The House Hotel Nisantasi

Class: Deluxe

Style: Cutting edge

Rooms: 45

The second of the Istanbul-based House hotels, and big sister to the Galatasaray establishment, the House Hotel Nisantasi is perhaps the slightly glossier and more modern of the two. The design, by the very same Autoban Design Group, is another modern classic in neutral tones, occupying a grey area somewhere between a high-design boutique hotel and a genteel, European-inflected luxury apartment house.

It’s also a bit bigger than the Galatasaray location, and perhaps a bit more accessible at the lower end of its offerings: the forty-five units include some suites, yes, but some humbler king and twin rooms as well. Of course when it comes to hotels, humbleness is relative — even the basic rooms here are swanky and smart, decked out in custom-designed wood furniture and all the mod-luxe basics.

You might expect a hotel on this scale — and in this price range — to try to get by without a proper restaurant. The House hotels, however, are owned by restaurateurs, and it’s not impossible to imagine that this House’s restaurant is the reason for the guest rooms’ existence, rather than the other way around. It’s a more versatile space than a traditional dining room — its centerpiece is Autoban’s custom-made bookcase, which lends a reading-room aspect to the proceedings — and as such it’s everything a hotel guest could want from an all-in-one common space.