The home is beautiful and at a great location. It has the potential to be a great vacation rental if communication can be improved.
First off, I was provided with the wrong WiFi info. The manager told me to call Spectrum- which was unexpected and also unhelpful because I wasn’t the account holder. After 3 hours of troubleshooting, I finally got the correct WiFi info when I reached out to the cleaning crew to verify the wifi info. I’m not too sure why the wifi info was completely wrong because the manager told me that was the info given to previous guests.
and then the water was shut off. Completely. The water bill was not paid- the manager said it was the cleaning person’s fault for not paying. To me that was weird because it should be the owner or manager’s job to make sure bills are paid. Everything can be done online now but for some reason I had to wait and stay in a hotel for two and a half days for the cleaning person to pay in person at the board of water supply. The extra half day involved us changing our plans AGAIN completely because the cleaning person didn’t make the payment in the morning as promised. The manager did refund $1000 for the two and a half days. But it was an extremely stressful situation having to check again and again because things weren’t done as promised.
and also there was the episode with the coffee machine (or lack of even though it was supposed to be there..). The property manager initially suspected the previous tenants for stealing it - it makes it very uncomfortable for me because I don’t want to be blamed later for something I didn’t do. Later on the cleaning person said the hot water boiler was the coffee machine. He later brought the coffee machine when I insisted that a water kettle and coffee machine are different. I was totally fine without a coffee machine - although having one eventually was great because of how expensive buying coffees every day can be here in Hawaii.
What concerned me more was the miscommunication (again) and the presumption against previous guests.
checking in and out wasn’t easy- requires more communication with staff that already has communication problems. I was told my check-in time was too late (which I confirmed with the property manager) and had to change my dinner plans in order to meet the cleaning staff for the key.
Also: there’s no basic cooking condiments or oils. The kitchen is fully stocked with pans and pots though. And watch out for yard crew popping up unannounced in the morning. Being caught naked right out of the shower was not how I wanted to start the day.
I don’t think I would stay there again. I highly hope that the owner would hire a more professional team to manage the property locally. It doesn’t seem like the property manager was on the island since he was communicating over an international number. All the miscommunication makes things very stressful and complicated.
Otherwise, it’s a great house at a beautiful and convenient location. And it has the potential to be a great place to stay. The manager did respond fairly quickly to my inquiries and helped problem-solve. I just wish we didn’t have to problem-solve so many times.