Hotel Review: Galataport Hotel (Istanbul, Turkey)

Istanbul is a very popular tourist destination. Every year millions of tourists come here to visit Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Basilica Cistern, and so many more amazing historical sites.  All around the center of this magnificent city you can find hotels, hostels, and AirBnBs. Therefore you need to decide in what area you want to stay and how much you are willing to pay for your accommodation. Here is my honest review of The Galataport Hotel with all the pluses and minuses. Hopefully this review will help you to decide if this hotel is worth your money.

Location & How To Get To Galataport Hotel

The Galataport Hotel is located just 1 minute away from Galata Tower. That makes this hotel a popular choice among tourists.

There are a few ways to get to the Galataport hotel. One of them is simply to take a taxi or a transfer shuttle from the airport. It might be worth it if you are travelling with a big group and have lots of luggage that you don’t want to carry around. Such a ride in a taxi will cost you around 100 TL.

There is also another, cheaper way to get to your hotel. You can take a public bus from Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SAW) to Taksim, or from the new “Istanbul airport” to Sultanahmet. Such a ride will cost you around 18 TL. From both of these locations you can get a taxi to the Galataport Hotel for about 20 TL. 

Public Area

The Galataport Hotel has a small lounge area with a pretty comfortable couch on the ground floor next to the reception. There is also a nice terrace on the roof, where the included breakfast is served (unfortunately not during quarantine). The rooftop stays open all day, so you can have a beer there (buy at the convenience store) or just sit and enjoy the view, which is beautiful I might add. 

Check-In & Service 

Because we arrived at 10 PM to the Galataport Hotel, there weren’t any problems with check-in and the whole process took about 5 minutes. The receptionist was really friendly and helpful. He ordered delivery for us as well, since we were starving. And even when the delivery guy’s card reader didn’t work and we had problems with paying for our food, the receptionist just paid by himself and told us to bring him money whenever we can. So the staff at this hotel really goes the extra mile to make you feel welcomed.

The Rooms In Galataport Hotel

That is right, not “the room”, but “the rooms”. During our stay at Galataport hotel we had to exchange rooms. I really hate complaining and really rarely exchange food, drinks, or rooms in this matter. But this time it was between complaining and not sleeping all night, every night while we stayed there. 

The first room where we stayed two nights was an economy room (that we paid for). It was small but that’s what I expected based on the pictures. The problem was not in the room itself, although there were lots of small things that made our stay there unpleasant, but in the location of this room. 

Our room was on -1 floor, next to staff rooms, and right below reception and the entrance hall. Due to super thin walls, you are able to hear everything that is going on outside the hotel, next to the reception, and in staff rooms. Two nights in a row we couldn’t sleep, because someone was coming back to the hotel, someone was going out, staff were running up and down the stairs and turning something on (sounded like a microwave to me, but I am not sure). 

After the second sleepless night we couldn’t stand it anymore and asked to move floors. The staff was again really helpful and because they didn’t have any economy rooms left they offered us a free upgrade to the Deluxe room on the fifth floor with a great view. 

And after staying in the Deluxe room I understood how bad the economy room was. I am not going to compare that the Deluxe room was bigger and the bed was nicer, and they had better amenities. That is what is supposed to happen if you pay for the Deluxe room. I am going to compare the very basic things. 

	Economy Room	Deluxe Room
Air Conditioner	Broken	Works
Pillows	Very old, stained and lumpy	Comfortable and looked new
The handle in the shower	Broken	Not Broken
Wardrobe	The mirror on the wardrobe was broken as well	Not Broken
Towels	One of the towels had many holes and had a big and gross smudge (kinda like someone put on it a bunch of boogers with hair). Even now, writing about it, I want to throw up.	Clean and without holes
Lights	Half of the lights didn’t work	All the lights worked

The Bathrooms

The Deluxe room’s bathroom was quite spacious with an interesting and beautiful interior. Everything worked and there are no complaints about it whatsoever. 

The Economy room’s bathroom was just fine, a bit smaller, but still decent. It would be perfectly acceptable, if they just fix the handle in the shower and give clean towels, preferably without holes. 

Conclusion

The Galataport Hotel has many pluses: location, price, nice terrace, very helpful and friendly staff. But there is also a place to grow! The deal is mostly in fixing all the broken basic things in the rooms. If I book an economy room I expect it to be smaller and have less amenities. I don’t, however, expect there to be dirty and/or broken things in there. 

Key Details:

Price: $30/night per Economy room, Deluxe room – $60/night.

Air-Conditioned Rooms: Yes, but it didn’t work in our Economy room.

Breakfast Included: It says yes on websites, however the hotel doesn’t serve breakfast currently due to the Corona pandemic

Pool On-Site: No

Maid Service: Yes

Recommended To Stay Here: Yes, if you are staying in the Deluxe room. A Big No for the Economy room.

Address: Bereketzade, Laleli Çeşme Sk. No:10, 34421 Beyoğlu/İstanbul, Turkey

Disclaimer: Jet Set Together was not paid for a stay at the Galataport Hotel in Istanbul, and did not accept any payment for a good review. The words expressed in this article are my honest opinion.

Hotel Review: Galataport Hotel