We were 3 people renting Lino's appartment for 11 nights so quite a long time to provide the following detailed feedback:
Positive aspects:
- Ideally located: in a charming area where you have got nice restaurants, shops and close to Istikal street. 5 mns from Tophane tram, 3 stations away from the old city where the major highlights of Istanbul are.
- Bright appartment and a nice view from one window (because from the other one, it is a stoned chimney and at the very right side, Galata tower)
- Lino was really kind to let us sleep one more night although it was not booked in the first place
- Gaetano, Lino’s brother picked us up at the tram station to lead us to the apartment which could have been difficult to find without him. That was appreciated.
- Tea and coffee were available
Negative aspects:
-This is not an apartment for 3 people but for a couple because there is only one bedroom. I was the one sleeping in the living room and I just had one good night sleep in 11 days. The bed is not a bed but a couch so the sheets are not appropriate to it. In 10 minutes, I ended up sleeping on the couch itself which is not clean. The room is not dark at all because the curtains are not thick enough and one window hasn’t got one anyway. We could not use the air conditioning after 11.00pm because it was too noisy for the upstair neighbor so it was awfully hot! In addition, we could not open the window to refresh the rooms, both bedroom and living room because it was too noisy. The wooden floor cracks when you step on it so the person who sleeps in the living room is awaken.
-The shower was burning like hell! It was impossible to mix it except the first 3 minutes. So after a night when you suffered from the heat, it was not possible to cool down with a fresh shower… the bathroom was not very clean also.
-There was old food in the fridge which should have been thrown away before we arrived
-The stairs of the building are dirty, it smells cat pee and there is no light on the 1st floor and it is dark like in a cave!
-The neighborhood is awfully noisy, renovations were done every day and even on a Saturday morning.

I would not recommend this apartment that I consider too expensive for a place where you can not sleep.