To start, the guesthouse is great! Great location near all the surf spots on north shore, a grocery store right down the hill, and relatively easy access to Haleiwa. The property is nice and peaceful and the back lanai + large grassy backyard is a great place to eat dinner and wind down the day.
The kitchen was well stocked, the u it was super clean, and everything was in working order. Note that there are quite a few roosters on the property that get going early, but you learn to love them and they add to the Hawaii experience.
And now for the not so good:
The host was welcoming at first and gave us a thorough tour of the unit + some fresh eggs when we arrived (super cool). That was the extent of any warmth from the host. We saw her the next day and she made some unsolicited negative comments about the president, COVID vaccinations, and the religious family next door. Ok…
Then, on the first Sunday we were there, the host stopped by the unit and proceeded to lecture us for (literally) 20 minutes about a variety of things including electricity use, noise, and the “toxic smell” in the outdoor trash bin. This was the first feedback we had heard from her and we had not broken any of the house rules. The latest we were awake/making any sounds was 9:45pm on a Friday night and we were using electricity like normal people.
We are adults and a quick “hey guys, please try to conserve energy when you can, tie up the trash bags a little tighter before putting them in the bin, and keep the music down after 9pm” would have been understandable and well received but instead the host was confrontational, repeated the same points over and over again, ranted about the cost of energy, and threatened us with a negative Airbnb review + extra charges for electricity use and cleaning. This was early on in our 1 month stay and we didn’t really feel welcome at the property after that.
I’ve stayed in many airbnbs with nothing but great experiences and have never written a lengthy review like this, but wanted to give any future guests a heads up. We still enjoyed our stay and didn’t interact with the host again until checkout, but we were definitely on edge for most of the trip which was a bummer.
The property was great but I cannot recommend staying here because of the host’s behavior.