This unit is on the 4th floor of a 5-story building beaten by the sun all day long. It is also next to a major highway having steady traffic noise almost 24/7. Our stay was mostly a frustrating experience. The first night we arrived, the bedroom was so hot (the fan was not helping much, with a stuck window that would not open), we had to sleep on the floor in the living room, while forced to leave the balcony sliding door wide open to let some breeze in to fight the heat; but this filled our night with disturbing levels of highway traffic noise. Waking up sleep-deprived from our first night there, we informed the host the day after, asking if they could send someone to fix / open the bedroom window (hoping that would give some relief from the bedroom heat). The same as true for nights 2 and 3. It took more than half a dozen phone calls and three days before someone showed up to open the stuck window (we were told their repair guy was busy, had many places to take care of). Contrary to our expectations, the open window did not make much of a difference. Afterwards, they stopped replying to our messages, which added to the frustration as we also lost the internet connection for almost one full day until someone showed up to fix it.
It defies any logic why a place on the fourth floor of a 5-story building in the heat and full humidity of Maui summer (which the owners, being the locals, are far better familiar with, than visitors from across the ocean), would not have a window A/C (or a portable one), when the cost of one is comparable with what they charge us for only one or two nights of our stay there. The host reminded us that their online unit description included “no A/C”, but, in all fairness, do those two words fully reveal the excruciating levels of heat/ humidity? Why not add a reminder like “no A/C means unbearable heat inside the bedroom”?! They are the locals, they know better what Maui summer heat is; we are visitors, having no idea what that would mean to a bedroom on a top floor of a building next to a noisy highway.
When we brought this up with the host, rather than admitting they could provide at least a portable A/C, they accused us of not doing ‘enough research’ to be aware prior to our trip that the unit was next to a major freeway subject to freeway noise (I guess that meant that our sleep forced to be on the floor of the living room, instead of in the bedroom, would have become more pleasant!)
The overall situation was so unbearable, we had to cut our trip short, return earlier. Selfishly, the host refused to provide the additional payment for the night we did not stay there, which resulted in us filing a complaint with Airbnb.
It is nice to be trusting (as we had put trust in our reservation and in the host), but it is frustrating when you feel your trust is room to be taken advantage of. All we wanted was just a restful stay. Instead, we got a series of nights with sleep-deprivation.
PS - Replying to our objections, while in an unfriendly reply, the host stated they would add “something” to the unit description alarming the new incomers of the August-September heat / humidity in the unit. While I am writing this 5 days after our departure, I still do not see anything added to emphasize the unbearable heat and humidity of the night in that bedroom.