We make a point of supporting sharing economy businesses, and especially enjoy the accommodations/services from hosts who are on the receiving end at times. Unfortunately, not this time with Vacation-Maui. Please be warned here first:
Check-in: It was a bureaucratic and inefficient process which made an unexpected early (40min) arrival to check in absolutely impossible. And plus another 5min waiting for the door code to be activated.
Our flight landed earlier so we ended up arriving at the front door of the property 40min early before the official check in time. We called the switchboard and ended up speaking to customer service, whom, apparently can only make inquiries to various departments and then text back their replies. We got a text back saying there was supposed to be an inspection of the property so we couldn't go in yet. Sure enough, after a 5hrs flight and 40min wait outside the property, it turned out there was NO inspection after all. And then, it took another 5min for the door code to be activated to allow us to get in. Check in time for us: 4:05pm.
Flawed interior design: Washer and Dryer are installed in the upstairs loft area with two single beds. This sleeping area heats up very quickly and gets super hot as soon as the dryer is turned on, which makes it impossible for my 10yrs old daughter to sleep in there. When we requested a clothes drying rack from manager Todd Tuttle, without asking us the reason behind the request, he simply replied "Is something wrong with the dryer? We certainly want to get that addressed if that is the case. If it is working and you simply need something that is not a standard amenity - then it is certainly something we can consider - but not anything that will happen in a single day." It sounds like he might look into getting us a rack, but the fact is he never got back to us.
We bought a clothes drying rack at the start of our stay, and left it in the utility closet for future guests to use.
We learned a lesson here and will choose airbnb accommodations carefully going forward to avoid interacting with people who are only doing their jobs.