House rules and application form

* Before coming to Serbia Travel Club’s Travel House in Istanbul, please read these basic house rules and keep them in mind at all times. *

* When you've read the rules, please notify us that you're coming via the form that you'll find at the bottom of this page. *

The limit for staying in the House is five nights, except in certain special cases.

Be quiet at all times. It was extremely hard to find an apartment in Istanbul, and we’ve sworn that there will be no noise-making of any kind. Don’t play loud music, shout or talk loudly. If we give the neighbours a reason to complain, we will have a big problem.

Be especially quiet in the corridor. When you’re coming or leaving, be extremely quiet in the building. No loud talking, shouting or singing in the corridor. Don’t slam the doors.

Don’t wait in front of the building. If neighbours see crowds of foreigners coming, going and standing in front of their building, they might get worried. If you’re waiting for someone, wait at the nearby bus station.

No smoking, except on the balcony. No drugs of any kind are allowed, of course. You can drink a beer or two, but you mustn’t get drunk. And please don’t come to the House wasted.

No parties, for the above mentioned reasons. It can be done in the nearby park. Quiet social activities are welcome.

If you damage anything, you pay for it right away. We have left a large deposit to the apartment owner. In case something gets damaged, we may not get our money back.

Keep your valuables with you. We are not expecting thieves or kleptomaniacs, but it’s better to be on the safe side. You are the only one responsible for your stuff.

This project is funded by donations. Many people who have donated are not even planning to come to Istanbul – they did it go support a great idea. Donations aren’t compulsory, but are welcome. If you leave a couple of euros or Turkish liras, it will not be much for you, but it will mean a lot for the project. There are bills to pay – power, water, gas – as well as things like cooking oil etc. If you’d like to leave a donation, give it to Lazar or Marko. And don’t worry if it’s only simbolic: it will add up.

In the Travel House, there are no guests. Everyone is a host. So, - if you see something broken, fix it. - if you see something lacking (soap, toilet-paper, cooking oil, drinking water, detergent etc), buy it. - if you see something dirty (toilet, bathroom, kitchen, floors, balconies), wash it.

There is a nice term that we will borrow from the Rainbow Gatherings: “drainbows”. Those are people who just take and don’t give. The Travel House is not a perfect free-for-all. It is a community we’re all building together. We encourage you to think how you can contribute.

Keep the House clean & tidy! Don’t leave your stuff lying around in mess. Whoever walks in should have an impression of a clean, nice, tidy place. Especially if the owner comes for a surprise visit!

No pets! Absolutely no dogs, cats, parrots, fish. Parrots that can speak are welcome.

If you find any of these rules too hard to follow, you will be asked to leave immediately. We hope you’ll enjoy your stay and help us make this small contribution to global travel culture.

Before you come:

Please notify us before you come. To make sure we have enough room for you, and also to make sure that we’re there to let you in, please tell us when you’re planning to come, how many persons, how many nights.

Make sure to bring your sleeping bag & mat. There are no beds in the Travel House. Only the floor.

The address of the House will not be published online. When you notify us that you’re coming, you’ll get the detailed instructions how to find us. Please keep the instructions to yourself and don’t publish them anywhere.

Read the house rules. If you don’t follow the rules during your stay, you will be asked to leave immediately. So it’s a good idea to get familiar with them beforehand.

If you need to stay more than five nights, please say so in the entry form, and we’ll reply whether it’s possible or not.

The Travel Primer:

After this project finishes, we’d like to make a book we called the Travel Primer. It will be a travel scrabook of tips and tricks, stories, anecdotes, illustrations, photos, scraps, and so on. So we invite you to do something for the Travel Primer project: leave us your favorite travel or hitchhiking tips, or write down a short interesting anecdote about something that happened to you on the road (a couple of sentences are enough), or draw something for us, or leave us an interesting bus ticket or any other scrap from any country. If you’re writing, don’t worry about your English: everything will be reviewed and edited afterwards.

We’d also like to make a couple of short videos from the Travel House. If you have an interesting travel-related project you’d like to talk about, we can make an interview to be published online; if you play some instrument, we can make a short recording to make our Travel House video richer and more interesting.

Statistics & Guestbook:

We’d also like to have some statistics about the Travel House project. Namely, we’d like to know how many people have used it, where did they come from, what their age groups and occupations were, where they are headed after Istanbul, how long they are planning to stay on the road, do they hitchhike or use some other form of transportation etc. So we’ll kindly ask you to make your entry in our guestbook to make this possible.