Pros:
- host was nice
- super close to the beach
- north side of the island
- large home
- huge bathroom
- upstairs unit
- free parking on-site
- beautiful wood floors
- large dining table
- large lanai (mostly private due to so much foliage)
Cons:
- loud traffic noise all day, but mostly between 6 AM - 10:30 PM. It mentions this in the listing. I just didn’t realize how loud it would be, which is my fault.
- queen mattress in bedroom is very firm (way too hard for me, but others may like it).
- not super clean. There were dead insects and dried up geckos on living room windowsills. Insects inside homes are a thing in Hawaii—or anywhere tropical. I get it. And I’m willing to deal with it. But I do expect dead ones cleaned up a bit. And the staircase inside below the loft was pretty gross. Trash, stains and dirt not vacuumed and semi-covered up by a bunch of large items (it’s being used as a storage area I guess). Obviously we’re not using this area, but for $4765, I do expect very clean everywhere.
We ended up leaving 3 days into our 18-day stay. We had an unfortunate incident with rats. We left our (unopened/uncut) fruit on the kitchen counter overnight and woke to the sound of pitter-patter and little squeals super early one morning in the kitchen. Rats had eaten through the sides of our bananas, kiwis, oranges, pears and avocados. So I would advise that ANY food you have go into the fridge and not on the counter tops or in kitchen cabinets. It took 5 hours for the host to respond for help. We had already contacted Airbnb and received a refund before she even replied. It cost us a fortune to find somewhere else to stay immediately for 15 days. It’s not like we could just fly home. It was spring break time, so everything remotely affordable was booked. It was very inconvenient…to say the least.
But I will give the host credit. When she did reply (we had already packed and left), she was very apologetic and offered to have an exterminator come. Even offered for a “green” exterminator, which was thoughtful. She also offered to come over herself and set traps. We weren’t willing to take the risk with having sensitive medical issues and a young child. She really did want to make it right and apologized. She also offered to reimburse us the cost of the food we lost, but didn’t take her up on it. Supposedly she’s never had this issue before. So this could all be a fluke.
Even though I wouldn’t rebook here, I do believe the host will take care of any issue we had for future renters.