I recently took a trip to Istanbul, Turkey with my family. We stayed there for two days from the 15th to the 17th of March before continuing with our travels to Asia. I reserved a flat with 4 bedrooms that could fit up to 12 people. However, we were given an apartment that had only 2 bedrooms. There were a total of 10 of us and not enough beds to sleep in. The owner stated that it was a mistake made by his cleaner (she mixed up us and
another reservation, we were given the smaller apartment and they were
given the bigger one). The owner acknowledged his mistake and apologized for it however when we requested for the difference of the apartment price to be refunded, he refused and stated that it was our fault for providing him with the wrong information. This is obviously not possible because he had all of the information on Airbnb which reservation is from who. In an attempt to not have any issues, we tried to resolve the matter in a civil manner by agreeing that the owner could keep the money that we
paid for the bigger apartment if we could have a later check out time because we needed the time and place to keep our bags. The owner agreed to give us a later check out (we agreed on 5pm). On the actual day of the check out however his cleaner came to the apartment at 10am (even though the check out time stated on the reservation is at 12pm
and we agreed on 5pm). She demanded that we leave. She even entered the apartment, sat down on the couch and would not leave and insisted that we pack our things and get out. We needed to get in touch with the owner who also insisted that we leave because he had another reservation coming later in the day. They gave us two hours to take a
shower and pack our things. Not only did they kick us out after agreeing to give us a later check out time, but they also continued to refused to refund our money. I paid 222.74 euros for a 4 bedroom flat but instead got a 2 bedroom flat. Additionally, the listing was completely wrong. The listing states that the apartment is equipped with essentials such as towels, bed sheets, soap, and toilet paper, none of which was provided and we needed to purchase. Additionally there was no cups or plates for us to use. There were no extra pillows, bed linens, or extra blankets as stated on the listing. The heating in the apartment was not working in the beginning and needed to be fixed while we were there. Additionally, it was very much a stressful and unpleasant experience to get woken up and kicked out by a women who was standing and staring at us while yelling in turkish until we left. On top of all that, one of the locks to our suitcases was broken, which means that the cleaning lady tried to break into it.
I have travelled a lot and used Airbnb many times, however, I have never experienced anything like this before. It was an unplesant experience and I cant say that I would stay at one of Yakup's places again.