comfort and hospitality of owner

Beware when booking this rental. We had an unfortunate experience which has resulted in quite an expensive lesson. We prepaid for our entire stay by wiring a large sum of money to the homeowner's bank account. Upon arrival at the airport, we were transported to the apartment by the presumed homeowner, Ertug. Ertug told us he purchased the apartment with his wife, who lives in another country, and they renovated it recently. The first sight of rats concerned us, but as we entered the apartment things got a little worse. We gave very generous tips for the ride, and for the maid who had just cleaned the unit, and when we asked about the air conditioning, Ertug nervously put our bags down, said "nine months winter here" and left. The problem was that we were there in the middle of the summer and it was very hot and humid. We had asked for plenty of bed sheets, and the 2 sheets that were left in the bedroom were full of hair. We tried to use the fan but it was non-functional. The unit was unclean and we were disappointed to say the least. When we contacted Ertug, we asked what the penalty would be if we needed to find alternate accommodations for the rest of our stay. He advised us of the amount we would forfeit, and asked us to wait a few days for our refund. A couple days after we checked into our new hotel, we received a series of angry emails from Ertug's father, who claimed the apartment did not belong to Ertug, but it belonged to himself, and that we would not be receiving the refund that was promised. He later called, cursing, yelling, and threatening that he would throw us out of the country. We tried to explain our position; it being dishonorable that we were not given the opportunity to decide whether we were willing to forfeit such an amount of money before leaving the apartment. In the midst of arguments and drama among the family, Ertug asked us not to listen to his father because "he always talks to people like that," and that he would refund our money, if we agreed not to tell his father. We trustingly left Istanbul with his word. Well, after 5 months, Ertug's replies to our emails have been nothing but "we have his word", promises and excuses, and when he ran out of those, he decided to ignore us entirely. There are many scams in Istanbul. However, there are plenty of choices when booking your travel. I'm here to say that your time and money is most definitely well spent elsewhere with people who will take good care of you.