Do not rent from these people!
Over 15 reviewed stays through Airbnb, and this is the first time we given less than 5 stars. Might be the first 1 star review we’ve ever experienced. It’s a long one, but it’s important y’all know who these people are and how they treat their guests….
First off, the place was just ok. Photographs are much nicer than what you get, but that’s not too unusual from Airbnb. The air conditioning wasn’t working, so they had a portable air conditioner that only cooled 1/2 the house and the exhaust fan in the guest bathroom didn’t work, but since it was just me, my wife and our toddler in a 2b/2ba condo, it didn’t bother us enough to report it. The place was old, pretty dirty and there were bugs like cockroaches, but this is Maui and not something we were surprised by… Their terms and conditions even detail that there would be bugs in the house. But all that isn’t the bad part…
The bad part is the hosts themselves… It started with them not responding to our messages before we arrived. We asked the simple question of what the earliest check-in available was, explaining that we were trying to plan where we’d put our toddler down for a nap. We messaged 3 weeks before we arrived… Nothing. We messaged again 1 week before we arrived… Nothing. We messaged a few days before we arrived… Nothing. It wasn’t until a few hours before check-in that we received a message with check-in instructions and a time. Frustrating, but moved past it assuming they’re just “on island time”.
Everything was fine until our last night when we’re woken up at 9:45pm by the host calling, texting, and messaging through the app. To be clear, it was (4) phone calls, (6) text messages and (11) Airbnb messages just that night, finally ending at 11pm. All of this bc they claimed some neighbors had complained about someone smoking in the common area shared by 30 condos. I politely informed them that we don’t smoke and are all in bed asleep, so it couldn’t have been us. I invited them to stop by in the morning, since they only lived 15 mins away, and inspect the home themselves to see that no smoking had occurred. You’d think that’d be the end of it, but they continued to harass us with calls, texts and messages for another hour until 11pm even after I repeatedly asked them to stop harassing us.
The following morning, I invited them again to come inspect the place and provided them pictures of the neighbors patio with matches and cigarette butts present. Despite their rudeness the night before, I didn’t want them to get in trouble with their HOA for something that didn’t happen at their condo and maybe they were just having a bad day the night before…. They refused and instead, changed the passcode to the front door before the checkout time, locking us outside along the busy Hana Hwy with a toddler. We finally got back into the unit through the back door and left. When I texted/messaged them about locking us out, the refused to respond. Over 4 hours later they send a text saying that “maybe we forgot how to use the door bc we were high”. That was their actual response to locking us out. We clearly were not, but even had we been, it’s no excuse to lock a family out of their unit with a young child and put us in a dangerous situation.
Beyond unacceptable and irresponsible behavior from these people. Thankfully I documented everything and have filed a full report with Airbnb. The absolute last thing I want to spend my time doing, especially at the end of a trip in paradise, but I couldn’t just sit back and let them do this to another family.
For the sake of you and everyone in your party, find someone else to rent from. The island is filled with wonderful people and hosts… These 2 are just bad people.