Unlike most reviews, our 4 nights stay at Hamakua Cabana has been distressful and upsetting. We went for the unique experience of Hawaiian Glamping based on the positive reviews but left in shock with power/water outage 2 nights out of 4 from 10pm-8am where minimum utilities such as bathrooms and shower were unusable. Guests had to use bathroom one after another without flushing which was extremely unsanitary. In urgency, we had to rush to a shopping mall/restaurant 30 mins away spending lot of our travel time looking for restrooms early in the morning or late at night.
To make matters worst, when explaining our unfortunate experience to the host, we were treated poorly with no attempt to resolve the issue, that we should expect outage in off-grid accommodation and inappropriate responses calling guests “cheap crashers” and “wasting battery power on taking shower at night”. We finally took the matter to Airbnb who suggested 50% compensation and after evaluation, determined that the host had a violation of Policy and issued our refund immediately.
Despite all the incidents, we still appreciate the carefully curated cabana and the patience of the on-site staff. To avoid misleading people and further policy violations, we sincerely hope the host revise the listing description and states that power/water might run out at night and in the morning as this will help future guests avoid booking if basic utilities are very important to them.