We have a mixed review, overall 3/5 stars. First off, the hosts are kind and responsive. We appreciated their assistance in making our stay comfortable and helping us connect with a local homeschooling group. The view is great and the surrounding area has superb natural beauty and beaches! Makaha is way less hectic and crowded than Kailua, Kapolei or Honolulu and is a great location for exploring the west side.
This condo was sparkling clean on arrival and includes thoughtful extras like boogie boards, coolers, snorkel/beach gear, live tv and a well-stocked kitchen. The cross-breeze is lovely, we did not need any AC during our stay (Sept/Oct).
However, we don’t feel this is a 4BR unit. The second downstairs ‘bedroom’ is a pull-out couch in a sitting area. Normally we’re fine with a no-doors, open-concept layout, but you need to walk through this area to access the unit’s only bathroom. Additionally, this sofa-bed was unusable (squeaky, saggy and thin) despite being a new memory foam mattress.
The loft bedrooms have sloped ceilings… we could stand under the main beam but needed to duck under the others to use the space. We hit our heads several times, plus these rooms are poorly ventilated and hot (fans available). The only space for clothing/luggage is the closet in the king bedroom and a luggage rack in the sitting area, there are no dressers in the unit.
A couple of issues were out of the hands of the owners but affected our stay regardless. The internet dropped out multiple times per day with normal, non-streaming usage (on average 1-15min at a time, 5-10 times/day, though seemed to function better near the end of our stay). Additionally, pool access is restricted to 1-hr daily, scheduled the day prior (covid rules).
The owners reasonably tried to address our issues, but due to the uncomfortable pull-out sofa and needing to move guests into the main living area for sleeping, we left roughly a week before the end of our month-long stay.
Our family has lived on the road for 3+ years and we wish others would have written these details in their reviews because we just had the wrong expectations. With more accurate expectations a stay here could be really wonderful! We loved exploring Oahu’s west-side and appreciated the host’s responsiveness to our concerns. I’d recommend this rental for a party up to 4 people (we had 6 and felt cramped).