We stayed in the Liwan for a couple of nights and found that it enriched our stay in Antakya. It breathes an authentic atmosphere, has professional staff that speaks English, has a good breakfast and excellent location. The rooms were clean. The breakfast area/restaurant is in a stylish covered courtyard.

Though the entrance looks rather unpromising, the conversion from mansion of the Syrian consul to hotel was well done, as the hotel maintains period features in the common areas, rooms and restaurant whilst having freshly furnished rooms. However, as it seems the case for such conversions in Turkey, rooms are quite small. Breakfast was OK but I missed fruit juice, even if not fresh.

As pointed by another reviewer, the Anadolu restaurant around the corner is really good and the staff extremely helpful, and they will make the effort to communicate in English with you. They prepare real fish filet, and the humus is the best I ever had!

Contrary to other reviewers we didn't have any problem with noise during our stay, and we would recommend this hotel to those taking the time to visit Antakya, which is not a very touristic town. However, be warned that the area around this hotel is very scruffy, with many old houses falling apart and roadside construction, but there are newcomers developing new sites such as the cafe/bar around the corner. The pedestrian shopping area is down the street, and you also find good specialty shops nearby (silk scarves are good shopping treat here). Though some of the good restaurants of town are nearby, the "newer" area on the other side of the river is slightly more upmarket.

Within walking distance of the archeological museum and various churches with St Pierre's church a taxi ride up the hill.
This hotel has its own small people mover so can collect you from the airport and take you to out-of-the-way castles and caves.
Our room was large and breakfast was good (ask for the omelette or miss out ).
Staff were very accommodating !!

I have become wary of inflated reviews on TripAdvisor. Certainly a number of us have had warm conversations with hotel and BB owners--conversations that prompted reviews that might come more from the heart than the mind. I was not pressured into writing a review, and I did not give Liwan a perfect rating because I believe it was better than many of the "perfect" ratings I've read on TripAdvisor. Liwan is a boutique hotel. If you are looking for a hotel chain experience, you'll be only slightly frustrated. I've done time at Ritz-Carltons, and the cleanliness of the bathroom and linen met those standards. The manager/concierge resources exceeded those standards. The hotel was the former residence of the Syrian president in the early twentieth century. Whoever remodeled this building into a boutique hotel was a genius. So many charming architectural features have been preserved. Of these features, one is beautiful original tiles. The tile floors amplify noise from the courtyard restaurant and the discreet bar on the hotel's street level. So, do you want to stay in a place indistinguishable from "standard" upscale hotels or inns--or do you want to bring along some foam earplugs and know that you are in an extraordinary place on the contested border with Syria?