Istanbul's luxury hotels, such as the Tokatliyan, the Pera Palace and the Park Hotel in Beyoğlu, served not only as meeting places but also provided newly-arrived emigrants with somewhere to stay for a few days or weeks. Park Hotel was located in Ayazpaşa- Gümüşsuyu, opposite the German consulate and close to Taksim Square. The Art Deco style hotel was opened in 1930 under the name Miramare and changed its name to Park Hotel a year later. It was widely known for its elegant beauty and panoramic views of the Bosporus, not to mention its famous bar-restaurant, where five-o’clock-teas and tango parties were held. It was frequented by politicians and intellectuals, among them Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Ismet Inönü, Celal Bayar and Yahya Kemal (İnal 2012, 191).
Park Hotel was also extremely popular with newly-arrived immigrants. A photograph taken by Gertrud Hindemith shows the composer Paul Hindemith and the opera director Carl Ebert, both of whom were brought into the country by the Turkish Ministry of Education, sitting on one of the hotel balconies. The views of the Bosporus were particulalry appreciated. The author and director George Tabori, who stayed in Istanbul in the early 1940s, wrote about the beauty of the riverscape (Tabori 1945/1996, 239), and the sculptor Rudolf Belling wrote in 1937: “From my hotel window I look down to the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus on the left, the Golden Horn on the right. Vis à vis the Asian coast, Skütari, Haidarpasa, Kadiköi. Then a couple of wonderful islands and at the back a beautifully curved low mountain range. You can't imagine how different the city can look, which pastel tones are over houses and water.” (Belling 1937) For the new arrivals, the unique topography of Istanbul, situated on two continents and marking the boundary between Europe and Asia, provided a very special experience.
The opening of modern luxury hotels like the Hilton (1955) and the Divan (1956) in close proximity to the Park Hotel brought about a change in its status in Istanbul and the economic crises of the 1970s led to its closure in 1979 and subsequent demolition (İnal 2012, 192). The site then remained occupied for many years by an unfinished building but, in 2013, the new Park Bosphorus Hotel finally opened its doors.