There were a few good things about this apartment, sadly offset by a lot of major cons.
We stayed for two weeks at this apartment, which is located in a relatively quiet area and is about a 5-minute walk from Istiklal, a popular shopping street. The pros of this booking were the location, a nice shower with good water pressure and heat and the fact that the radiators in the apartment were on all the time, which was nice in the cold weather. The WiFi was also good, though it doesn't work in the bedroom. The kitchen is serviceable but minimally stocked so only really suitable to make pasta or other very simple dishes.
We arrived at check-in time, just as the previous guests, who had clearly overstayed check out, were leaving. A man and woman were waiting to clean the apartment so we offered to leave our bags and go out for a while, but they told us we could wait in the living room. They were finished within 10 minutes. It wasn't until that night that we realised they had left half-eaten food in the fridge and had not changed the bedsheets, which were covered with stains and hair. That would be off-putting at any time but during a pandemic it felt genuinely unsafe and was very disappointing given that we looked for a place that offered enhanced cleaning.
The man left only one towel and said he'd come back with another one. We waited three hours but he didn't show, and we only got clean sheets and a second towel two days later after contacting the owner, forcing us to sleep on dirty bedding for two nights. We would have cancelled and gone elsewhere but unfortunately didn't know that Airbnb allows you to cancel within 24 hours if a place is not clean, and by the time we looked it up it was too late to leave without losing 50% of our payment.
Another major problem was the very strong smell of drains that never went away. The owner sent the cleaner over (with the fresh sheets) and he just said that the drains were clean and that there was nothing he could do. On top of the very off-putting sewage smell, the apartment has a bad mould problem. Both of us got aggravated sinuses and throats from the mould spores. My partner ended up developing dry cough and we had to be tested for Covid.
The apartment has wooden floors and so does the one above. The tenants up there seemed to move around and make lots of noise most nights after midnight. Even with earplugs it woke us up because there is a huge metal lamp on the ceiling of the bedroom that vibrates with a loud metallic sound when the floor above shakes.
I cannot recommend this Airbnb. It is quite expensive compared to similar places in central Istanbul and definitely not worth the money. We did not feel safe staying in a place that had not been properly cleaned, and the smell and mould issue were very unpleasant and made us want to spend as little time in the apartment as possible.