Sultanahmet private home: a 90 m² two-bedroom apartment

Sultanahmet private home is an apartment building at Aksakal Sokak, Dışkapı No 20, in Istanbul, postcode 34000. It stands in a part of the city where the major sights sit close together: measured in a straight line, everything from the nearest mosque to Topkapı Palace falls within about 1.4 km.

Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SAW) is about 30.8 km away, in a straight line, the only distance here counted in tens of kilometres rather than hundreds of metres.

• Sokollu Mehmed Pasha Mosque: about 0.2 km
• Little Hagia Sophia: about 0.4 km
• Sultan Ahmed Mosque: about 0.5 km
• Hagia Sophia: about 0.8 km
• Sirkeci railway station: about 1.1 km
• Süleymaniye Mosque: about 1.3 km
• Topkapı Palace: about 1.4 km

The property offers a single room type: a Two-Bedroom Apartment of 90 m² with a garden view. Its beds are one double, four twins and two sofa beds. That layout is built for sharing. A family can put the parents in the double and the children in the twins; a group of friends can divide the twins between them; and the two sofa beds absorb whoever is left over, or give a larger party its extra places.

For a couple or a solo traveller the same apartment works differently: what they are taking is space, 90 m² and a garden view, rather than beds, of which there will be more than they need. And because there is only one room type, there is no smaller or larger unit to move to, no upgrade within the property, and no choice to make beyond this apartment.

This is an apartment building, not a full-service hotel, and the facilities reflect that: they do not include a pool, a restaurant or a spa. What the building does have is staffing at all hours and a security set-up covering the common areas, the entrance and the outside of the property, with controlled entry. For independent travellers arriving late or leaving early, that round-the-clock presence is the practical difference from a plain rental flat.

Check-in can be handled quickly and privately rather than as a hotel-desk formality. Inside, the apartment has internet and both cooling and heating, so it is set up for Istanbul's summers and its winters alike.

Check-in is from 13:00 and check-out is until 12:00, so arrivals are afternoon ones; a traveller reaching Istanbul earlier in the day will need to bridge the time before 13:00. Children are allowed, which fits a bed layout that already favours a family. Pets are not allowed, which rules the property out for anyone travelling with an animal.

Taken together, the property serves one kind of traveller very well and others not at all.

• a family with children, who get the double and the four twins across two bedrooms and 90 m² of space;
• a group of friends sharing one large apartment, with two sofa beds for the extras in the party;
• anyone who wants the Sultan Ahmed Mosque about 0.5 km away and Hagia Sophia about 0.8 km away, in a straight line, and who does not need hotel dining or a pool.
• It does not suit anyone travelling with a pet, anyone who wants a choice of rooms, since there is one room type only, or anyone who wants a pool, a restaurant or a spa, since the facilities do not include them.