Fantastic quirky area. Shoe making district. Steep narrow cobbled streets, bustling with shoe makers, traders, tea sellers and lively local life. İlker’s place is a stone’s throw from all the major sites, lovely side-balcony view on the busy Bosphorous shipping lanes… fascinating to see a live port in action. Five minutes from tramway and ancient covered Bazar… eating places everywhere. Quite noisy so not for those who are looking for peace and quiet.
Positives: self contained, safe bedsit. Wonderful hot power shower. Comfy sofa. Nice looking TV which we never used. Nice kettle and coffee maker. Excellently situated and character merchant’s house design. Great huge fridge and freezer. Good wifi. Washing machine… we didn’t use it so we don’t know how good it was. Good value for money. We stayed a month.
Negatives: no welcome at the beginning, or clear instructions how to find the place. No introduction to the flat. No instructions how to work the washing machine which was only in Turkish. Very uncomfortable double bed. Dilapidated cupboards in the kitchen and lack of crockery and mugs. No hangers in the wardrobe.
The cleaner only comes on Sunday so you’d have to stay in if you wanted her to clean. There was a lovely balcony but no effort had been made to clean it or put a couple of chairs and a table out there. It was all a bit derelict.
No towels or toilet paper ready in the flat and we finally found a pile of linen on a shelf on the landing.
I don’t want to appear negative and the negatives would be easily solvable. It was a good and safe place for a month, but with a few nice touches it could be made even better.
Sadly next year the price is increasing considerably and İlker is only renting it for max 27 days.