The appartment is very nice furnitured and very clean. It is indeed like on the fotos. The neigborhood is nice - but as written before you may need a second look. Nevertheless the buildiungs are amazing. To my mind it is a quiet area for a city like Istanbul, although you hear some traffic, but this seemed to be normal in this huge city. In the nights it was no problem for us.
However, I had imagined the view to be more impressive after all reports... of course, it was impressive, don't get me wrong, but you also look on parts of a very crowded street, on a small parking lot and on the (untidy) backyards of other houses... thus you also look on the backsides of a metropolitian city. This was not what we had expected at first, but it did not bother us after a while. You still can enjoy an amazing view on the new mosque and the Golden Horn... we spend nice mornings and especially evenings on the balcony.
We did not meet Alev in person, but another colleague of hers opened and showed us around. It was no problem, she called Alev on her cell and together we clarified last questions. It worked well. Yet I would like to suggest to leave some copies of the relevant information in the appartment. Alev send me the information in advance via email (1-2 days before) and I could make a copy at the conference hotel I stayed before, but for me it was difficult to get in contact as my cell phone did not work probably in Turkey. Sometimes I needed some information (e.g. where to bring the garbage) that I couldn't ask for directly. This was probably a problem of my provider, however, travelling in other countries you could never be sure, thus as a back up, leaving some instructions in the apartment might be helpful!!!