Hard to award gold, silver and bronze to Istanbul's three House Hotels. Galatasaray may not be the favourite but it is the concentrated essence of the brand. HHG is not a small hotel trying to pretend it's all grown up but a real boutique hotel designed to make you feel you are not in a hotel at all. If you don't like the fact that the public rooms are up four flights of stairs, well then there are lots of hotels with shiny lifts. Instead there's a marble staircase, original to this converted late 19th-century apartment building in a neighbourhood that borders this gentrified bit of Istanbul. It is on the border of Beyoğlu nightlife, Çukurcuma antique shops, and the up-and-coming gallery-land at the Tophane Arsenal down the hill. It's also as near to the historical peninsula as you can get without having to dodge the tourist throngs.

The interiors are by everyone's favourite designers, Autoban, and the rooms are in part, period-rendition of period detail – clean white walls with decoratively moulded panels - and in part pastiche, with geese flying up the walls of one of the suites, while a stall shower stands quite elegantly at the base of the bed like a little kiosk.

Above all, the House aims at a relaxed insider feel. It is a particular favourite among diplomats on a visit from Ankara or businessmen who do the Istanbul round.