TL;DR
We stayed in Unit #4 for 2 nights.
The bed was completely shot. It was the epitome of an uncomfortable bed.
There was an unbearable amount of scent / perfume / smell in the bed.
The electric kettle didn't work.
The Roku TV remote had dead batteries, so we couldn't watch Netflix, etc. (They fixed this on the second day, thanks!)
The curtains and blinds in the living room don't close all the way, so you can't have your privacy.
There's a missing screen door on the sliding glass door in the kitchen. So, you can't get fresh air in the afternoon when the kitchen heats up, unless you want to invite the mosquitos in.
These are the main things. There's more.
I provided feedback to the hosts in a nice list. Hopefully they have fixed these issues for their next guests.
We stayed here for 2 nights. Me, my husband, and our 2 year old.
The bed was completely shot.
When I slept on my side, my hip hit rock bottom hardness.
When I slept on my back I sunk, and the bed tried to roll me to the middle.
And, note, I only weigh 130 lbs.
This bed is probably 30 years old, or more.
The bed was heavily perfumed. It was as if it was stuffed with dryer sheets and rubbed with fabric softener. It was unbearable to breathe. The perfume puffs out with every subtle movement. It comes off on your fingers, it perfumes your clothes and your hair.
I couldn't sleep. My husband couldn't sleep. My lucky 2 year old was sleeping blissfully on her own little mattress, thank goodness!
I thought of sleeping in the car, but I'd be cold unless I brought a heavily perfumed blanket with me, but then I wouldn't be able to breathe.
I thought of sleeping in the grass, but there are mosquitos and rain, and sprinklers in the morning. And, of course, that'd just be unacceptable.
I managed to sleep in the bed for 1 hour, then woke for a few hours, and slept for another 2 hours.
My husband slept on the couch with no blankets.
It was miserable.
We would have left in the middle of the night and gotten another place to stay. But it was late, this is Maui (rare vacancies), and we have a 2 year old who was blissfully sleeping in her own bed.
The next morning I messaged the hosts about the issues with the bed, and they promptly communicated. I think this is what they excel at. One of them is very good at customer service, while the other one is responsive but misunderstands and assumes a lot.
This next morning I asked for sheets without so much perfume so I could try sleeping on the pull-out couch.
They provided new sheets which were less perfumed but still smelled quite a bit, and they offered and provided a foam topper. I was thankful and hopeful.
Unfortunately, the pull-out couch turned out to be just a shot as the regular bed. Even so, I slept better the second night with less perfume on the topper and being so exhausted from not sleeping the night before.
My husband still had to sleep on the floor, on our picnic blanket, because both beds were too shot. However, he was too cold on the floor, so he couldn't sleep.
Upon checkout, I composed a nice organized message laying out suggestions for improvements if they would like to have thoughtful feedback to improve their unit and insure a 5 star rating.
They misunderstood and thought I didn't like the smell of the vegetation outside. This was my wording: "There's so much scent and perfume on everything, especially the sheets, it's hard to breathe, especially to sleep. It's like having your nose in a box of dryer sheets all night long."
They said "our solution has been finding familiar house-hold products with "clean scents"".
To make matters worse, though I reached out during our stay, they said "We encourage our guest to reach out DURING the visit".
And they continued to say "We have spares of....nearly everything...including queen and full mattresses,..."
Knowing this, I'm very sad they didn't offer a spare mattress when I explained the problems with the shot mattress after the first night.
And, if they have spares, this bed shouldn't still be in this unit. I don't understand how it was still there. I can't imaging anyone being OK with it.
As you can imagine, it's no fun to be on a little vacation expecting rest and rejuvenation then getting quite the opposite.
Not being able to sleep, and figuring out how to deal with this situation, took so much away from our time here.
And, the punchline?
It was our anniversary.