First of all, the host asked me to leave a good review, and I told him I can only give honest reviews and here it is:
The pros: The host is communicative though there may be some confusion between what seems to be automated or copy-and-paste messages (nothing wrong with that though!!) and talking to his assistant ABD. But once I met ABD, I understood why there were confusions; he relies on Google Translate to talk to you.
However, the best thing about Nael's airbnb is actually ABD. ABD is kind, caring, thoughtful, and hard-working. Even if we had to rely on google translate, I loved talking to him. I really can't say enough nice things about him. He's just an all around fantastic!
The room was clean and I loved how bright it was and I loved that you could see a bit of Istanbul out the window. But be careful with the curtain because there are several creepy men living on the building facing you and I was often shocked to see them just stand on their windows and staring at me, and quite intensely so and won't stop unless you close the curtain.
One thing to note is that whenever someone takes a shower, the moisture seems to gather in this room somehow because it starts smelling moldy and you have to open the windows to let the smell out. But the windows are big and for a short-term stay this wasn't a huge issue.
The cons: This is a 3 bedroom apartment where all 3 rooms are occupied by airbnb guests. The host nor his assistant lives here and only comes when there is check-in and check-out. The problem with this system is that if any of the other guests in the apartment is not very hygienic... then you are pretty much doomed...
I was lucky in that the other guests were kind people. We had great conversations and I genuinely liked them as people. However, there were people who, every time they used the toilet, peed all over the toilet seats, or made a huge mess after pooping (and they'd use the videt and somehow leave the butt-cleaning water all over the toilet seat as well), and some made a flooding mess after every shower where the entire bathroom floor would be wet with water. (do they not close the shower door? I couldn't understand)
There were several moments where I found myself cleaning the toilet bowl after other people because I could not stand having to use dirty toilet and I kept asking myself, "why am I constantly cleaning up other people's poop and pee on my vacation? what is happening?"
While this is not the host's fault, there needs to be some solution to this... maybe raise ABD's salary and have him check the common area every other day even if nobody is checking out? Or have another assistant do that because ABD seems so busy...
But of course, if you are lucky and you get only clean and considerate roommates then there is no problem at all! Again, I don't necessarily blame the host for this, but this is an issue that can happen and if it happens then it is an issue that can ruin someone's stay...
Another thing is that while everything else in the kitchen is just fine, the pots and pans needs to be updated as all of them are pretty much at an unusable state... If you are going to eat outside, then no problem. But if you are considering cooking then I think you should ask for the pots/pan situation first. Everything else is fine and the kitchen was kept clean.
All in all, I do think positively about Nael's airbnb but certain issues should be considered...!