Starwood's W brand Tuesday opened its first hotel Europe, the W Istanbul, in Turkey's largest city.
The W Istanbul has 134 guest rooms, a spa and the Spice Market restaurant, which brings the street food of Southeast Asia into an eatery with a casual atmosphere. The restaurant offers views of the Bosphorus, the waterway between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara.
W Istanbul will serve as the centerpiece of the redevelopment of the Akaretler Row Houses in the city's Besiktas district. The Row was constructed by Sultan Adbulaziz in the 1870s to house workers of the Dolmabahce Palace, the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire from 1853 to 1922.