We booked this airbnb maybe a few weeks to a month prior to our trip and honestly there weren’t many great listings left. This seemed like one of the better stays available at the time. The place looked nice, had everything we needed, and was close to the beach for a decent price. Would we stay here again on subsequent visits? Probably not.. we felt that there were more cons than pros.
Pros—
Close to the beach
Has everything you need
Beach chairs available
Aircon
Listing looks like as advertised
Cons—
Small bathroom with no ventilation
Check-in struggles
No dedicated parking space
Slow tv, not worth using
No view of the water
Bed felt stiff
Ants
Now, take this list with a grain of salt. We only used our airbnb to sleep, we were obviously out and about all day... So for this, it did just the job. But the times that we were in, we had lots to complain about. To start, check-in is at 4pm and we had not received any check-in instructions despite the listing saying check-in instructions would be given at least 48 hrs prior to check-in. We were waiting in the garage a few minutes past 4pm until we called and messaged the hosts without any initial response. They probably got back to us within half an hour which IS timely, but its should’ve been sent a few days prior as stated.
Additionally, the bathroom is literally SO tiny so for someone over 6’0, it just feels too cramped in addition there isn’t any ventilation.
There also is no dedicated parking spot. There is underground parking but it’s public with maybe only 12 spots? You can pay for a 24 hour period but mind you, there’s a chance that if you leave and come back, there may not be a spot for you when you return. We honestly only encountered this problem once out of our 5 day stay and had to look for street parking one of the nights but the stress of thinking about “do we take the car or not” while on vacation is a little annoying. This was our 3rd stay in Oahu and 5th airbnb and we’ve never had to worry about parking until staying here.
Also, during the pandemic, everything closes early so we found ourselves back at the airbnb relatively early each night. We would try to watch a show either on their tv apps or streaming from our device and the tv is just ridiculously slow. How is this even a thing? Often times I would be looking for a show on Netflix and it would bring me back to the Home Screen. We couldn’t even watch a show on Netflix because it was buffer often and for too long so we resorted to just watching a show on our iPad. What’s the point of having a tv if it’s not functioning well?
Minor cons, no view of the water from the lanai. We didn’t utilize the lanai at all. Also the bed was a little uncomfortable and was slightly cardboardy in feel as well.
The icing on the cake for our mediocre experience here were the ants. Mind you, in any tropical climate, there will likely be tiny ants throughout the lodging. This isn’t the first time we’ve experienced it. We’ve stayed in other airbnbs in Japan and Taiwan where they would seldomly roam around surfaces. * We normally don’t mind this* BUT for the very first time in all of our travel histories did the ants come home with us. That headache alone just put a sour taste in our mouth with our experience here. The ants flooded somewhere in our belongings and by the time we made it back home and unpacked, they multiplied. Like I said, this is common amongst warmer climates and you will likely experience this at some other airbnb as well. Ways you can avoid bringing home these pests are by keeping your luggages closed and keeping your belongings away from surfaces where the ants travel. My fiancé woke up every day itchy and was still itchy for a few days after returning home. As I said, this normally isn’t a huge con for us but the fact that these pests followed us home are enough to make us avoid this listing in the future.
At the end of the day, you get what you paid for. But honestly for just a little more, you can have a much better stay elsewhere.