Fat Taxi - Private Istanbul Airport (IST) Transfer to Taksim

February/March 2022. We are return users of Fat Taxi Istanbul for our airport transfers. Easy-peasy online ordering, great whatsapp communication of reminders and meetup locations, ground crew young man outside IST arrivals was friendly and efficient, assisted with luggage, and escorted us to the curb side pickup. The driver was very safe, vehicle clean and well maintained, driver assisted with luggage at destination drop off. We already have our return service booked. The price is commensurate with other online car services and we like the roomy vans Fat Taxi uses. No problem recommending and will book again. Good job!

We had to move our booking twice because our flight kept getting cancelled due to weather conditions. FatTaxi was kind enough to reschedule both times and provided excellent customer service. This was not the case in the past with other service providers we have used.

This is my first one-star review on Tripadvisor... and it's well deserved almost everything went wrong. So much so, that I feel obligated to warn my fellow travelers. In fact, the best and only positive part of the experience was that I received a full refund without much fuss. We booked a roundtrip transfer from IST to the Taksim area. I should have been suspicious when I still hadn't received any detailed instructions regarding where to meet the driver on the day before departure... but a gentleman by the name of Sinan responded when I contacted Fat Taxi via the chat feature on their website and indicated that I should go to door 13 and look for the "SBL" sign to meet the driver upon arrival at IST. And so the adventure begins. Here's a list of what went wrong: 1) We easily found the door and sign... but nobody was there. A man who was standing by another sign simply motioned us to to come around and wait nearby. About 5-10 minutes later, a man came by and asked if my name was XYZ. I said no. He seemed incredulous and asked again (no, I'm still not XYZ). He then asked for my name... and seemed to have no record of my (prepaid!) booking. He told me to wait and walked away. Another five minutes later, he returned and simply told me to wait. He eventually guided us and another group of travelers to the departure level where we boarded a van. 2) Nobody was wearing a mask. Given the hiccups we experienced upon arrival, the van driver handed me his cell phone to speak to Sinan who seems to be in charge. Sinan was apologetic and subsequently instructed the driver to put on a mask. I understand that local regulations may not require masks. But when you're in the business of shuttling people from all over the world in a small confined space around all day, it seems like wearing a mask is just the right and courteous thing to do. 3) Our destination was the Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus. Our driver intended to drop us off at the Hilton Bomonti (yes, they're both Hilton hotels in Istanbul, but no, they're not the same). Thankfully, I realized the mistake before we got off, and the driver contacted Sinan again to get confirmation about our correct destination. I then received more messages from Sinan who apologized profusely, said we were "unlucky" and promised things would be much better and seamless for our return transfer to the airport the next day. 4) So, our transfer from the hotel to IST was scheduled for 11:15 the next day. We were downstairs ten minutes early, and I messaged Sinan to advise him accordingly. He did not respond. 11:15 came and went. No van, no response from Sinan. I called Sinan on WhatsApp at around 11:20, and he said he'd check. He texted some 5-7 minutes later, saying that he couldn't reach the driver. He asked us to wait while he tried to locate another driver and arrange for the transfer. At this point--and keeping in mind that I had a flight to catch--I had lost faith in both Sinan and Fat Taxi and decided to cut my losses. I grabbed an ordinary taxi. About 25-30 minutes after our scheduled pickup time, Sinan texted again, saying that the van was now at the hotel. So, here's the deal: When you run a transfer company, you literally do three things--you pick people up, drive them safely, and drop them off at to the desired location. Fat Taxi pretty much failed across the board. Hence why, I urge everyone to think carefully whether they want to book with Fat Taxi (in fact, I recommend that you just take a regular taxi. They're dirt cheap and will get you where you need to go without much fuss). The only good thing I can say about my experience is that Sinan was apologetic, and he refunded me right away. Then again, that's not what you're looking for when you book an airport transfer, right?