I am writing an honest review about this place, and I want everyone to take it into consideration if you are planning to stay in this apartment.
I lived in this apartment for four days with my family, and visited many different places from it.
First of all the host quality and communication. Shehrzad was an outstanding host, who responded fairly quickly, and gave you good advice. She was ready to arrange my transportation from airport to the apartment, and gave me detailed info on how to get the keys. She responded to any problems I had and was extremely kind and patient. 5/5 for host.
Now let's get to the building of the apartment. The entry to the building was very challenging. The keys got stuck and the door was almost impossible to open for a child or even my wife. It took us almost 5 minutes trying to open that building door. As we got inside, it was extremely dark and old looking. Some lights were not working so we had to use a flashlight to go up there. We came in the night and were also very tired, so it was a big let down for us, as we didn't see this in the pictures.
The apartment is on the second floor, and it was a little troubling to go all the way up with all of our luggage. Keep this in mind for people with disabilities.
Now entering the apartment, it was extremely hot. And unlucky for me and my family it was not even close to the pictures they have shown. The apartment was much smaller and much older, and needed a lot of renovation. We came to Istanbul in the hottest part of the year, so we were sweating a lot. But to our surprise, there was air conditioning, but only in the common room. This meant that my wife and I had to sleep in one room with a fan in extreme hot temperature. My 2 kids slept on the sofas in the common room as it was so hot. So we didn't even use the second bedroom as it was so hot.
One other thing was that the apartment had no bedroom locks and not even a bathroom lock in one of the bathrooms, so privacy was very compromised.
However, the apartment was extremely clean and very well equipped with everything. There were sufficient plates and cutlery, and the stove was well functioning. There was a small leak in the fridge and we had to put a jug so that it didn't wet the floor.
Now coming to the location. It was extremely inconvenient. The listing description states that it is a 15 minutes walk to Taksim. Well good luck attempting that, as it is a full workout with all the hills. There were extremely steep hills both upward and downwards. If you took the route with lesser hills, it was more than a 20 minutes walk through traffic. So even after paying so much extra for a better location, we still had to almost always use a taxi, and constantly pay 50-100 lira to go from the apartment to Taksim. The neighborhood did have some good resturants though, so that was helpful.
Take my advice. If you are looking for a place with a good location, book one of those small hotels that are inside taksim itself. They are extremely affordable, mostly good quality and best of all there location is so convenient. It is like 5 min walk to Taksim/istiklal with no hills.
If you are not prepared to do that, try buying an Airbnb that is right next to a metro station, even if it is far from city center. This way you are some footsteps away from the entirely of Istanbul. Public transport is so much cheaper and stress free. And generally, homes are much better quality outside the city center.
While leaving, my check out time was delayed by 1 hour because of some complexity. It was 11 in the morning, and Shehrzad was very reluctant to spare even one extra hour, even though in normal hotels, check out time is 12 or 2 o clock by default. Yes I had told her that I would check out at 11, but plans can always change unexpectedly. She gave us a tough time there, insisting we leave immediately. I am writing this incident just so that she doesn't use it against me after I write this review.
This was my first time in Istanbul with my family, so I am writing my bad experiences so you don't have to face them. And this review goes for all Airbnb's in this area, especially if location matters to you. Quality of homes in Beygolu is generally poor as buildings are older. Location is also not feasible for walking to Taksim.
I would still not call this home bad, especially judging from all the positive reviews people have given about it. It is a good place to live, more so in the winter, and if location is no problemm
I am sure that people who live in Europe and are traveling here, won't feel these issues to be that concerning, as they are already used to it. But as I come from the middle east, the experience was incredibly inconvenient.