Josh's place was a true disappointment for our group over the holidays. I would have liked to see a review like this before booking and so I am providing it for others, so they don't have to have the disappointing experience we did.
Some of the pictures aren't exactly accurate.
1) There is no outside table to eat. This was a huge bummer for our family who was looking forward to being able to eat outside by the ocean.
2) Minor thing but there is no tire swing. The kids were hugely disappointed about this.
3) The beach is much less sandy than pictured. It's basically all rocks so don't plan to get time with the kids playing in the sand there.
On to other matters ...
1) The location from our perspective - Josh's listing does mention there is an abandoned house next door. It's ugly and this is mentioned what wasn't mentioned is that found there was a lot of transient activity on the property as it can be easily reached from the beach. There were people looking for old cigarette buts or just hanging out. On the other side of the house around the hedge row was a tent where another group of transients were living. We noticed there was a lot of traffic for what is a road that essentially dead ends 1/4 mile from the house. Upon further observations the beach seems to be a place for drug deals. One afternoon we watched as car after car would pull up and a guy would walk about and do a trade. It's an urban beach and a real part of Hawaii that you don't see at the resorts, but with 5 kids under the age of nine in our party it was no place we wanted our kids running around freely. I just would have like to have a better feel for the neighborhood before we arrived. It's a place where you lock your doors, keep an eye on your kids and are aware of your surroundings.
2) The beaches are open to the public and the end of the property has a lot of trash that's been swept up from the sea. We often had people that would be picking through the rocks and trash at the end of the property for things worth value I suppose. I say this just to clear any expectations of a private ocean front property. You'll have people coming to have a smoke or take a rest at the end of the property.
3) Ants and cockroaches are definitely a part of this property. With kids this creates a nightmare. After each meal I would sweep the floors to clear any food that may have dropped. I made the mistake of not doing this the first day of our stay and ants quickly found food that got on the floor. Sweeping floors twice a day isn't exactly what I wanted to do on vacation.
4) Josh doesn't use fitted sheets. This was the final straw our first night there. My brother and sister in law bailed with their family and made a reservation at the Marriott. I ended staying up late doing loads of laundry for those opting to tough it out so that we didn't have to end up making contact with a mattress pad that wasn't clean. The bottom sheet is a flat sheet and it doesn't stay tucked in or still especially when there are kids sleeping in the bed. The beds were a real turn off for all of us that decided to stay and make it through our 5 days on this property.
5) All the showers leave something to be desired. The downstairs shower didn't drain well at all. The upstairs shower heads don't spray straight so you kind of have to twist around to get rinsed.
6) I was really surprised that Josh was a super host. I will say that his communication was on point. Any questions or concerns we had he was quick to respond. However, there were no nice touches. There is no shampoo provided to last you more than a night, no coffee provided to brew in the morning and no little thoughtful gifts to welcome guests. The toilet paper and paper towels are provided only for the first 24 hours.
We've stayed at a lot of beach front properties on lots of coasts around the world. Given the price range Josh placed the house in we expected much more than what we got. We'd come from the Westin in Kannapali where the kids had pristine beaches, we could walk to the store to cook dinners in a pretty kitchen, there were well maintained natural gas grills outside our suite and the kids had lots of freedom and we felt safe. Josh's place was priced similar to this and yet it was no where near this level. It was not one of our best beach experiences.