Some hotels are so famous that they are almost fictional, The Savoy or the Ritz in central London are institutions not just accommodation and similarly The Raffles hotel in Singapore. Worldwide each country has at least one hotel that is well known nationally and sometimes internationally. In Turkey that hotel is the Pera Palace in Istanbul. It was a legend even in its conception, built for the pleasure of disembarking passengers of the Orient Express from Paris and designed for Sultan Abdul Hamit by the French architect Alexandre Vallaury. The hotel took ten years to build, it opened in October 1891 and at the time it was the largest European style luxury hotel in Istanbul. By the end of the century it set another record by having the first ever electric elevator in Istanbul and the same elevator is still in use over 100 years later.

The hotel used to be the location for the elite of Istanbul to meet and take tea and its guests in the past have included Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, King Zogo of Albania, Shah Rıza Pahlevi of Iran, King Edward V111 of England, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, King Carol of Romania, president Tito of Yugoslavia, Jacqueline Kennedy, the Mata Hari, Agatha Christie and Yehudi Menuhin. In the recent Jackie Chan film ‘The Accidental Spy’, our kung fu hero comes to Istanbul in search of his father and stays in the Pera. In reality the hotel has suffered from a slow decline, the fittings are still opulent but now show their age and visitors often refer to it in hotel reviews as ‘like staying in a museum’. What it lacks in facilities fans claim it makes up in ambience and it has the attraction of having rooms named after its famous guests so one can request the Agatha Christie or Mata Hari room. In recent years the hotel has managed to keep some of its reputation for avant garde living by hosting Istanbul’s only regular tango nights.

For the last 30 years the hotel has been owned by the Suzer family after Hasan Suzer bought first a 60% share in 1977, then became Chairman of the Board of Directors and then proceeded to buy up the remaining shares till he owned the hotel outright. He was the last to renovate the hotel and occupancy gradually fell as more modern hotels with pools, spas, rooftop terraces and modern decor sprang up in the same area. In August this year businessman Ihsan Kalkavan rented the hotel for 45 years from the Suzer family and with the cooperation of the Tourism Investment Board announced his plans to fully restore the Pera to her former status as the luxury residence in Istanbul. He estimated that the restoration work would take one and a half years and cost 15 million Euros. The hotel was closed on November 2nd and the necessary permissions obtained from the government authority for ancient sites and listed buildings.

Amongst the improvements planned were air conditioning units, strengthening of the foundations to make the hotel more earthquake proof, the number of rooms was to be reduced from 144 to 103 to allow for more suites to be built and the current single restaurant was to be supplemented with at least one other again with the extra space gained from giving up rooms. Only one room was to remain untouched, room 101 where Ataturk stayed, which was to remain as it currently is, a small museum, preserved as it was on the day the great man stayed. Kalkavan emphasised that the changes were not to be just cosmetic and underlined the difficulty in completing such a huge project where one had to work around historical and antique ceramic, glass and wrought iron work. He claimed that having obtained the right to rent the hotel due to his ‘friendship’ with the Suzer family that he was making the investment in the hotel for prestige reasons and not because he ever expected a return on his investment.

This week’s papers told a very different story though, Kalkavan now claims that he has bought the hotel and on Monday his lawyers arrived there accompanied by the police to carry out a full inventory. The need for a police escort soon became apparent when Hasan Suzer’s daughter Aylin Suzer Ejder stepped into the fray; ‘I am the largest single shareholder in the hotel but I learnt that it had been sold via the newspapers – I am against the sale of my father’s bequest.’ She also claimed that Kemal Suzer, president of the hotel’s management committee was against the sale; ‘The hotel has been sold for a third of it’s true value, no AGM was held to decide the matter, it’s as though the hotel has been sold ready to be gutted.’

Her lawyers intervened and Kalkavan’s inventory was stopped and it now appears that Cennet Suzer and Burak Ekmekcioglu, who had sold their shares to Kalkavan, are using a 15 day get out clause in their contracts to renege on their agreement. Aylin Suzer Ejder is preparing to take Kalkavan to court and oppose the sale on the grounds of improper procedure. Kalkavan claims that he is the real loser; ‘I lent money to certain Suzer family members and they were unable to repay me, as a result they decided to turn their shares over to me – I was forced to take on the hotel and now someone else has appeared demanding their share of the pie. I will end up out of pocket here’. What will happen remains to be seen but certainly this fracas will not be the last tango at the Pera!