After seeing the pictures online we were super excited booking this quirky little apartment as a base whilst exploring Istanbul. When booking the space another important factor was that they mentioned on the description that ‘late arrival is not a problem for us’. Since we had our flight landing at midnight, at the time of the booking (2 month prior to arrival) I sent a note to Carolina to advise the arrival time, she said it’s ok. However, 2 days prior to arrival we received an email that we will be charged an additional €12 for late arrival, we were rather surprised. After going back and forth, the host waived the fee. It’s just down to clear communication.
Luckily we had GPS on our phone and could guide the taxi driver up on your steep streets, otherwise it would have been impossible to find the flat. The area has a bit of a bad reputation among locals (one of the so-called upper coming areas) but we personally liked it, it has plenty of nice cafes and quirky little places. Perhaps for a female traveller on her own it might feel a bit unsafe at night time.
The apartment: for us, it wasn’t at all as on the pictures. We expected a bright spacious space with quirky elements, instead we had a small dark room with some rather disturbing paintings on the wall (dead dogs and guns, sorry not my taste - especially not next to my bed). The bathroom is kore like a shower over the toilet, which is again not something that we would have booked. The roof top is very nice though!
We would have also appreciated if they mention that Mustafa will have to enter our room while we are away, not just us noticing that some things have been moved around while we were out.
Overall, it is a good value for money, just the profile needs updating to be more accurate and target the right people instead of selling a bit of an illusion. It was definitely an experience!