1) The location is excellent, indeed ~8 minutes away from Sultanahmet Jami, ~10 minutes to Hagia Sofia etc...
2) Never saw either host, Ercan or Yunus. Not even once, during my 13-day stay there.
3) Yunus kept sending me material re: super expensive clichéd new year eve's parties via WhatsApp, despite me literally telling him, "I'd appreciate if we correspond completely via the AirBnB app messages, as recommended." He never responded to this message! Even the check-in and check-out info were sent back-and-forth between one of the hosts, their two student employees (Furkan and Ferhat), and me on WhatsApp and the AirBnB message app, wasting a lot of time with having to repeat one's messages.
4) Furkan, the main contact I had while in the Duru Apartment, kept sending me info via WhatsApp about various (tourist trap) packages. I realized that only after I actually took a tour Furkan booked me for: a ferry trip on the Bosphorus (less than way the length of it), with lunch (the only bad meal I had in all my 17 days in Turkey), and a visit to Eyüp Sultan Jami and Mazār (only 40 minutes there), Pierre Loti café (25 minutes there; totally unnecessary; the views were good, but then the views are good from all over Istanbul!), and a whopping 3.5 hours wasted in ridiculous, isolated, and over-the-market expensive stores for us to buy desserts & toiletries, another one for leather goods, and a final stop even at the local mall, with the run-of-the-mill stores like Polo and Burger King, but nothing really uniquely from Turkey. To add insult to injury, while talking to others on the same tour, I found out that people had paid different prices for the same tour, and that I was being charged the most!
5) For anyone reading this review, if you want to ferry through the full length of the beautiful Bosphorus, please simply take the public ferry from Eminonu to the last stop, Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, right before the Black Sea, for less than 12 TL, or less than 1 USD! That's the kind of information I give my AirBnB guests, and expect when I stay in an AirBnB anywhere in the world. Because the expectation is that there will be no backdoor deals between the hosts and these tour agencies, scalping the guests...
6) For a shopping trip that's a treat to the eyes, nose, mouth, spirit, and historical senses, please go to the Misir Baharat Çarshisi (Egyptian Spice Bazār) or the Kapuli Çarshisi (Grand Covered Market) for an actually meaningful "shopping" experience in one of the oldest, largest covered market in the world, dating back to the medieval era.
7) Despite their misleading assertion, this studio apartment (hardly a "full home") does NOT come with a balcony. It's a medium sized room, with an attached bathroom, and in one corner is a tiny sink. Next to the sink is an electric double water kettle. There's a small microwave on top of the mini-frig, but you have to disconnect the electric kettle to plug that in. It is an exaggeration to even call this a "kitchenette," leave alone the current designation of "kitchen"!
8) There was no body lotion despite being announced in the amenities...
9) As I was staying for 13 days, the hosts, through their employees, Furkan and his brother, Ferhat, did arrange a free ride to the airport when I was leaving. Thanks for that!
10) Furkan helped me take my luggage up the three flights of steps, and Ferhat helped me bring it down the three flights upon checking out. Thank you so much!
11) The steps are really badly designed, especially with respect to the very awkwardly placed hand rail, and the unevenness of the steps. This has to be made clear on the AirBnB site as making it unsuitable for mobility-restricted or other disabled persons. For example, I would not have booked this place if I had known...
12) I paid more than $100 per day for this room... This was quite overpriced as I found out. Especially as it came with no breakfast, which comparable hotel rooms all came with. Lesson learnt.