Ali's place is in a location close to lots of restaurants, shops and pubs as well as a key shopping area. Ali is responsive, attentive and his home has everything you need. He is kind enough to let guests use anything in his kitchen if they need. The house itself has lots of quirky details that makes it feel like a museum and it was fun to look at things & imagine a story about how it came to be :) The air condition is in the drawing room & we were ok with it since we are from a warm climate, that may not be the case for everyone.
I do want to note that if your main aim is to see the major tourist attractions such as Hagia Sofia, Blue mosque etc, then this place is about 4 kms from those places and walking is possible though difficult due to it being a hilly area (lots of ups and downs) so not recommended for older people or if you have young kids. Plus taxis are a pain in Istanbul and they will charge a bomb to drop & pick you. There is also road construction happening when we were there which makes it slightly more challenging. None of these have to do with Ali's home itself which is nice.