I stayed here 4 nights in July 2006 and we had the opposite experience of the last two reviewers. The driver not only met me at the airport but when I mentioned that I liked to fish, he drove me through the fish market on the way to the hotel so I could see the fresh catch that morning. He'd slow down and shout out to people in Turkish, "hey how much for that one?" and then he'd tell me in a very animated voice how expensive a bass or flounder-type fish was as I hung out the car window gawking at the stands.

Our standard room on the 4th floor (401 or 403?) was flooded with light and very lovely with a view of the water in the distance. These rooms on the higher floors are not the "deluxe" renovated rooms and so were fairly inexpensive -- IIRC we paid 82 Euro after the cash discount (we booked directly through the hotel website) and had two twin beds. We were also offered the cute room next to us which had a tiny and very cute balcony -- that room only had one double bed, however, so we couldn't take it. I'd suggest you ask for the room with the balcony and sea view if you're a couple. Loved the hardwood floors in these rooms and the bathrooom looked newly tiled and was immaculate although there was a moldy smell that wouldn't go away. A/C/ worked great and there was a mini-bar fridge with room for our drinks and fruit.

Service was relatively efficient and very friendly -- personally greeted in the mornings and afternoons by the hotel owner's son who did much of the renovation. The staff in the morning breakfast room were very accomodating and made us turkish coffee in the mornings when they saw we didn't enjoy the watered-down American coffee. Staff chatted with us on a daily basis about our plans and answered all our questions and they were happy to store our luggage on the day of check-out and even put our laptops in a locked office when we voiced worries about leaving our luggage behind.

The rooftop is as beautiful as it looks on their website and like everyone else says, location is very central and their buffet breakfast is very good with many options. Sorry and surprised to hear that people had problems with service -- was it one particular person you were dealing with? The older front desk guy was friendly and efficient, the younger guy who took our luggage up was also very friendly and jovial but didn't seem able to do much about our concerns with the mold smell in the bathrooom -- he said it would air out if we kept the fan on.

Overall, we had a great time here and would definitely stay again.

I visited Istanbul, Turkey recently... I stayed in Sultanahmet at the Uyan Hotel. It was the perfect place to stay for my visit in Istanbul. Just a few minutes walk away from all the historical sites in Sultanahmet. I could see Sultanahmet Mosque and Aya Sofia and the Bosphorus from their terrace.

A breathtaking panoramic view of Istanbul!! I spent several hours up there looking around and enjoying the sites while drinking tea.

The room I had was very comfortable and quite nice as a boutique hotel. Very cozy and clean much better than the larger hotels. The staff was very helpful and aided me in finding interesting things to do and how to get from here to there. They provided me service to the airport and as my flight was early morning it was very much appreciated.

I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone interested in staying in Sultanahmet.

We booked a 4 night stay at the Uyan hotel in October through Venere and after arranging the complimentary shuttle service from the airport to the hotel (by Email and confirming by phone) we where disappointed to find nobody at the airport to meet us, after locating a phone and waiting a further 1/2 hour we where eventually picked up. The room (205) we were assigned was the standard Deluxe which was clean and tidy even though there was no satellite reception to the TV. We complained about this and I believe as a token gesture the bell boy was sent to our room to say that they would get a tecnichen up to our room to fix it. As an ex TV engineer I could see that the room was not wired for Satellite and that the bell boy was sent to ''placate the tourists''. In view of this lack of customer care and having no faith that my complaint/issue would be resolved I could not be bothered to report the shower tray that constantly leaked and took 10 minutes to drain.
In my mails and confirmation calls to the hotel I had made it known that the trip was both a wedding anniversary and birthday celebration in the hope that the hotel would at least place some flowers in our room (which I would have been happy to pay for) but no that was obviously too much to ask for.
The only positive I can add to this review is that the location of this hotel is perfect for the sights and the breakfast is to a good standard; just don't expect good customer care.

We were booked to stay at the Uyan Hotel for 6 nights in early October. At check-in, we were shown to a dark, dreary room totally surrounded by high walls.
When we requested a room change, we were told we would be able to move the following morning, which satisfied us. The next morning, we asked about the change and were then told it would be impossible (even though we had 5 nights remaining) as they were fully booked. At the time of this conversation, two separate couples were waiting to check out.
When I told the Uyan staff that we would have to find other accomodations if they were unable to change our room, they just shrugged their shoulders.
I then walked next door to the Seven Hills Hotel and was given a wonderful room with an outdoor balcony for the same price.
I would not recommend the Uyan to anyone, although I highly recommend the Seven Hills, both for the quality of the accomodation and the high degree of customer service.