Charming 2br in a phenomenal location next to a park with a lagoon inhabited by sea turtles. Everything was clean and the property manager worked hard to address most of the issues we had, though sometimes we had to argue our case.
The good:
- Location is perfect. Partial ocean view right next to 3 parks with turtles and swimmable/snorkelable lagoons.
- Elevator building.
- Assigned parking right next to the building entrance -- you'll appreciate this when a Hilo downpour comes out of nowhere.
- The unit is a cozy 2br with renovation and a full kitchen.
- Balcony is protected behind a net, and we had no mosquitos or bugs in the unit.
- Internet is fast and rock solid, had no outages in 2 weeks.
- The handyman Yangtze is an absolute sweetheart.
- The owner left plenty of literature about Hawaii and Big Island, and a welcoming guest book.
Issues we had:
- Only 1 set of keys provided for the unit (description said one per registered guest and we had 3 registered guests). Note the building also has no callbox downstairs. After some arguing, the property manager produced 2 extra copies of the unit door keys (due to low quality, only one worked), but due to HOA restrictions it took much longer to obtain a second building door/elevator key -- it was only ready the day before we checked out. Hopefully it will be available to future guests.
- The balcony door was at first inoperable and needed to be oiled. Handyman said this is due to the humid climate.
- Same problem for wardrobe drawers in the master bedroom - those couldn't be fixed, so we couldn't use most of these drawers at all.
- Kitchen was slightly undersupplied. Knives were dull with no serrated knives provided, so cutting bread was impossible. After a bit of arguing, the property manager bought a good new set of knives. There is no dishwasher and we were provided a tiny kitchen sponge to wash dishes (the manager later gave us normal sized sponges). Frying pans need replacement.
Other things to keep in mind:
- The property manager could adopt a more customer friendly tone for an expensive vacation rental. He started out by pointing out how we're not in a hotel (in response to reasonable requests such as replacing kitchen knives that don't work). Even disagreement can be handled in a friendly way. To his credit, he fixed most of the problems promptly.
- No A/C in unit - heat is not an issue in Hilo, however the owner may want to buy a dehumidifier to reduce damage to furniture and problems like inoperable wardrobe drawers.
- The bed in the 2nd bedroom is a futon. However, guest staying there had no complaints.
Overall, this is one of the nicer vacation rentals in Hawaii and we'd be glad to stay here again.