ELEGANCE CIHANGIR APART Apart-hotel

There’s no elevator, so getting to the upper floors is tough. My balcony room was on the third floor and had a small fridge, cooktop, and sink. It’s only a few minutes’ walk from Taksim Square and all the activity in this part of the city. The staff were very friendly and helpful.

A horrible experience. They asked me to pay for late check-in, even though that fee wasn’t listed on booking.com. I’d paid the full amount upfront and hadn’t been told about any extra charges, so I said I wasn’t willing to pay more. My flight was cancelled, and I arrived late on check-in day. They used that as a reason to cancel my reservation, leaving me out on the street for the night in a foreign country with nowhere booked, after more than 15 hours of travel. I’m not even sure they can be called human beings. Please look at the WhatsApp conversation in the photos.

I can only speak to the booking and communication, not the stay. I booked four nights in advance and said I’d arrive at 21:30, even though they say check-in ends at 21:00. I asked if that was okay, and they requested a €20 fee and approved the check-in in writing. Then, when it was time to travel, they changed their minds and cancelled my stay, saying the arrival time was my problem. That’s not fair when they’d approved it a week earlier. Booking.com couldn’t help and said there was no option for me. Now I’m arriving without a place to stay, facing extra costs, and dealing with all the stress and unreliable back-and-forth communication.

This was crazy and dangerous, like an apartment you could film a horror movie in. Mold on the bathroom ceiling, metal pieces sticking up from the floor, and the shower had almost no water coming out. The shower head was huge compared with the tiny flow, so I had to wash using a bucket. The balcony was only 20 centimeters wide and faced a broken apartment. The most dangerous hotel I’ve ever been to.