Before landing in Antalya from Thailand, we booked 5 nights in an apartment in the city centre via booking.com so we had a chance to scout locally for our long-term accommodation.
We knew we had a 3-month visa and didn’t want to book something for that long without seeing it (and the neighbourhood) first.
Organising accommodation locally on the ground has always worked well for us, more our experience here, you can get a feel for the locality, access to food and convenience items etc. Yes, it can be stressful because you know you're going to a place, usually months in advance yet you choose not to book anything until you get there.
It can go one of two ways, you either get a better deal by booking in advance, along with the added peace of mind and security knowing you have something secured or you can get there and get a really good last minute deal, sometimes in a place or local neighbourhood you never would have found online.
The added risk to the latter though is a struggle to find somewhere, paying more and having fewer options, especially if you're travelling in high season.
In Turkiye it was a bit different and a bit odd if I’m being honest. Usually Air BnB is more expensive than other local arrangements like apartments/hotels/guest houses/etc but in this case Air BnB ended up being cheaper.
We joined all the local Facebook groups and enquired on SO many properties. We found that most local apartments were managed by agents, not the actual owners. The agents wanted the month's rent plus commission (1 month's rent!), a deposit and all utilities in advance. Air BnB was an all-inclusive cost, often with a 10-20% monthly discount and the added security of the platform.
Air BnB searches varied, hello super freaky algorithm? When we searched from Thailand a couple of weeks out there were options, but not much, and they seemed more expensive than we had heard or were anticipating. Oh well we thought, flights booked now, get there and figure it out.
Then we flew into Istanbul and searched again, a week or so out from needing accommodation. Much the same, with very limited options more expensive than we anticipated. Shit we thought, it was not matching up with the multiple apartments on various Facebook groups and word on the ground that we had that there were multiple new complexes built with no tenants. Many people had told us we would have no issues finding accommodation!
Strangely enough, once we left Istanbul and landed in Antalya and started searching again, with a commencement date of only a few days later multiple apartments were showing up, like too many to choose from and the prices were SO much cheaper!
The only struggle we had with Air BnB was that there were property owners with multiple properties that weren’t interested in meeting us on-site to view, which we wanted to do. We were told by a few the photos are online, book if you want to, which kind of frustrated us because we really wanted to see the place before committing to 2.5 months of staying there.
Of the 5 enquiries we made one was happy to show us, and that was the place we ended up going with 😊
So we don’t really know what the go is here, was it geolocation bound to only show certain properties and prices when you were already in the area? Was it last minute pricing? Either way, the algorithm is clearly more sophisticated than I am but in our experience it was best to wait until you were here before securing long-term accommodation. We had real estate agents literally laugh at us when we said our budget was 18,000TL per month for a 1 bed 1 bath unit.
We ended up securing a spacious apartment, 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, living area, full kitchen and washing machine in a lovely little neighbourhood on the 3rd floor for 35,000TL for 2.5 months (14,000TL per month/$662AUD).
Our tips? Don’t be afraid to stick to your budget. Do your research and be confident in negotiation. Know a long term stay is valuable to a landlord.
Negotiate respectfully, have some background understanding/knowledge of the market/season and most importantly be kind! Even consider a value proposition. We offered to our host to take updated photos of the apartment before we left (the photos didn’t do the place justice!) it cost us nothing and was gratefully received by the owner.
All in all, be a good human and know that not everything revolves around money.
Til next time,
R
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