ISTANBUL, Turkey -- W is opening its first European hotel in Istanbul.

The chain has 17 hotels in the U.S. and four others outside the U.S. - in Montreal, Mexico City, the Maldives, and in Seoul, Korea. A number of Ws are under construction around the world, however, from Minneapolis and Florida to China and Thailand.

The Istanbul hotel will open May 6 with 134 guest rooms, including 26 suites, a spa and chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Spice Market restaurant.

The hotel is located in a historic building at the end of the Akaretler Row Houses in the Besiktas district, which date to the 1870s but have been newly redeveloped. The site is near the Bosphorus Strait and the trendy Nisantasi neighborhood.

Domestic locations for W include New York, Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley, in the town of Newark, Calif.