Location - prime! The apartment is situated in the hilly trendy area of Istanbul, walking distance to Galata Tower and Galata Bridge. Distance to public transportation is not far, but very steep. The place is not very residential. There is a supermarket nearby which closes at 9pm, while in other neighborhoods, grocery stores open until midnight. However, many unique restaurants are nearby at a good price. Coffee shops are not scarce but pricy.
Parking - paid, either at the bottom of the hill or the top (but hidden in one-way street).
Place - hard to reach but fully equipped. The beds are comfy. Although the place is dusty, use caution if you have allergies. The place is on the third floor, but the staircase is very, very narrow and winding, not suitable if you have many large suitcases or have people with difficulties to do a bit exercise.
Checking in - Extremely hard. There are three co-hosts. One of them agreed to meet us on the Saturday to check in. We were half an hour late due to snow storm and traffic, they had left without telling us. We got the keys from a local cafe, with wrong instructions. We had to figure things out like a puzzle - picking up keys, driving up the steep hill to drop off our luggages, sending one of us to try keys to every building in the vicinity, then to the apartments. It altogether took about 2 hours from 7pm to 9pm. We were exhausted after finally getting all the luggages up to the room. It is to our surprise to find out the next day that two of the co-hosts live in the same neighborhood, and they didn’t bother to come and check on us when they knew we couldn’t find the place on a weekend day.
Communications - decently responsive, but actions slow. The toilet stopped functioning within the first night. We reported it and the host agreed to check it out, but only did so on the second day after we repeatedly asked for it. We had roamed around the neighborhood for toilets for the first one and half days. It was not easy for such a touristy area.
Value - Affordable. We wanted to extend our stay out of convenience of not carrying down the suitcases again, but had decided to move to another Airbnb nearby. We are happy with our choice now at a cleaner, less expensive place, with a view of the Bosphorus, and a host who is very fast to react on situations.