Hawi is a nice town and quaint and quiet. There are some really nice art galleries and stores and it’s close to Pololu and other nice valleys on the Big Island. While the room was nice, I am sad to report that this was my single worst experience with an Air B and B host that I’ve ever had. Given that this place is remote, the directions to get there were complicated. I was never given an address and was by myself so I kept having to pull over to the side of the road to read the directions to find it. It’s in a nice, secluded area. I arrived for check in at 5:30pm. The property has five or six different buildings, many of them are brightly painted and look similar. After reading the directions, I tried to check into what I thought was my cabin, based on the pictures, but it was obvious that someone else was living there. A very nice man who was also an Air B and B guest from one of the other buildings also looked over the directions and pictures with me and tried to help me figure out where my room was. I called Rev. Les shortly after I arrived so that he could help me find my room, but he did not answer. Then, I sent him a message on Air B and B that I was having trouble finding my room, but he did not reply. I was panicking a little by this point and then saw a sign for a room that was clearly an Air B and B rental unit. It didn’t look like the pictures, but given that the one that did look like the pictures had someone living in it, I figured there might have been a mix up on the host’s end, and without being able to get a hold of him, there was no way of really knowing. I entered the room and there were keys and instructions on the bed, just like the directions that I was sent said that there would be, and so I just assumed this was the place and settled in. The room was clean and nicely decorated and seemed to have been recently updated. The bathroom was very nice and clean as well. About 8pm, I decided to try to turn on the TV and watch some cable and had a lot of issues getting it to work, again despite the directions. I again messaged Les to see if he would help me, but I got no reply. I finally was able to get it to work somehow, although the directions I was left were really of no help, I just kept pushing buttons until something worked. I want to say here that I have a doctorate, and I am not a stupid person by any means. I just want to give you a sense of how complicated all these instructions were.
At 8:45am, there was a knocking on my door. It was Les, waking me up to tell me I was in the wrong unit. Which is fine.....if you want me to move to another unit or pay you more or whatever. But, he didn’t actually want anything, other than to tell me I was in the wrong unit, and actually said I could not move because he didn’t want to clean two units. I let him know I was having trouble finding it and I had tried to contact him the night before, but I didn’t hear back from him. He then said he was sick the night before and went to bed at 5pm. Which again, is fine, but maybe he could have gotten someone to cover communication for him?
This should have been the end of it here, but then Les proceeded to tell me for the next fifteen minutes over email how stupid I was for going into the wrong unit and not being able to understand his convoluted instructions. He wanted to make sure that I knew it was MY fault and not about his directions or anything that he did. He called me names and insinuated I was dumb and it was literally like I was a dog and he wanted to rub my nose in my own poop. I was honestly so appalled at the way he was treating me that I started packing up my stuff and left a day early. I asked him three different times to stop contacting me before he finally did and he had no respect for me or my boundaries. I contacted Air B and B to file a complaint. Overall, this was the worst host experience I’ve ever had in my years of using Air B and B and I would not recommend his place for the reason.