My wife and I stayed at David’s place on the north shore for a few days during our honeymoon. We ended up getting upgraded to the larger space, after I declined the upgrade from David. It became apparent the larger space is booked less frequently and there’s double listings for the studio, in which case with double bookings someone is upgraded to the larger space. In the event of double booking, he asks if we wanted to upgrade for a small fee, but if both parties decline, he’s obv forced to upgrade one to the larger space.
Overall, our stay was really good, but there were details that gave me the impression the place wasn’t highly cared for or cleaned. I also thought the instructions for where things were in the house was under communicated (washer/dryer, grill in front yard, no recycling pickup, garbage man came on wrong day from notes). Washer / dryer is on side porch behind curtain btw, we searched for ~10 min before finding. Other reviewers commented on how it’s a beach house that’s obv been worn, and this is true after visiting but didn’t really bother us too much (old rusty door fixtures are an example).
Other details were undersold from the property. The house is literally right on the waterfront with direct access to the beach 15ft from the porch. The images in the listings are lackluster and I think would sell the property better with professional photos. I didn’t realize at first there was a grill on the property and wasn’t sure if we could use (assuming yes, but you never know).
Checkout instructions were nonexistent, so we opted to vacuum, take out trash, clean surfaces where seemed dirty, etc.
Location on the island is overall good. We visited in the transition from summer to winter, so weren’t able to get into the water in front of the house and had to drive a bit around the island get to many of our activities. Not so much a negative, just beware of anything on this side of the island during the winter. We really enjoyed the town of Hanalei, about 15 minutes away.
Overall, good experience, but think it has a lot more potential with a little bit of TLC, even low cost upgrades / communication.