This place had so much potential to be a 5 star, but I am giving it a generous 2.5 star. Here are my detailed reasons for going against the stellar rating from other Airbnb users
Pros
- Location: You can't beat it. This place is less than 5 mins walk from the top attractions. Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Sultan Ahmet Square, Basilica Cistern, Topkapi Palace are all closer than you would think
- Hospitality: Tansel is a super host. He is responsive and articulate. After we landed at Ataturk airport, we realized that we needed a reliable airport transfer that could accommodate 5 heavy luggages. Tansel arranged it within minutes. We didn't get local adapters to charge our gadgets. Within minutes, Tansel gave us two adapters to juice up our phones/Nintendos/iPads/Powerbank etc.
Cons
- Room wasn't clean. Far from being clean, entire suite was full of spiders,mosquitoes, gnats (or maybe fruit flies?). As we got ready for our shower on 1st morning, we were horrified to see stand-in shower with dead gnats all over the floor. Kids were reluctant to step in the shower. I don't believe room had been inhabited for a long time.
- Mini refrigerator wasn't operational. It wasnt hygienically usable either.
- Smell was awful. It could be either because room doesn't get direct sunlight or either because it wasnt clean or or it may combination of both.
- Kids left with mosquitoes bites. Enough said.
- Slats on our bed had accumulation of dirt all around the periphery.
- Sofa chair had brownish makes - perhaps of a spill or sweat. I didn't venture to sit even once.
- We spent 4 days during the month of June. Temperatures were soaring high in mid-80s. There was only 1 AC unit that was in the smaller room. We bought this to Tansel's attention. According to him, the AC unit should have cooled the entire apartment. Unfortunately, the air conditioning wasn't sufficient to cool the other room. Nights were surely spent tossing and turning
I am still not able to reconcile how this place was rated highly by other reviewers. I so wanted to love this place. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this place in its current state. I hope Tansel acts on this feedback and provides a much better experience to the next guest.
One anecdote: We had to spend an hour without power during 3rd evening of our stay. Why? Tansel's mom thought we had checked out of the apartment and removed the fuse. Tansel was kind enough to cover for our airport transfer fare (~$20) for this inconvenience.