to Istanbul on a two-day organized tour from Bulgaria and were put into this hotel for the one night we spent in the city. We were originally taken to a different hotel that seemed a lot nicer; however, for some reason a part of the group was later taken to the Ayma Hotel and told we'd be staying there. We were quite dismayed the moment we walked in. The lobby was cramped, the hallways dingy and narrow, and while the rooms were an OK size, they were pretty grungy. There were clean sheets on the bed and everything was quite tidy, but the carpet was stained and dirty, there were stains on the walls where someone had clearly killed a few bugs, and the air conditioner was disgusting. Not only was it very dirty, but also LOUD, revving up like a lawn mower at regular intervals. It was low on the wall, right opposite my bed, and I remember thinking as I was falling asleep that the thing was probably a health hazard. Sure enough, two days later I had laryngitis, and over a week later am still dealing with a nasty cough. The spare pillows in the closet had no pillow cases and had large yellow stains on them. (YUCK.) Also, our room was right underneath the breakfast room (7th floor) and we were woken up at 7 am with chairs scraping on the floor above us. The one redeeming feature of this hotel was the breakfast room, which was on the top floor of the hotel and which had a great view over the city. Breakfast, too, was surprisingly good.