I stayed at Hale Chinen with three friends for a week and it was lovely. We never had a chance to meet Al, but we did get to meet Angie, who is super friendly and answered any questions we had extremely quickly. The neighborhood is beautiful and quiet, without many tourists around, which made us feel like we actually lived there! The beach was a 4 minute drive away and supermarkets/restaurants were a 10 minute drive. The living room and kitchen gave us plenty of hangout space as a group without having to feel like we were on top of each other all the time. The home is very clean, the kitchen is stocked with a good amount of cookware, and it was great to have a washer/dryer to wash our beach towels every few days. We did have to shoo a lizard out of the house twice, but I think that's just a part of life in Hawaii! This is the perfect getaway if you want to feel less like a tourist and more like you live on the island.