We were glad of somewhere to lay our weary heads - CVK Hotel Taksim, Istanbul

We booked to stay for one night having travelled by minibus from Sakarya, further south in Turkey. We finished our journey by taxi and the driver took us to the other CVK hotel overlooking the sea. The doorman gave him directions to our hotel in Taksim Square. The location (if you like Taksim, couldn't be better). We left our 4 cases with the doorman and went upstairs to the reception where we discovered our booking with Apodo had gone horribly wrong and our room had been given to someone else. They only had suites or one tiny room available. The receptionist quoted a price higher than the one detailed on the reception wall. When I pointed out the correct price, it was changed. They let us sit in the comfortable lobby to contact Apodo by email but our email providers didn't recognise our "address" so thought we were being hacked. Tired, in our 60's we took the tiny room, similar size to BLOC at airports, with no view. Well there was a view. See photos! So, all in all, we got over it and were pleased to have somewhere to stay the night before heading for the airport. The room had everything we needed for a good nights sleep, but was overpriced. We found a lovely roof top restaurant nearby and had a pleasant afternoon on a warm October day, before the rain came. In the morning, breakfast wasn't very welcoming. Nobody spoke to us Nobody offered us tea or coffee or explained what we were entitled to. There was a chef area for live cooking but the chef, just stared at it. It was a cold and rainy morning and someone decided to open the remote control windows and it became quite blowy.

Would we stay again? Might like to try their sister hotel. The facilities look good on the website. The guys dealing with our luggage were very efficient and helpful.