Wyndham Hotel Group announced the signing of an agreement to open a second franchised Wyndham Hotels and Resorts® property in Turkey, the Wyndham Istanbul Kalamis Marina.
Michael-Poynter_Celal-YukselMichael Poynter, Wyndham Hotel Group’s senior vice president and managing director of EMEA, and Mr. Celal Yuksel, Chairman of the Board, Reisler Deri Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Siketi, celebrate the signing of Wyndham Istanbul Kalamis Marina, the second Wyndham branded hotel set to debut in Turkey in autumn 2012.
The hotel, owned by Reisler Deri Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Siketi, is due to open in autumn 2012.
The signing of the Wyndham Istanbul Kalamis Marina adds to Wyndham Hotel Group’s steady growth in the country, following last month’s announcement that Turkey’s first Wyndham® hotel, the Wyndham Petek Istanbul, is set to debut in 2012. Wyndham Hotel Group currently has seven hotels open and operating in the country under the globally renowned Ramada® brand.
wyndham-kalamis-marina“Turkey plays an important role in our plans to expand Wyndham Hotel Group’s portfolio in Europe and the Middle East and continue providing travellers with first-rate accommodations around the world,” said Eric Danziger, president and chief executive officer of Wyndham Hotel Group. “The opportunities in Istanbul make for an exciting time to introduce a second Wyndham hotel here. With its incredible location and five-star offerings, the addition of Wyndham Istanbul Kalamis Marina further demonstrates our commitment to work with respected partners to bring high-calibre products to key, vibrant markets.”
With stunning views of the Marmara Sea, this five-star property will be located directly across from the exclusive Kalamis Marina on the Asian side of Istanbul. The hotel will feature 211 rooms over five floors, one presidential suite and eight meeting rooms. A large spa and fitness centre will offer 12 treatment rooms, one indoor pool and one rooftop pool. Dining options will include three restaurants: one offering all-day dining and two speciality restaurants. A lobby bar and room service will also be available.
via Wyndham Hotel Group Announces Second Wyndham Hotel in Turkey.
Three Istanbul hotels lovingly preserve their Ottoman past
By Lynn Levine, Ottawa Citizen October 15, 2011
As the latest destination among trendsetters and globetrotters, Istanbul has, in the past few years, exponentially increased the number of boutique and designer hotels stocked with state-of-the art amenities, modern decor and spa facilities. It seems that everywhere you look, MP3 docking stations and flatscreen TVs abound.
But what if you’re looking for a taste of the authentic?
Sadly, up until a few decades ago, taking the scorched-earth approach was a property owner’s answer to the idea of historic preservation. But now the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction and visitors to the city that hosted three great empires can eschew modern minimalism and opt instead for Old World elegance.
One might say that the trend toward saving, rather than razing, Istanbul’s extraordinary treasures began with one visionary man: Çelik Gülersoy, who in 1966 took the helm of the Turkish Touring and Automobile Club (TTOK), Turkey’s answer to the CAA.
The project that had the most impact on how Turks felt about their architectural heritage was arguably the Yesil Ev, or Green House hotel, which, when purchased by the TTOK in 1977, was one of hundreds of crumbling Ottoman mansions in the city’s historical bull’s-eye – and utterly derelict – neighbourhood of Sultanahmet.
In its original incarnation, the Yesil Ev served as the home of the Ottoman minister of monopolies, a stately example of the marriage between European (mostly French) influences and traditional Ottoman features such as cumba (bay extensions or cantilevered overhangs) that were both decorative and functional.
In a traditional Turkish house, all of the embellishment was focused inside the home, while the exterior remained bland, protecting the family from prying eyes. In place of the traditional, multipurpose oda (Turkish for “room”), where pillows and cushions provided seating by day and mattresses welcomed the weary at night, these “modern” Ottoman mansions had bedrooms – and actual beds.
Under Gülersoy’s leadership, the mansion was reconstructed, clapboard by clapboard, into an exact replica. Inside you will find ornamental brocades, decorative wallpaper, handmade carpets and – in the Pasha Suite – gilded bedsteads and a marble hamam (Turkish steam bath). The building’s crowning feature, however, is the expansive garden courtyard, lushly arranged around a glass-enclosed winter garden and a fountain carved of pink porphyry (a type of Egyptian rock).
To be fair, later preservationists, as well as UNESCO, heavily criticized the rebuilding, rather than the restoration, of these timber buildings. But Gülersoy’s vision set the ball in motion for a more sensitive treatment of structures in disrepair. Prior to the Yesil Ev, concrete blocks were the primary replacement mechanism for urban ruins.
As part of the Yesil Ev revival, the adjacent Cedid Mehmet Efendi Medrese was also restored, now housing the Istanbul Handicrafts Centre, where artists and craftsmen are supported in their quest to practise and showcase previously dying Ottoman crafts such as miniature painting, ebru (paper marbling), glass-blowing, book-binding and lacework.
TTOK’s investment in the Yesil Ev paid off, so much so that the company staged an encore the following year along the cobbled and picturesque Sogukçesme Sokak street. Sandwiched between the outer courtyard wall of Topkapi Palace and the backside of the Hagia Sophia, Sogukçesme Sokak remained free of buildings for at least a century or two after the conquest of the city.
But then a number of employees of the palace and the Hagia Sophia realized how convenient it might be live close to work, building wooden houses right up against the palace wall.
But these houses suffered much the same fate as other area buildings. They were either left to rot or replaced with concrete atrocities.
Gülersoy set to work. Today, the faithfully rebuilt row houses, with names like “Jasmine House,” or “Wisteria House” for the flowering blooms that share their address, comprise the Ayasofya Konaklari, a nostalgic collection of guest rooms once again decorated in elegant, western-influenced (gilded, tassled and velvety) style. The Konaklari can also boast a distinguished guest list that includes Bernardo Bertolucci, Roman Polanski and Queen Sofia of Spain.
Perhaps the most opulent example of Istanbul’s trend toward preserving its Ottoman francophile century is the Pera Palace Hotel, a masterwork designed by Turkish-born Levantine architect Alexandre Vallaury, fusing neo-classical, art nouveau and oriental styles.
The Compagnie Internationale de Wagon Lits, owner of the Orient Express, commissioned the building of the hotel to provide its illustrious guests with appropriately appointed lodging, sadly lacking in late 19thcentury Istanbul.
When completed in 1895, the Pera Palace was the only building in the empire other than in the palaces to have electricity and the only address in town with hot running water.
The Pera Palace rapidly wove itself into the fabric of the city, welcoming many of the world’s most famous, and infamous, personalities. On the eve of and through the Great War, with the Ottoman Empire weakened and collapsing, Istanbul, and particularly the Pera Palace, was a key prop in the international intrigues taking shape at the time. Mata Hari, the exotic dancer and reputed seducer of men in high offices, was a guest in 1897.
In 1921, an Azerbaijani diplomat was assassinated as he relaxed in one of the hotel’s red velvet armchairs. Tradition also puts Kim Philby, the British double agent spying for the KGB, at the hotel after the Second World War.
Agatha Christie (reputed to have written Murder on the Orient Express in Room 411) slept here, as did Ernest Hemingway, assigned to report on the Turkish Greek hostilities (and who spent most of his time in the Orient Bar).
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic, spent time in Room 101, perhaps, as to rumour says, with Zsa Zsa Gabor.
In 2010, after a four-year period of planning, renovation and restoration, the Pera Palace emerged from hibernation as an authentic icon updated for modern sensibilities. Whereas through the decades, the ballroom, patisserie, lobby and Orient Bar had become dingy and dated (albeit nostalgic), architects and preservationists reinfused life into these gala spaces by adding period antiques, Carrara marble, stained glass and Murano chandeliers. A full-service spa with jet-stream pool brings the hotel into the 21st century as the only added feature, made possible by excavating down a floor through the cement foundation to create a basement level.
Guest room floors are made cheery with the removal of an interior wall to create a light-filled, floorto-ceiling central atrium. Signature rooms and suites are outfitted to invoke some of the hotel’s more celebrated guests, with feminine pinks for Greta Garbo, sky blues to imitate the horizons that inspired Pier Loti, and a novelist’s haven to bring out one’s inner Agatha Christie.
The hotel’s pièce de la résistance is the Kubbeli Saloon-Tea Lounge, a space bejewelled by light streaming through skylit domes newly liberated from their rooftop prison, allowing the play of colours to sparkle through oriental arched, stained glass windows.
On my tour through the hotel, the public relations representative relayed a story of how, after the reopening, a longtime regular guest was enjoying a peaceful drink in the saloon. When asked what he thought of the hotel’s new look, the guest paused for a moment, then replied, “I don’t like it.”
When asked exactly what it was about the renovation that he found not to his liking, he was stumped.
“It was the loss of his past, and the recognition that he couldn’t get that back,” intuited my guide.
As in anywhere, you can’t go back, but in Istanbul you can certainly visit there for a while.
Lynn Levine is the author of Frommer’s Turkey and Frommer’s Istanbul and currently lives in Barnstable, Massachusetts.
IF YOU GO
– Yesil Ev: Kabasakal Caddesi No. 5, 34122 Sultanahmet, Istanbul. www. yesilev.com.tr or 011-90-212-517-6785. Doubles from about $195.
– Ayasofya Konaklari: Sogukçesme Sokak, 34400, Sultanahmet, Istanbul. www.ayasofyakonaklari. com/en or 011-90-212-513-3660. Doubles from about $240.
– Pera Palace: Mesrutiyet Caddesi No. 52, 34430, Tepebasi, Istanbul. www.perapalace.com or 011-00-212-377-4000. Doubles from about $475. The Atatürk room is open to the public twice daily, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
THE cost of a hotel room in Istanbul has risen by 37% in the past year, according to the latest worldwide survey ( PDF) by Hogg Robinson Group (HRG). The weakening of the Turkish lira has had some effect on these prices, but if measured in pounds sterling the rise is still a notable 25%. HRG suggests two reasons for the change: Istanbul’s growing appeal as a business centre, and the fact that safety concerns send many travellers in the city to five-star properties. (The survey’s figures derive from the sums that HRG’s clients pay for a room.)
Istanbul is the stand-out case, but prices have risen in 33 of the 50 cities surveyed. In Asia-Pacific, they rose by an average of 7%. Rates dropped the furthest in Cape Town and Abu Dhabi, thanks to problems of oversupply—in Cape Town a large number of hotels were built for the 2010 World Cup. Moscow is still the most expensive city in which to spend the night, with an average room rate of £260.68 ($425).
Most expensive cities: 1) Moscow £260.68 2) Geneva £227.64 3) Zurich £220.40 4) Paris £208.21 5) Stockholm £201.77 6) Washington, DC £198.75 7) Sydney £197.29 8) Istanbul £196.05 9) New York £193.96 10) Oslo £193.70
via Hotel prices: The rising cost of a night in Istanbul | The Economist.
As an introduction to Istanbul, the Pera Palace is in a class of its own. Oliver Bennett enjoys the luxury of Agatha Christie’s favourite hotel, and the mystery of the town that surrounds it
Istanbul Agatha Christie The ghost of Agatha Christie hangs over Istanbul. Photos by Untipografico and Faded Giant
Istanbul Agatha Christie
The ghost of Agatha Christie hangs over Istanbul. Photos by Untipografico and Faded Giant
Opening the electric curtains in my room to reveal the sun rising over the Bosphorus, Istanbul’s great waterway, I pondered on this technological innovation. What a great murder weapon electric curtains would make. Prompted by the refurbishment of Pera Palace Hotel, Agatha Christie’s Turkish home from home, I had come to Istanbul to breathe in the essence of mystery, and to stir the inner detective.
It was here that the Queen of Crime wrote Murder on the Orient Express – in room 411 – and where she stayed frequently between 1926 and 1932 with her husband, archeologist Sir Max Mallowan. Now, after a £22 million refurbishment, the Pera Palace is a direct link into the golden age of travel: a great-aunt given a multimillion-pound wash and brush-up.
The 1892-vintage splendour of the Pera Palace, once host to Orient Express passengers as they glamorously schlepped in from Paris, is writ large and utterly tasteful. This is not an ‘international’ hotel where local flavour ends at the door. Outside sits a maroon Plymouth car, used for transfers. Inside are marbled walls, antiques and a venerable cash register that may once have taken Christie’s guineas.
I walked over the tiled floor and noticed a spaniel-eyed shoe-shine man, eyeing my brogues expectantly. The prime suspect? Nah. It’s always the one you least expect.
Christie is indelibly associated with the hotel, and the world’s most published writer lingers in salons and the city. The Pera Palace, designed by French-Turkish architect Alexander Vallaury in Art Nouveau-meets-Oriental style, hammers the continental crossroads theme home. I went up to room 411: large, elegant and without a distracting view of the Bosphorus. Could I transfer to here? “Sorry,” said Esin Sungur. “It’s always booked.”
Others to have stayed here include the Queen, Greta Garbo, Alfred Hitchcock and Ernest Hemingway. But the most prominent spirit here is Agatha’s.
I necked an Efes beer on the Orient Bar’s splendid terrace then went for supper in the Agatha Restaurant: quail kebab, artichoke soup. Murder by Meze? I certainly felt the generous helpings as I stumbled off into the back alleys for a raki nightcap. The streets heaved, the crowd moving like a millipede. Turkey may be an Islamic majority country, but bar cleaved to bar. I managed about half of my six-inch glass of Raki, watched the pageant, and went to bed.
In the morning, a spectacular sunrise lured me up, and I went down to breakfast. A delicious croissant, finished with honeycomb, reminded me that this most French patisserie had started life as an Ottoman ‘crescent’. Another plus was the lift: a glorious carpeted wooden cabin, at 120 years as old as Agatha herself. A great location for a crafty garroting? Well yes: at Agatha’s ‘birthday party’ last year, someone ‘died’ here. If you’re going to put on a Murder Mystery event, then it might as well be at the Pera Palace.
I left the hotel and walked to the Bosphorus, the glittering waist of Istanbul. This is a city that benefits, like Rio and Cape Town, from amazing topography, and the hills were top of my mind as I struggled back up the incline from the Bosphurus’ floating bridge.
Here, life is lived outside. Rough metalwork shops melded into tourist emporia. In the old town, I nosed around the Grand Bazaar, thinking of Mallowan and Christie: great collectors and rug buyers. The Bazaar is a tourist trap, but one that offers an irresistible jolt of the East. I strolled to Istanbul’s big three: the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the Topkapi Palace. The latter is home to a magnificent jewellery collection, including the Topkapi Dagger, as used in the thriller Topkapi. There is something about raffish Istanbul that inspires the imagination.
In the late afternoon I alighted a boat – white leather seats, pink windows – for a glamorous splash along the Bosphorus. As the Bond-like craft cruised, the banks became replete with international glamour: an Ottoman palace here, a waterside restaurant there, the occasional ancient castle. The city’s historical depth surely inspired Christie and back at the Pera Palace, I looked at the museum room (room 101, no less), which includes old newspapers from the day that Ataturk died, as well as Christie memorabilia.
And there remains a mystery most weird: the key story. In 1926, at the age of 36, Agatha Christie went missing in Britain for 11 days. A film directed by Michael Apted was made in 1979, trying to piece together this episode and, bizarrely, a Hollywood séance even took place in pre-production.
At this event, a ghostly ‘Agatha’ gave spooky directions to the skirting board in room 411, where the key to a missing diary was found. A replica of the key now sits under glass outside her room, testifying to the most enduring Christie mystery: those missing days.
To this day, nobody knows why she dunnit.
* high50 special offer: enjoy 10% off a trip on the Orient Express
