Let's start off by saying both the house and cottage were stunning. We loved the day geckos! They were putting in work keeping the home, nestled amidst the trees, free from the creepy crawlers!
There was so much visual and audible beauty surrounding the entirety of the Bali House & Cottage, it was overwhelming. My personal favorite was the sounds of the frogs at night... Charming and so soothing to fall asleep to.
We were thankful to have access to accomadations & necessities such as: a full functioning kitchen, laundry & dryer, jacuzzi, wifi & even access to the hosts Roku! (That was pretty neat and convenient for the day or two we felt like staying in) Oh, and there was a Pacman arcade game in the lower bedroom! How cool is that?!?! (Not to brag but... with my competative spirit I had to beat the high score, and it's held at 51,910. Good luck to those who want to try to top my score--I believe you can do it!)
However, I do believe it's important to be transparent and completely honest. There were a couple of "hiccups" so-to-say during our stay. The first being miscommunication from the hosts. When I booked the reservation a year and a half prior, I had made sure then and there to get clarification from the hosts on what the listing entailed and if it included access to BOTH the house AND cottage... (the listing was a bit misleading and I also noticed other reviews had mentioned exactly this same concern)... I was sure to ask if there would be any additional fees in order to have access to the cottage and that it shouldn't be an issue if that were the case (within reason depending on how much more it would cost)...
The hosts responded quickly with clarification stating that there would be no problem letting our party of 4 (two couples) have privacy: "One couple being nestled in the cottage and the other in the house," and that "we would have access to both house AND cottage with NO EXTRA COST/CLEAN FEES"! (Great right?? Just bear with me here...)
Day of landing in Hilo, I messaged our hostess to let her know approx when we would be arriving so we could meet for the tour of the grounds. In her response, she asked me "if our party of four was interested in access to the cottage and if so, it would be an additional $125 cleaning fee, otherwise the cottage would remain locked... But that there's plenty of space in the extra bedroom to house all four of us"...
Once we arrived to the gate of the house I had no cell service, but a kind local near Kehena beach let me borrow their phone to call.
Being a bit confused as to how this miscommunication occured, I politely asked our hostess over the phone what she meant in our previous messages a year and a half prior, when she stated there would be "no problem & at no extra cost" to have access to the cottage...
Maybe she happened to forget? A lot of time has passed so I'm giving the benefit of the doubt...
Except as I ask her for clarification on our previous conversation about this she gets clearly annoyed over the phone stating she'd never say such a thing (insinuating I'm lying?) and that "the cottage has always been separately listed and booked out at an additional charge"??
I ask her if she will be there to check us in & give us the tour as I'm happy to show screenshots of our conversation then. Conveniently, she will not be but her husband will be... Ok that's fine, but now I'm annoyed that she insinuated that I was lying to her about our previous conversation. She repeatedly denies her ever saying such a thing to me... "no I never said that" ..."you are incorrect". So I just patiently wait over the phone while I ask her to pull up her emails about our conversation while I read back to her word-for-word what she promised...
She pulled up her emails and finally acknowledged what was said in our exchange and without missing a beat said "Oh, yes. You can have access to the cottage with no extra charge. I remembered without a doubt".
What?? Without a doubt? Ok, sure. Way to make your guest feel welcome.
At this point it's not about the money. It's about tact and keeping to your word. I would've happily paid (within reason) whatever additional fee the cottage may have required as previously stated, but the point of the matter being was that I initiated that conversation from the get go, a year and a half prior, and asked for that clarification--which she gave then went back on her word the first day we got there.
That being our first exchange left such a bad taste in my mouth that I did not feel welcome to reach back out for any reason during our stay.
The other little things were exactly that, little (compared to the miscommunication mishap)... There seemed to be what I assumed to be a cleaning closet in the main house but it was left locked during our 8 day stay. We didn't have access to staple cleaning supplies such as a broom to sweep up crumbs, extra paper towel or toilet paper, or even a dish sponge to wash our dirty dishes... We had to pick up a lot of house supplies we weren't expecting to have to. In the bathroom there were little hotel-style travel toiletries left for us which was nice (shampoo/conditioner/bar of soap) but in the shower I noticed leftover shampoo & conditioner that was clearly left by a previous guest... There was trash & wrappers left in the desk drawers.. little things I'm sure are easy to overlook.
I've been asked, how was the airbnb-- my answer remains "INCREDIBLE, but had it not been for the