I have mostly negative things to say about the stay.
1. Location: Our taxi couldn’t climb up the hill because it was so steep. The tires were sliding down. So we had to carry our heavy suitcases all the way up the extremely steep hill (around 60 degrees steep). The walk up the hill which was hardly 20 metres took us 30 minutes with 4 standard sized suitcases.
2. Owner communication: Mrs Basak was extremely communicative when we booked and paid the money. Right when the refund period was over, she stopped replying to my messages and queries. We faced several issues during our stay which were only partially being addressed.
3. Apartment issues: There is no air-conditioner in the bedrooms which might be really tricky. The appliances are mostly in local language. There is no microwave oven in the apartment which makes it difficult to heat the food. There was a pathetic leakage in the washroom and although we let Mrs Basak know about it over message, she gave us no reply.
4. Harassment: On the day of our check-out, I requested Mrs Basak time till 1 pm for checking out to which she agreed. She sent her cleaning lady at 12:55 pm and I was there at the entrance coming from outside. I told her that it would take me 10-15 minutes to leave the house, but she started shouting and calling the owner. The owner then called via her phone and started shouting at us to leave the house. I kept my suitcases in one room and started placing them outside one by one. I did this so that the cleaning lady could start cleaning the house while I was clearing my luggage from the other rooms. In the meantime, based on Mrs Basak’s orders, she threw all our expensive food items (both home made and bought from outside) into the gutter. Then while we were moving the suitcases outside, she cut the power connection of the flat. All of this happened in 10 minutes. They were both shouting abuses at us, especially at my sick and vomiting mother. We have never felt so insecure in our lives. We cancelled our afternoon tour plan to Dolmabahçe Palace and went straight to the airport 5 hours early. We are still shocked, disappointed and traumatised by the incident. I hope stringent and fast action is taken against such people. The accommodation was cozy and alright for the price, but everything else made us really traumatised. We lost our packed lunch items worth €100 because of this shocking incident.
I want both financial damages as well as action against such owners and caretakers. This is where humanity has gone by commercialising itself. We had to board a 12 hour flight in hunger with sick and aged parents.