When you pay a budget rate, you might be unsurprised by loose shelves, a loose bathroom tap, a bit of wear and tear. What you don't expect, especially from someone who has committed to Airbnb's 5-step enhanced cleaning process, is squalor. A thick layer of grease and dust on the crockery, what looked like the congealed remains of someone's fried eggs in the frying pan, crumbs of something in the shelves in the fridge door, an unwashed toothbrush glass in the bathroom, a shower curtain which looked as though it hadn't been changed, a bath-mat so dirty that it might have been a doormat. Looking at other reviews of this accommodation, I wonder what happened. Did they forget to clean? Did they take me to another, similar accommodation in the same building? I don't know. Communication with Sadaf was fine, always cheerful, and check-in, with Sadaf's mother, was great. But the place was just too dirty to enjoy, even after I had bought detergents and cloths and spent some time cleaning and scrubbing.
The washing machine (incongurously new amongst the rest of the delapidated equipment) does not have a drier function as stated - I checked the model on the internet. I didn't find a first-aid kit, and there was either shampoo or conditioner, not both. There was no mop or bucket, and when I wanted to use the sweeping brush and dust pan, stored behing the toilet, the dust pan had water in it and the brush was wet.
The single hob was very underpowered - frying was possible, but boiling anything took forever. It was also on a shelf which tilted so much that I needed to put paper under the front legs of the hob so that all the oil didn't collect in a pool at the front end of my frying pan (thankfully, I had brought my own). The wi-fi was ok, but, at least when I was there, other people were using it. I thought the speed was uneven, and when I checked, there were 5 devices on it - my phone, the router and three other devices.
Even for Istanbul, this is a noisy flat during the day, with loud banging from outside starting at 6am. The area is busy with activity during the day, but completely deserted at night, and rather intimidating, I thought. The building itself is very run down, with a narrow, winding and uneven staircase with a wire trailed across it on the first floor - don't trip up! The lights only came on when I reached the first floor, so I needed my mobile phone light at night. The windows in the stairwell are kept open - one has a wire coming in from outside and leading somewhere upstairs All very odd.
I hate to leave such a negative review, but my stay here was really not very pleasant. The first two places I stayed in Istanbul were perfectly clean, and it is a shame that I ended my trip here.