We loved our stay at Samet's place. It is so homely, he's thought of everything. When we were shown in we were asked to remove our shoes before entering, which I was really impressed with. It shows how important cleanliness is to Samet. We do the same in our own house and so we felt right at home. The fact that the apartment used to be Samet's home shows as he has made it really homely for his guests.
The apartment itself is super comfortable. The little things have been given thought. E.g. instead of those mini hotel soaps, there is proper liquid hand soap in the bathroom and kitchen, there is a bin in the bedroom as well as in the bathroom, the bedroom has a full length mirror, the kitchen comes fully equipped with cutlery, crockery and everything you need should you choose to cook. Hoover and iron are provided. The rooms are spacious allowing for us to keep our luggage out but we chose to keep suitcases in the very spacious wardrobes. There is ample storage in all drawers, wardrobes and throughout the apartment. We loved the AC in the apartment. We couldn't figure out how to turn it off though. We'd feel guilty leaving it on as we left for the day but the off button didn't seem to work. We were able to turn it low though. The washing machine was a life saver. It was great to wash all our clothes while on holiday and then come back home and put them straight into our wardrobes instead of putting on loads of laundry. Washing powder is provided. Had I known I wouldn't have brought laundry capsules from home.
Samet is very quick to respond when messages. On top of that, he has a team of people to deal with queries if he is not available. They are just as quick and efficient. Samet and his team arranged transport from the airport to the apartment both on our arrival and departure.
The kids loved the apartment. They would watch Netflix in the morning while we'd get ready - life saver! They actually said that the best part of their stay in Istanbul was the apartment. They found it so comfortable and relaxing and were excited to come back to it after a tiring day out.
A couple of small points for improvement. 1. We were excited to use the jacuzzi but couldn't figure out how it worked. Even the lowest setting seemed to be so powerful and spray everywhere so we turned it off. To be fair, we didn't contact Samet about this as it was a minor point. I'm sure he would have helped us if we did.
2. The main bedroom is east facing and so is flooded with light in the morning. I don't mind but my husband likes a dark room and the main bedroom has very thin white blinds. Blackout blinds in this room might be a thought?
Overall though, it was a thoroughly enjoyable stay. We would definitely recommend this apartment to anyone staying in Istanbul. Thank you Samet!