It is a wonderful hotel, luxurious, great services, perfect location , i really liked it and i will stay there everytime i go to Istanbul, friednly and professional staff, nice room with wonderful view to the posphorus.

My parents decided to keep the hotel a surprise for our first trip abroad during new years ( and Eid holidays) so we decided to stay in Istanbul for 5 days. When you first pass by the hotel you are in awe as u see this magnificent building. we thought the exteriors was beautiful but going inside our rooms we were quite surprised we had a nice view background drop of turkey that just blows your mind away. I thought that this was all the place had to offer, but the breakfast, i still can taste the watery selection in my mouth! never have i see so many things I practically gained weight just from the breakfast! It was a nice place , although the people there weren't as helpful when it came to reservation it still didn't ruin our amazing five day holiday!

The hotel is one of the finest I have had the pleasure of visiting. The rooms were clean, modern, and what you would expect from a 5 star hotel. The pool area with infinity pool was a great place to relax after a day of sightseeing. Our main problem was that the hotel was so beautiful and relaxing it was hard to get motivated for sightseeing. The staff including Concierge were excellent. The housekeeping staff never bothered you when you were in room and always had room clean upon your return. Every afternoon they left a delicious plate of fruits or sweets in the room. They delivered daily at no charge numerous newspapers. There were always taxis waiting for you and the taxis were large enough to take 4 of us with large suitcases to the airport. My only complaint was the high cost of food and drinks at hotel. I highly recommend this hotel and would definitely stay here again.

We stayed at the Kempinksi-Ciragan in late May of 2008. Luckily, our hotel room itself was paid for by a business client for an event they were hosting. The building itself is nothing special: very concrete and drab. The location of our room was good with a nice view of the pool and then the Bosphorus beyond. Check-in was fine and cordial. The console phone system in the room--which also controls the lights--kept going off and on all day and all night so it would light up in the middle of the night, sometimes waking me up with light and the clicking sound it made. The TV only worked a percentage of the time, usually corresponding with when the phone was acting up. And literally, someone was moving furniture in the room above us at 3:30am the 2nd night we were there for nearly an hour! I don't know if it's a conference room they were preparing or what, but it was terrible trying to sleep with all the lights and noise. The prices were ridiculous. By the pool, a coke cost about $16 USD. A sandwich (very average tasting, and I'm not picky usually) was about $35. We ate at one of the restaurants one night and for those similar prices (about 5 times what you would normally pay for anything), the food was OK, but not special. I'm not against paying for luxury when the experience corresponds, but in this case, there was absolutely nothing to justify the prices. Last, the service in general was terrible. Anytime you needed something from the desk, they seemed bothered, or promised it and it never materialized without follow up. The last day, I stopped at the desk to ask for someone to come get the luggage. Then I went to the room to wait. 20 minutes later, I called because no one showed up while I was sitting doing nothing, so I called down. They apologized and said they would send someone immediately. 10 minutes later, another person called ME and said it was past checkout time and when was I planning to check out! Still no one had come to collect the luggage! In my opinion, for these prices, the customer should be treated like royalty. Again, I am not hugely picky and really never stay in 5-star hotels, so my expectations were that we would have a quality experience for that level of hotel. It did not materialize, and I would NEVER pay to stay there. I have had equally pleasant and much cheaper stays at far lesser hotels. After 2 days, our cost for food and amenities alone was $1000 USD and we had little to show for it but a nice few hours by the pool--which we could have done elsewhere. Last, the hotel is nice on the Bosphorus as it is, but it is not conveniently located in Istanbul and a 15-40 minute dizzying taxi ride in traffic is required to get to most areas of town where you would want to visit.

Really enjoyed our weekend in cold Istanbul at the amazing Kempinski! Not cheap but well worth spending a bit more....this is a bit of an uninteresting review but we really couldn't find flaw with this hotel, clean, chique, friendly, great service etc everything was high class. Would be nice if it was a bit cheaper, then we would stay there every month! We'll return very shortly!