My two friends and I arranged to stay at The Lotus in Hilo, HI months in advance of our visit. Three days before our visit, I emailed the host (Megan) to confirm our reservation (two queen beds and a single). The following day, I received a phone call from Megan explaining that she had mistakenly overbooked the room and could no longer accommodate us. She urged me not to cancel the reservation because she said she would be penalized by Air BNB, and then offered to arrange a comparable room at the nearby Pakalani Inn. Since we were only three days out from our departure date, we were grateful for her offer and amenable to the idea of rooming somewhere else. Our only concern was that all three of us would have beds. We didn't know each other that well and I am pregnant, so sharing beds didn't seem like a great idea. Megan later called again and explained that she could not get a third bed at the Pakalani Inn, but suggested that our third person sleep on an air mattress. I asked if she could just book a second room so that we could all have beds and she said this would be too expensive and reiterated that she could provide the air mattress. I told her this would be fine, but that I would not pay any additional money over what Air BNB had already charged to my card.

Megan then called me while we were in the airport enroute to Hawaii and told me that the owner of the Pakalani Inn had not yet confirmed that he would allow an air mattress. Megan also asked that we pay an additional $20 fee for having a third person, which I had to challenge and explain that since she had overbooked us and had NOT provided three beds as promised, we did not intend to pay any additional money to her.

Long story short, my interaction with Megan was not great. We didn't know what our accommodations were going to be until arriving in Hawaii at 10 p.m. at night, had to fight against paying additional money, and overall I felt like I was being taken advantage of, when in hindsight, I could have (and probably should have) just walked away. I cannot say how The Lotus accommodations are like, but can say that working with Megan was a displeasure.

The Pakalani Inn was lovely and Neil, the owner, was very responsive. I would recommend that property over The Lotus anyday.