Antique hostel is one of the cheapest places you will find to live in Istanbul period. It’s location is a huge plus since it’s right around Sultanahmet, behind the Blue Mosque, The hippodrome, Ayasophya and the Topkape museum. If you want to meet some cool people when traveling alone like I did, any hostel is the way to go. They also have free breakfast and WiFi, which you can’t beat!
Now onto my true feelings: I will not book with Antique again and would rather pay a higher price (not super high but still) to stay somewhere else. This was my first hostel experience. I don’t think it would be my last but Antique would not be it.
If you don’t want to room in a shared room or mixed gender rooms, make sure to let them know BEFORE you book. You would think their post would mention that but it doesn’t. All the 7 people i shared rooms with over 3 days were all shocked (including me) when they saw people of other genders in the room. Everyone! I went to the reception to ask why and they said all rooms were mixed... really?? In Turkey? Well let me not make any assumptions but apparently on their Agoda listing, you can choose the room make up. So they do offer single gender... even found out from another guest that they even offer single rooms. Something the reception didn’t bother telling as he just dismissed my concern about sharing my with a man (I ended up sharing the room with all men my first nights).
I saw the cleaning lady clean the bathroom the next day. The first day I moved in, the bathroom was already dirty with pee on the toilet seat and after seeing her clean I understood why. She essentially pours water on the shower floor, emptied the trash and maybe mops. She doesn’t scrub the shower or disinfect, she didn’t clean the toilet, she didn’t clean the sink (i left after 3 nights and the sink had collected dust and water and soap everywhere).
The room is shared and yet there’s the smallest table on earth in the whole room. Huge and tons of flies swirled through the room every day. Make sure to ask a towel at the reception, they don’t have them in the rooms. Finally, if you want to do tours, don’t count on this hostel to help you book They made it seem as if they do but they just give a brochure. Most of these tours book up in advance.
All in all, if you don’t mind these and are on a tight budget, this is a decent option. If you do, I wouldn’t recommend it.