The house is very nice and clean. Great view and lanai. Secluded in a golf course community that gives you the false feeling of being safe from intruders. I say “false feeling” because immediately after I left one morning-2 weeks into our stay there-three males in a beat up car pulled up. One came up to the door to see if anyone was home. He was expecting no one. My girlfriend however had stayed behind and when she answered the door he seemed surprised and told her he was selling fruit. He quickly left and as he did, my girlfriend noticed that the bag he was carrying was full of what can only be described as burglary equipment. She saw the end of a blowtorch and other type equipment. Not fruit.
So I guess what I’m saying is that the community looks nice and safe but obviously is not. We left the same day this incident occurred and would never stay again. Maybe if you’re used to thieves or burglars attempting to break into your dwelling this place is for you.
Maybe this was an isolated incident or maybe this kind of thing is common on the big island of Hawaii. I’m told it is but if that’s true, steps should have been taken to prevent such occurrences. Steps such as installing a gate. There is a security system in the place with instructions in the check in binder. Maybe that should have alerted me to the possible risks of staying there. Either way it didn’t prevent the attempt and it certainly didn’t help us feel any safer. I suppose if you armed the system each time you left you might feel a little more secure.
Besides that, there were 2 separate intrusions by workers without any notice being given to us. One was a pool builder who didn’t bother knocking on the door on his way to the back yard. My girlfriend freaked out when she noticed 2 males doing something in the back. We weren’t informed they were coming in anyway through the host or otherwise.
There was also a gardener/landscaper who showed up at the front door to let me know he was gonna be using loud power equipment for the next hour or so. I wasn’t given any notice that he was coming either.
The host is not the owner but a manager and apparently not a very good one. When we originally booked the place she claimed she didn’t charge enough money and attempted to have us cancel the booking over and over again. There was no refund available for a cancelation and she knew that. We told her we couldn’t do it without still being charged but she tried to insist. This went on back and forth for over an hour. We finally ended up paying her the extra money she was demanding. This was a terrible booking experience.
Now I’m waiting to see if I’ll be reimbursed for the time period after we left for fear of safety. We had about 2 weeks left there but obviously couldn’t stay after the first incident I mentioned. Air bnb gave us a $325 3 night hotel allowance which was the least they could have done. I hope I’m reimbursed.