The experience that Mea provided us at Sunsets at The Niihau reinforces the airbnb experience as the premiere worldwide tourist accommodation service of our times. Like many visitors to Waikiki, we came to have fun and forget the real world for a while - and Mea did everything in her power to see that we did. Thanks to Mea, our trip exceeded our expectations.
Mea was an easy, thoughtful and welcoming pre-stay communicator, providing thorough instructions to enter the apartment necessary via email in a clear, concise and timely manner - vitally important when the information has to be passed onto a fellow traveller on a different arrival flight.
Upon arrival, Mea's listing was as described, if anything it was a little more spacious than we expected. The entire space was clean and organised (it also comes with WiFi and Netflix, which turned me into an instant fan of Narcos). A couple of handy things that Mea had ready for us when we walked in the door included a list of Mea's recommended cafes, restaurants, bars, clubs and island activities, and a gift card for Longs Drugs (located around the corner), in case there was anything else we needed to make our stay more comfortable.
Sunsets at The Niihau lies right in the heart of Waikiki, a short walk from the beach one way, and the main shopping and restaurant drag the other way. Quite a perfect location for anyone wanting to be close to the action, but far enough to be away from any danger or noise from the bars on Lewers Street.
I tried one of the cafes Mea suggested on the first morning, and luckily, it couldn't have been more up my alley. I can highly recommend checking out Nathan and the lovely staff at Cream Pot for a quality breakfast. We went there three times!
Very quickly Mea figured out that we were after the best that Waikiki had to offer in terms of local experiences amongst the strong tourist presence, and her well-considered and friendly text messages throughout our stay with amazing suggestions that always hit the mark.
But perhaps the best memory of our stay for myself was when a storm hit a few nights into our trip (some of the locals we spoke to afterward said it was the worst one they'd seen in 35 years). Mea sent a message to us as soon as she could, asking how we were and if she could help us in any way. While we were absolutely fine, we appreciated the kind gesture - it was above and beyond the responsibilities of an airbnb host, and made us feel safe and looked after so far away from home.
Any thoughts of staying at a hotel or resort are now distant, misguided memories from a different era - airbnb is the only choice for quality, affordable local and overseas accommodation with personalised customer service from elite hosts such as Mea that cannot be matched.