Grand Yavuz Hotel

We are so happy we chose this as our Turkish Airlines stopover hotel. As a family of 4, they gave us adjoining rooms with a delicious breakfast as soon as we arrived from our flight the first morning. We so appreciated the convenient and well-priced airport transfer arranged by email before our arrival. With luggage and kids, it was great to get into the city center easily. We had a fabulous 2 days exploring the area's famous sites on foot with no need for a taxi/other transport. The location is incredible. Would love to stay here again.

We stayed here through Turkish Airlines’ Stopover program. I wasn’t expecting much because of that, but I was pleasantly surprised. The rooms were clean, comfortable, and served their purpose perfectly. The buffet breakfast was more than adequate. Plus, the hotel is right in the heart of Istanbul — just steps away from all the main attractions. A very convenient and comfortable stay overall.

The hotel itself isn’t bad — decent facilities, decent location — but unfortunately, the awful customer service completely overshadowed any positives during my stay. I arrived around 1:30am as part of Turkish Airlines’ long layover program. Despite my flight details being provided in advance, I was refused check-in because the system-generated reservation stated “check-in at 8am” — something I had no control over. The front desk manager on duty was extremely unprofessional, rude, and dismissive. Instead of assisting, he simply told me: “I’m not airline staff. This is not my problem.” Then walked away and left me sitting in a dark lobby for hours. Several other transit passengers soon arrived and were treated exactly the same. It felt like a deliberate tactic to pressure guests into paying for an extra night, even though this was supposed to be a fully covered airline transit accommodation. Only after 3am did the manager suddenly decide to “do us a favor” and check us in — as if we should be grateful for being allowed into rooms that were already allocated for us. It’s unfortunate because the hotel itself could have been fine, but this kind of manipulative and disgraceful behavior towards exhausted travelers — especially those relying on airline arrangements — is unacceptable. Future guests, especially airline transit passengers, beware.