I have booked Kaan flat in Istanbul, Şişli district, Aydin str, 8, 2nd floor, apt.4 for 26.08.2020 - 26.09.2020 and paid for the whole stay 639,35 USD. My main requirements for apartment - cleanliness, quietness, kitchen, washing machine and well design of the selected apartment for the long 1 month stay. Here i would like to share what i faced with:
1. Location
Flat is located in one of the central districts of Istanbul, not far from Şisli and Osman bey metro stations having big shopping mall within 10-15 minutes walking distance from the flat. You may also find small shops and cafes there.
2. Flat
It is good modern flat with good lighting and design and comfortable furniture, very clean and have all necessary for comfortable stay - linens, towel, washing machine, vacuum cleaner, hair drier, cutlery, cooking utensils, kitchenware, microwave oven, paper towels, kettle
3. Flat availability
Flat is located on the 2nd floor of newly renovated house, to reach the flat you may need to use steep stairs, elevator or lift are not available, so flat may not be suitable for people who has joint/knees, musculoskeletal or cardio-vascular diseases as well as for people with disabilities or those who have small children and use baby car. Flat and house are located in hilly area which also may require certain efforts to go up and down.
4. Flat surroundings
Şisli district is located on European side of Istanbul and main place for many offices, banks, shopping malls and luxury houses. The back streets are also residential and many working class families and students are settled there. It has well-served public transportation and infrastructure. I pay special attention that flat is located on one of such back streets near Kuştepe. Kuştepe is a place with illegally built poor housing traditionally occupied by Romani (gypsy) community and migrants from countryside. So flat is in very close proximity to those houses and very often you may see gypsy people walking on the street close to you. In general they are very friendly and do not cause any harm. But you need to be cautious, anything may happen.
5. Communication with hosts
Communication is very friendly, highly responsive and supportive with exceptions if you face with non-standard problem as i faced. In my case it turned to aggressive communication blaming me that i insult them saying about being unhonest. But i hope my case is exception and you will not face the same and enjoy your staying there. Hosts speak English very good and open to foreigners.
6. My overall experience
I would say by 1 word - hell.
Why: I was not able to sleep there any single night because of loud music coming from gypsy houses. One of my main requirements was quietness. It was very important for me due to i was going to work and in parallel to prepare myself for exams to university and pass them. While booking host confirmed that i may feel relaxed in the flat. I booked flat from 26.08 till 26.09, but moved a little bit later than planned on 29.08 and had to interrupt staying there moving to other flat on the 4th of September irrespective the fact that i paid 639,35 USD for the whole month. This unexpected move also put on me additional expenses. I had to do so because during whole period of my stay there was very loud music coming from houses in Kuştepe. Music usually started at 16-17-18 pm and lasted till 23:30 pm every day of my stay. It was gypsy wedding celebration. I stayed 6 days and 5 nights and every evening that music was playing. I was not able to sleep any single night, study, work properly because of it. My health also got worse, due to i have diabetes and it was also the reason to move to avoid further complications. It was very disturbing to me. When i informed host that i am tired of all that, that i rented quiet place specially to prepare for exams, he answered it is not his responsibility, he cannot manage this. So, i stayed only 6 days out of 31 planned without proper sleep at all. As for refund host told that he convinced landlord to refund me 50% under condition that i will not write negative feedback on Airbnb. When i asked to get full refund or at least 80% for the rest of the days, because It was me who was in loss - i did not sleep, i had to find, move and pay for another flat, my proposal was rejected by hosts. he answered - it is not a deal, it is already big favor that they offered 50% to me, usually they refund anything. Also i noticed that 01.09 when i informed host that i will move, cancellation policy on the site stated that cancellation until 26.09 will be fully refunded, the next day 02.09 i went to site to check cancellation policy and saw that it was changed to - no refund after check in. So they changed the rules within 1 night. Unfortunately i do not have screenshot, but i believe Airbnb IT team may recover it and track it from servers. When i started to tell them that they were not honest telling me that location is calm, their attitude turned to be aggressive and they started to blame me that i insult them saying they are not honest and continue blaming me that i do so to obtain more money from them. My wish to make situation public they considered as my threat to them. But i consider it right to let people know what may happen if you complain and would not agree to stay because of noise coming from gypsy houses. I lost 639 USD with them, so i do not want anybody else be in the same situation.