Mert is a friendly host and is available. When we first arrived to the apartment there was a clear ant problem, in the kitchenet and around. As soon as we let him know he came immediately and put ant poison and cleaned the area. He was also courteous enough to leave us fruits and crackers in the apartment for our arrival. However, given that we chose to pay more to stay in an Airbnb than save money and stay in a hotel- this was definitely not what we thought we paid for.

***95 steep steps no elevator****
The location of the apartment is close to istiklal st and we enjoyed that, however it is in an alley way. The shock of our arrival was finding out that the apartment was located on the top floor of a 6 floor building (95 steps steeply upward) and that we would have to carry our 4 23KG/50Pound suitcases up the winding staircase ourselves because there is no elevator. It was practically impossible given how small the staircase is so we had to pay someone near by to help us with them. This was also inconvenient because our flights out of Istanbul were at 5AM and it was difficult to trust someone on the street at that time to help us bring our bags down. We ended up doing it ourselves but it was not easy. So if you do have bags do not stay here, if you are coming here with very light luggage it will be ok.

***One bedroom not a two bedroom***
The apartment is a one bedroom not a two bedroom. There is a standard bed in a private bedroom and a sofa bed in the living room. When we initially did a search using the filter "2 bedroom" on Airbnb, this apartment was listed as a 2 bedroom. We unfortunately found out when we arrived. I wish this was mentioned more clearly and that it was honestly listed as a one bedroom so that it wouldn’t come up as a 2 bedroom in the search. Upon reading the description further after we arrived we saw that it was mentioned in the text. However it was not mentioned in the high level description or tags.

***Sewage smell***
There was a sewage smell from the bathroom that was partially covered up by some lemony artificial scent. It was like a slap in the face entering the apartment every evening. We always kept the bathroom door closed however it was difficult for the person sleeping on the sofa bed to sleep because the sofa is right in front of the bathroom. Mert said he never received this complaint before so I hope this is a temporary issue from the building.

Mert was an accommodating host but we did not get what we thought we paid for.