I will try to keep this an honest, yet fair review.
Pros:
The location is great, especially for starting trips to Hana. It’s close to the airport, Costco and other stores.
Kuau cove is right begin Mama’s fish house which is a few min walk from the condo.
Ho’okipa beach is a few min drive - it is a popular surf spot and has sea turtles
Kandy has a kids package that includes a crib, high chair and wagon with beach toys. There are sand castle building toys, buckets, etc. for young children; beach chairs and boogie boards for older kids/adults. There is now also a pack n play, as a previous tenant posted. Those are all much appreciated, especially if you’re traveling with children and it’s less things you have to pack.
I feel this place is good for families or a group with two couples- as there are two bedrooms on opposite ends of the condo. It also has two full bathrooms (one thru the master bedroom and one in the hall)
The condo does have AC, but there is only one unit. It is located in the living room, therefore the front bedroom (right as you enter the condo does not get very cool, there is a long hallway to get to the back of the condo). Even the bedroom opposite the living area has a hard time staying cool (and the ac is on the other side of the bedroom wall).
If you want to grill, there is one grill on the property, shared by all tenants at the complex. We didn’t have a problem using it when we needed/wanted to, but we could foresee BBQ dinner wrecked if there was a lineup to use it.
There are 2 coin operated (or you can get an app to add money onto to pay for the laundry services) washers and 2 dryers in a small building behind the complex;there could be an issue that you can’t use them when you need to. We put laundry in and I guess we didn’t check it in time as someone had put our wet clothes in their basket on the floor as they needed to use the washer and by that time both dryers were also being used so we weren’t able to (it was getting later at night and we were getting ready for bed). We ended up hanging our clothes on hangers all around the condo to dry overnight. There are 30 units at this complex with 2 washers and 2 dryers.
As a host, Kandy is prompt to respond to messages and she is communicative. She did allow us to check out 1 hour later than what is posted.
Cons for us:
Upon driving up to and entering Kandy’s place we felt a little disappointed. Our first impressions of the building were not great. It felt like the beginning of urban projects. In the pictures, it shows what looks like a very well kept, newly renovated, clean, and modern condo. In person, the condo was very worn and looked heavily used on the inside. When you sat on the couch it sank and creaked loudly which woke our infant daughter in the other room. As for cleanliness, my husband and I are very clean people and we felt like this just wasn’t up to par. There was mold in the bottom of the dish drying rack where the cutlery sits in, coffee in a coffee mug; which must not have been washed well by previous tenants; and the molding all over the condo doesn’t look like it’s ever been wiped down. The molding had dust/dirt, debris, etc on it. There is a ton of dust bunnies under the beds and side tables around the condo. This might be an oversight for some, but for us, it made the place feel a little dingy.
The bathrooms were very clean, minus the molding. We covered the couch with a blanket as the couch cushions did not look like they had been shampoo-ed in a while. The teal colored fabric cushions had discoloration from body oils, sweat, etc. on them and my husband put his head on one of the couch pillows and he said it smelled like someone had vomited on it (dark blue/green circular one).
If you or your child is sensitive to noise or are a light sleeper, this location could be a major issue. The Hana Hwy is steps from your front door and it is BUSY. There are no curtains across the windows at the front bedroom, which is where the parking lot is; the back bedroom (master) lets headlights shine into the room from vehicles leaving the area behind the complex. This unit is on the ground floor in a 3 story building. It is an older building and I am assuming the walls are thin. This unfortunately allowed us to hear other tenant’s conversations, kids crying/playing/running around etc & disturbed naps for our daughter.
Would we recommend this place? Most likely not.
Personally & honestly, would we stay again? Definitely not.
0-10, 10 being the best ever… we rate it as a 5