Best Airbnb experience!
John's unit is located in Hale Kamaole community across the street from Kamaole beach III. This unit is on the second floor in the back side of the community so we get very good privacy while still having a good view. It's close to the pool but not too close to hear the noise. Families hang out on the grass all the time. Just a lovely scene. We enjoyed breakfast at the lanai every morning with the view of the ocean view, beautiful grass, palm trees, and the pool. View is exactly as picture shown in the listing, but much more beautiful in person. What's not captured is the smell of the fresh air, the ocean breeze, and the beautiful bird singing.
Here are a few highlights of our 1-week stay:
* Very responsive host: As other reviews point out, John is indeed the most responsive host from before the booking. No other host answers all the questions like John does. John is also very responsive throughout the whole stay. Definitely a 5 star host!
* Spacious unit: This unit is very spacious for our family of four even after we convert the sofa into bed in the living room area. We still have spacious room for dining, cooking, and the walk-in area to place our shoes and beach supplies. the bedroom is also very spacious.
* Clean and beautiful decorations: the blue/cream ocean themed decoration flows nicely in the entire unit. It's not fancily remodeled as some other Airbnb posting, but the whole unit is sparkling clean and well kept. It's warm and homey from the moment we walked into the unit.
* Abundant beach supplies: There's a closet full of beach supplies (boogie boards, beach chairs, umbrellas, mat, snorkeling mask, sand toys, inflatable floaties). There are also tennis rackets and balls if you want to use the tennis court in the community.
* Fully stocked kitchen and shared BBQ grills in the community: we cooked often in the unit or using the BBQ grills in the community as we don't want to waste our island time lining up for restaurants. This unit has lots of cookware, utensils, plates, glasses, blender, rice cooker, condiments, ...etc. We used the BBQ grill by the pool a lot too as the sunset view from the pool is unbeatable. The grills are well maintained and cleaned by the staff everyday.
* Comfy sleep: Both the bed in the bedroom and the convertible sofa bed are very comfy. I personally feel the sofa bed is more comfortable than the bedroom bed. There are more than enough pillows, blankets and bed sheets in the closet. There are shades both in the living room and in the bedroom. Initially I thought the living room would be too bright because it's not a blackout shade. But after the first night, I found it's quite the opposite. The light from the pool area is not too bright and that shade is good enough. On the contrary, the bedroom side window is facing the walkway where there is strong light to keep the walkway bright. The light leaks through the blades into the bedroom. Luckily we bring eye masks with us. Plus, we get very tired after a whole day of beach activities. We had good sleep every day.
* In room washer and dryer: The in room washer and dryer are essential for our stay. We went the beach and pool almost every day. We are able to pack only 4 carry on luggage thanks to the in-room washer and dryer. The host also provides sufficient laundry tablets for laundry everyday.
* TV with Netflix: There are two TVs, one is bedroom and one in living room. Good for family with different choices. But Netflix seems to limit to one device and cannot be used simultaneously on two TVs. Not a big deal for us since we don't watch much TV during our island time.
* Vacuum cleaner: Didn't expect we would need the vacuum, but it was needed every time after we came back from the beach. Even though we showered off most sands at the entrance of the community, inevitably there would be some leftover. The vacuum kept our space nice and clean during the stay. Really appreciate it.
* Easy check-out: unlike many other Airbnb which charges for quite some cleaning fee but still requires the guests to do a bunch of cleaning (wash the bedsheets, plates and utensils, take out the trash, pull trash bin, ... etc), checking out from here is so much easier without a long list of to-do's at checkout. That being said, we still do our best to put things back in order. Such a lovely place deserves some clean-up as our appreciation.
* Some minor comments: There were only a set of small hotel-size shampoo, conditioner, and soap bars. This is not enough for four people's 1 week stay. That is fine with us. We could easily get a bigger travel-sized bottle from the nearby Food land/ABC/safeway store.
We would definitely come back in the future if John's place is available.