Icon Istanbul Hotel

Welcome to the Filthy ‘Icon’ Hotel—Where the Only Thing Shining is the Irony! 😁

I have to start with a positive note: the gentleman who helped me with my bags to my room was always smiling and greeted me warmly. He was the high point of my stay. Unfortunately, things went downhill from there.

From the moment I checked in on the 16th of October, it was clear that “Icon” was a misnomer. If this place is an icon of hospitality, I’d hate to see what qualifies as a disaster.

The room was filthy. I’ll attach a video to showcase how unhygienic this place is—it looked like it hadn’t been dusted in months. The hallway leading to my room reeked of stale cigarettes, making me question if I’d walked into a lounge from the ’90s. My room wasn’t cleaned for three days—I had to endure a mountain of dirty towels and unemptied trash. I requested fresh towels three times, and they finally showed up hours later, as if they were on a scenic tour of the hotel.

The air-conditioning unit was a joke, shutting itself down and restarting every 10 to 15 seconds, creating a cacophony that made sleep impossible. The walls were so thin that I was kept up all night by my neighbor’s snoring; it was like having front-row seats to a symphony of discomfort.

On the evening of the 18th, when I went down to collect my food delivery, I confronted the front desk attendant—who, by the way, spoke perfect English. He refused to let the delivery driver bring the food up to my room, forcing me to make the ridiculous trek to the lobby myself. When I voiced my complaints, all he could muster was, “It is what it is.” Really? That’s the pinnacle of customer service here? This was, by the way, the straw that broke the camel’s back.

I hadn’t planned on leaving a review; however, to the gentleman who said “it is what it is” while smoking your cigarette at the hotel entrance, you have earned donkey of the month award, congratulations!🥇 Your lack of common courtesy convinced me that a review was necessary.

I even asked another hotel staff member for help with a taxi, and he simply said, “Sorry, no taxi.” What that meant, I still don’t understand, but it certainly didn’t solve anything.

My room keys locked me out multiple times, forcing me to trudge back to the lobby for reactivation. The Wi-Fi was painfully slow, making me wish I had brought a carrier pigeon instead.

After three excruciating days, I checked out on the 19th of October, utterly relieved to escape this “icon.” If this is what they call hospitality, I shudder to think of what a truly terrible hotel must be like.

For anyone considering a stay at this so-called “Icon Hotel,” my advice is simple: look elsewhere. Your comfort and sanity deserve much better than what this place offers.

Oh, and to the hotel staff/management: in case you’re wondering, I was staying in room 2208—just so there’s no confusion about who’s writing this scathing review.

Teşekkür! 🙋‍♂️

I am so disappointed. I have a list of issues that I faced in this hotel
1. The cleaning and housekeeping details are all incorrect. My room was cleaned only once in the whole week although I had my cleaning sign switched on since the second day and had to call them so many times.
2. The information about ATM and currency exchange on site is incorrect. They don’t have it.
3. Shuttle service to and from airport is incorrect. They call normal taxi and you have to pay 800-1000TL for that
4. The breakfast has many options but most of the hot food options are literally not eatables. There is loads of water and vegetables in hot meals were not fresh at all.
5. The staff is very friendly but I was shocked on the checkout day they changed. They reassured me that I can get a late checkout at 2pm because my flight was at night and on the checkout day they kept arguing with me that they are full and I need to leave at 12pm. So their attitude was completely different on the day of check out and I had so many arguments with them as I couldnt rush with all the luggage because of my bad back.
6. Major hygiene problems. Dont uncover their pillows as the insides are so gross that you will vomit!
7. The blinds on the window in the first room were broken and I insisted on getting it fixed because I was sharing the room with my mum and shower cabin was visible from the room. They changed the room and in the second room the window had cracks in it and the blinds were broken but it was covered from outside so that was resolved I guess. But everytime someone takes a shower you can see gross bubbles on the sheet it was covered with. Similarly the wardrobe door was slightly broken as well.
8. The location is 10 minutes walk from bus stop and its an uphill walk towards taksim. They have a shuttle service every hour which is a plus but the shuttle drops off in the beginning of taksim not taksim square and its one sided shuttle so we have to book a taxi on out way back. I only used the shuttle once!
Please check the google rating before getting any hotel. Its nothing like a 4 star as rated on bookings .com