Picture this...
It's your first time visiting Istanbul, though you've traveled to many places around the world. You're excited. On the plane ride over, you rest easy thinking you've booked a superb place in a prime location from which to do your enjoying of the vibrant city.
Your taxi pulls up to the location of the apartment, but surprise, no car can reach it. And to top it off, the keys for check-in are in an obscure, unmarked quick shop that closes its doors at 6pm for some reason.
You bang on the door, hoping to get the keys because you're exhausted from the travel, and luckily, someone is still inside and opens the giant metal door begrudgingly to hand you access to the apartment you paid for.
"Whew", you think. Now I can finally put my bags down in my place for the next few days and relax.
You struggle with your heavy bags over cobblestone streets for 10 minutes, stopping for short breaks (no car can get to the apartment), and you climb stairs in pitch blackness to enter.
You open the door and your heart sinks. The place is small, way smaller than you expect. Now maybe this wouldn't normally be a problem except the hosts personal belongings are EVERYWHERE (and I mean everywhere). There's not a single free space in the entire apt.
Where will you put your bags? Where will you unpack? Will you have to live out of your bag in the middle of the floor for the next few days?
You finally just throw your bag on the bed and go to sit in the living room to relax for a second.
But then your eyes open...
The place is filthy. As you sit on the couch, sweaty and hot, you can feel the sweat that's been there before you. Dust clings to your fingers like saran wrap anytime you touch anything. The counters, the refrigerator (which is full of leftover food - some smelling terrible), the bathroom floor, even the bed...
Now you're starting to question your decision to stay here, but you try to be forgiving and just forget about it. After all, there's no need to ruin what should be an exciting trip.
You sit and go to turn on the AC because it is hot. Way hotter than you imagine. But to your chagrin and frustration the AC isn't working. And then you remember Damla only informed you about this after she accepted your reservation and money.
"That's kind of deceptive", you think. But she promises to get it fixed, so you let it go.
Little do you know it won'y get fixed, even though she promises. So you spend the next days hot, sweaty and miserable, sweating in the exact same furniture as others have undoubtedly sweat in.
Your disgust grows as you realize that if the counters are this dirty, there's no way the couches have been cleaned in what may be years.
And then it starts...
The most under-reviewed aspect of the apartment. The noise.
It's a friday and there is a literal full band blasting rock music mere feet below the windows you MUDST keep open to avoid heat stroke.
They're loud. And they keep going and going and going all the way to 2 a.m.
Impossible to get shut eye, you shuffle out into the city, once again questioning your $50USD per night purchase when cheaper, cleaner, quieter hotels are just a block away for half the price.
Little do you know, the AC will never be fixed even though your promised it.
I'm bored of writing, but it's safe to say this place is skippable. The host's behavior and communication was also abhorrent, but I won't get into that.