Taksim Square Hostel: dormitory beds in Tomtom, Istanbul

Taksim Square Hostel is hostel and backpacker accommodation on Eski Çiçekçi Sokak in Tomtom, Istanbul, postcode 34433. Galata Tower is about 0.8 km away, and Taksim Square, which gives the hostel its name, about 0.9 km.

The other measured distances, also in straight lines: Sirkeci railway station about 1.9 km, Süleymaniye Mosque about 2.1 km, Topkapı Palace about 2.2 km, and Hagia Sophia about 2.6 km. Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SAW) is about 31.6 km from the hostel.

The hostel has one room type: a single bed in a male dormitory room. Each booking of that type is one twin bed, sleeping up to one guest, in a dormitory shared with men. A twin bed is a single bed, so each guest has a sleeping space of his own; what is shared is the room around it, not the bed itself. There are no private rooms, no doubles and no family rooms, so the choice here is not between rooms but between nights: a traveller takes the bed, or looks elsewhere.

That single arrangement decides who can stay. A couple, a family or a group of friends who want one room to themselves cannot be accommodated, and a woman travelling alone has no room type open to her, because the only dormitory is a male one. For one male traveller on his own, the bed is the whole of what the hostel offers, and for that purpose it is complete.

The property is a hostel of the backpacker kind, and what it offers follows from that. A lift serves the building.

Nothing in the hostel's facilities points to a stay built around the accommodation itself. This is a place for sleeping and for the practicalities of arriving and leaving, and a traveller who plans to spend whole days at where he stays should weigh that before choosing it.

The rules are few and firm, and they rule out several kinds of traveller on their own:

• Check-in is from 13:30, and check-out is until 12:00.
• Children are not allowed.
• Pets are not allowed.
• The hostel has no parking.

Taken together, the facts point to one traveller: a man on his own, with no children and no pets, who wants a bed in Istanbul with the Museum of Innocence, Galata Tower and Taksim Square all close in straight-line terms, and who is content with a dormitory arrangement. For that traveller the hostel does what it says: one twin bed, one guest, a lift in the building, and check-in from 13:30.

For everyone else it is a poor fit, and in most cases not an option at all. Families cannot come, because children are not allowed. Couples and groups have no private room to take. Women travelling alone have no dormitory open to them. Anyone who wants hotel-style facilities will not find them here either; the hostel's facilities do not include a pool.