This is a fair review. We were overall very satisfied with Aslan and Gulnur and would stay here again.
Positives:
1) Aslan is a professional through and through, but most importantly he is responsive. Our emails were answered in reasonable amount of time (a few hours usually) and our phone calls were answered immediately .
2) Super convenient location. We were a short walking distance to almost every attraction in the city (10-20min with a baby!) and a lot of great restaurants . It was also a quick walk to the tram line that runs throughout the city. Istanbul is all hills and mostly cobblestone so be prepared.
3) The apartment was basic but clean and had everything promised in his add including bottled water and first days breakfast. There was a terrace with a beautiful view of the Sea of Marmara and mini aya sofya (Hagia Sophia).
4) Airport transportation- Very convenient as well. Atatürk Airport, and perhaps all airports in Turkey are horrible places and so it felt great to see no less than four people holding signs with my name on them outside of the baggage claim area. They take you right to the door of the apartment and will pick you up from there as well on your way back. With kids this is your best option. The airport transportation was overpriced for local standards but not really costly for our currency so I’ll overlook it.
Negatives:
1) We overpaid but I think all places on Airbnb were more expensive for our days (not Aslan’s fault).
2) To put it bluntly, the WiFi sucked. In their defense, I had international data on my phone so I was very late in telling them about this problem and I’m sure they have fixed it but during our stay there my wife only had scattered minutes of intermittent WiFi . This was the only real star smasher.
In summary,
We were overall delighted with the apartment and our host Aslan / Gulnur and would stay here again.