I would call this booking a comedy of errors if it had been funny. We booked sort of last minute and found two separate condo units for our 8 night stay, this one for our last 3 nights. This was only my second time booking through AirBnB, usually I’ve done VRBO. As a rule, I have my notifications off on most of my apps because I find it too distracting to get anything done (I have ADHD). The week after I booked the rentals, I went to Chicago for brain scans and to try to get help for my increasing mental health issues. While there I didn’t check any emails (I’m a stay at home mom and sporadic relief worker). As soon as I returned I saw several messages from Kurtis about paying the extra $ for tax and give him my email so he can email me the condo instructions. He states he excludes to “help us” even though AirBnBs states that they don’t tax tax. I also noted on every listing to not give anyone your personal email, only communicate through app. So my inner alert is going off and I tell him I will pay after checking it out upon my return home the next day. So now it has escalated to AirBnB resolution center and he messages me again the next day (before I have returned home) that he is getting pressured to cancel my booking because I haven’t paid the small tax even though I said I would do it and explained why I hadn’t yet. I checked it out, realized after reading through many listings I hadn’t read it thoroughly and remembered that this one asked for an extra charge (go figure). I apologize and tell him I’m trying to pay but at this point it’s frozen and I can’t see where to do it. It takes another day for resolution center to send me an active link to pay through. Meanwhile Kurtis messages me again to tell me how difficult I am and how he has never had this kind of trouble with anyone before. How I ghosted him (I explained about not having notifications on, and not realizing I needed them on or that there would be another charge, and I was out of town trying to focus on my brain health, but wanted to resolve it, and I had already apologized twice), how he has never had this kind of problem with anyone else and maybe we should just cancel the booking. At this point it’s a week before we depart. We’ve already paid over $1,200 for 3 nights and it’s only under an additional $200. So then he messages back saying maybe we should start over, even though I’ve been difficult he would still like me to have a good vacation. Insulting me before graciously wanting to start over. How nice of him. For the record, I too have never had an issue like this. Because everyone else’s listing I’ve stayed in over the past 10 years has included taxes in the original payment. I don’t use email daily, and never when I’m away from home, unless I know to expect an email. Also, everyone else just gives info on door code and special instructions through the app. Why does he need my email? So this was Kurtis. We (not surprisingly) had another snafu when we left our luggage in the office when switching between condos, not realizing they close at 5 pm. Doreen kindly told us we could call Scott? the building manager after hours to get our luggage out. We arrived at 9 pm after watching the sunset at Haleakala and dinner in Paia. He was incredibly rude and angry (and seemed drunk) to both me and my husband and said he would charge us or our host $100 due to the lateness of the hour. We of course apologized and I laughed it off in the end because, I just thought this place maybe attracts people like that. He texted the next morning and apologized to us for his behavior and said he doesn’t like our host and was taking it out on us. Ok. Weird.
For the space: it’s fine. Furniture is a bit dated. Carpet is dirty and stained. It was about 95* when we entered and there was a very strong musty smell that diminished over time but was overwhelming when we arrived and was hard to take. Kurtis did sent someone to clean up musty smell (next day mid-afternoon) but where would I have him clean? I didn’t know where the smell was coming from only that is was everywhere. I didn’t see any mold, but it could be in window frames, washing machine pipes or something else, who knows? I have a very sensitive nose, but my husband who usually can’t smell a thing commented on it first, so I knew it was bad. Lanai is small and really hot as the living room AC unit blows hot air directly out there. My kids and husband liked that the unit was roomy and had tall ceilings. It’s a bit back from the beach (fourth building from main road), but there is still a nice view of the ocean from living room. The lanai had a closet with snorkel gear, beach chairs, boogie boards, and other beach gear. Unit only has 4 beach towels. Bathrooms are updated nicely. I wanted to leave immediately upon being confronted by the mustiness, but after cranking the AC up, opening up windows and having bathroom fans going the entire stay it kept the smell to a minimum. This place wouldn’t be my first choice and I would try to find a different place. But if there weren’t other options available I would stay there again and just have my husband do the communication as he has much thicker skin than me. Yesterday while getting out at airport, I had to again message Kurtis as my husband brought