This rental is exactly as advertised.
Location: North Ka'anapali Beach area. We have never stayed this far north before. I personally like to be down closer to Whaler's Village, but the location of Honua Kai is still pretty great. It's about a 10 minute drive down to Lahaina and less than 5 to Whalers. Just north of the resort is a shopping plaza with a breakfast restaurant, grocery store, pizza, urgent care, snorkel rental and a few other shops.
Check-In: is 4pm, no exceptions it seems. I don't think this is in the property manager's control entirely. You will simply check-in with the valet guys, and I got the impression it is the resort itself that has a strict 4pm policy unless the property manager gives approval. They say you can't use the facilities until you have your wristband, but there's nothing stopping you from going to the beach or a pool. You just wouldn't be able to get towels. We used valet services the whole time. It's gratuity-only, no additional fixed charge. Tip them well because they hustle and seem to run the place! Self-park is underground and valet can give you a parking pass to open the gate.
Towels: you will use the brown towels that you access from various kiosks on the property. They are "checked out" to you and you return them at the kiosks as well. There is a charge for unreturned towels, so make sure you keep track and return all of them! There is no limit on how many you can have at any one time. We used them for showers too since there's no maid service to replenish the indoor towels.
Resort: this resort has a LOT of families with little kids. If that's not your thing, then move along. We have 18-20 year olds and it was fine for us. There is one "quiet" pool that stayed quiet the whole time. The resort is large. The tower this condo is located in, Hokulani, has a small coffee shop/bistro-type store. The other tower, Konea, has a general store with the typical resort-shop items.
Beach: the beach directly in front has a lot of coral. If you go left/south on the beach not very far, there is a much sandier area for swimming. We snorkeled from here and saw a lot of great fish and even sea turtles right out in front of the resort. Can't beat that!
Duke's: Duke's restaurant is right on-site. They take reservations well in advance (at least 2-3 months) so we made reservations for almost every day just in case and cancelled them as our plans changed. Walk-up tables are available but I would hear anywhere from 15 minutes to a 90 minute wait. They also do carry-out from the side of the building which was perfect on a few occasions. Poolside service is spotty. I think this is the result of staffing issues. Most days it seemed there were only 2 servers, so if you want to order poolside, catch them every time you see them.
Condo: the condo is exactly as pictured in the listing. It was clean. The location is near an elevator so very convenient. Read through all the instruction carefully. Everything you need to know is spelled out clearly if you take the time to read. The washer and dryer are much smaller than you would expect, so plan accordingly and do smaller loads more frequently. There was soap and dryer sheets as well as cleaning tools if needed. The kitchen was stocked with lots of dishes and cooking utensils. There's even a small spice rack and a large bottle of olive oil. Take inventory before you go shopping. We had no issues with the ice maker. It's not a huge ice maker, so if your family requires lots of ice, buy a bag or two to have on hand or use the ice machine in the underground parking garage. The closet has 3 boogie boards, beach cooler, bag, toys, etc...a good start so check it out before buying or renting anything. We stayed in June and the patio never got sun or heated up the unit, so I think that's a winter thing with the angle of the sun each day. The condo stayed nice and cool at all times. The a/c does go off automatically if the patio doors are open. The beds are super comfortable. We all slept great the entire time!!
Overall, we had a great stay at Honua Kai. This is a legit AirBNB rental, and you can feel confident in getting exactly what the listing advertises!