Bobby Hicks
Sep 2025
★★★★★
I want to begin with saying that the staff at By Kinyas Hotel were incredibly friendly and had a very warm and gracious disposition.
That's about all I can say that was positive about the experience.
First, I thought I was getting a hotel room, but what we actually got was an apartment above the shop that was right next to the hotel and managed by them.
Normally, this would be an upgrade, but this was not the case. So, where do I begin?
Let's start off with that the air conditioner in the bedroom was not working. The fan worked, but it didn't blow out any cold hair. However, the air conditioner in the living room where our children slept did work.
As you know, it is quite hot in Istanbul and at night, sleeping in the bedroom became unbearable. It got so bad, we took the mattress off the bed and pulled it into the living room so we could sleep.
That was okay, but then there blackout curtains don't cover the entire window and we had a glaring light from the street lights outside illuminating the living room, which made it impossible for me to get much sleep. Thankfully, young kids can sleep through almost anything and perhaps you'd be okay with that, but for me, I couldn't stand it.
Next, was the shower. Where do I start? First, there is a ton of black mold in the shower. I took many photos for proof.
Also, the drain didn't work either. Whenever you would shower, the basin would fill up and overflow in the floor in just a few minutes.
When I complained to guest services, they looked at it, but then dismissed it.
The next day, it did it again and the entire bathroom flooded and leaked onto the store down below. That got their attention, as I'm sure it was a lot of water, and they immediately came up and fixed it.
Also, the TV didn't work. We couldn't get any channels to come up or even connect to a streaming platform to watch anything when winding down at night.
I don't know if it was from the mold, but I started getting a raspy throat and some mild breathing problems and my son, after the first day staying there developed a lot of blisters on his skin? It could have been viral or it could have been from some sort of toxic material or chemical within the apartment. We're unsure.
Unfortunately, every hotel nearby was booked, otherwise I would have tried to get a refund and would have switched to another hotel. I'm not sure why this place has so many good reviews. Perhaps the hotel is a lot better, but for whatever reason, they put us in an apartment when we booked a hotel and the pictures we saw of the room did not reflect reality at all.
To be honest, the stay sort of ruined the experience of Istanbul for us. We couldn't wait to get out.
On a positive note, the staff was quite friendly and you are REALLY close to major sites like the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. So, if you are looking for something cheap and tolerate the conditions, it might be okay for you.
We could have gotten an actual hotel in the same area for the same price if we would have booked earlier and we also wanted a hotel because we would get daily cleaning, which we didn't receive here.
Anyways, the whole family is glad to be out of there.
Good luck!
