My story is quite nightmarish. Due to negligent maintenance, the bathroom flooded at 3:00 AM. The only way to stop the flood was to shut off ALL WATER from the entire apartment. We then mopped up the mess and tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to get some sleep. No water means no shower and most importantly, no toilet! So picture yourself in a foreign city, in an apartment on the third floor with no elevator, in a somewhat sketchy residential area…now you need to go find a place to use the bathroom. Not fun.

I manage real estate for a living and I understand that things can break and go very wrong. It is how a person handles a crisis that makes the difference. Unfortunately Basma failed on several counts.

Firstly, Basma knew that the water heater was prone to exploding. This was not a fluke accident. She said it had happened several times before, and that it was easy to fix. The truth is, the water heater needs replacement, and the quick "fix" is just temporary…putting her guests at risk of having it happen again. I only had four nights to spend in Istanbul and I was unwilling to take the chance that I would lose more precious vacation time dealing with this.

Secondly, Basma failed to see the urgency of the situation. She assured us that she would have the water restored first thing in the morning. Tired of waiting, by 10AM I asked for an update. She said she still had not called the plumber. What??? I think most people would agree, an apartment that houses 5 people, not having a toilet constitutes a plumbing EMERGENCY. (FYI: She rented out a second room to another couple and she slept on her living room couch.) After waiting another 45 minutes and still no plumber, we felt very uncomfortable staying there any longer. We packed our bags and booked a local hotel.

Finally, Basma thought it was appropriate for her to keep our full payment for all four nights. Her words were "this is not a hotel. it is a private residence and things go wrong so it is not my fault. " In other words, she offers no guarantee. So, if nothing goes wrong, she might be a fine host, as suggested by the good reviews she does have. But if something goes wrong with her apartment, she will keep your money. With so many options on Air BnB for Istanbul, I recommend you choose a different one with more integrity.

After that debacle was over, we had a great time! So much to see and do. Had a massage and scrub at Ayasofya Hurrem Sultan Hamam. Great experience! Watch out for the taxi driver scams! Thanks to google maps we could see the driver taking us wayyyyy out of our way to increase the meter, claiming "traffic problem". Read about them online so you are prepared for their tricks. And if you have time, fly to Cappadocia! Must see!