I would not recommend this location. If you read prior reviews, you’ll find a lack of accountability and scapegoating. But whatever, here’s my review:
This place is not safe nor is it clean. If only I could upload all the mildew, the thick layers of visible dust, broken cupboards, broken tile, and broken elevator light.
I reported the broken lights outside of the penthouse elevator. Imagine coming out of the top layer of a residential area to pitch black. It was especially dark because the left was a hall that ended! You could walk and fall off the 4 ft rails and down 6 stories of the courtyard, too. This host told me that he would contact the building manager to look into it. When I touched base with him again, he told me that I should’ve stopped at the front desk to get it fixed. I’m visiting Hawaii on vacation and not staying indoors all day, so obviously I was not around. Not to mention that he had already said he would contact them. Eventually we got the issue fixed but 2/3 nights we didn’t have light. The host also told me and my group of girls had no reason to feel like our safety is threatened.
We had an issue with the TV not playing sound. The host’s solution was “try unmuting.” I’m not stupid. That was not the issue. I had to unplug and turn off the cable box to reset. He said “there shouldn’t be issues because we had family stay there before you left.”
Upon entry there was a broken tile, cut a triangle in the middle. BIG safety concern. Someone could’ve cut their foot. Told the host and he said “the person who stayed there before you dropped a plate and broke the tile. There wasn’t enough time to get it fixed.”
The showers we had still had brown hair in the drain when we arrived. Tons of black mold on the glass shower doors. When I reported this I was told “The cleaning crew didn’t have enough time because you wanted early check-in.” Mind you, I requested early check-in since standard check-in was 4pm. When I showed up at 3:30, the key was available which I was told signified the place was ready. When I got to the front door of our AirBnB, the cleaning crew were literally leaving. They weren’t planning to clean it anyway.
During my second to last night there, I mentioned to the host that I was unhappy with the quality of our stay because I felt like I had been ripped off the $377 cleaning fee. He basically said “You can check-out tomorrow at 10am and we’ll refund you the difference.” This was at 8pm! I wish I’d taken him up on the offer but that was not enough time to find a new place and we already had morning plans for our last full day so it wouldn’t have worked for us. I can’t believe I spent >$750 per night. Felt like a rip off. Would’ve been happier spending the same amount at a hotel.
The host also gave me a long excuse about how everything is so expensive in Hawaii and can’t afford good cleaning crew because something about blaming Biden?
There were cupboards in the kitchen that are broken when we got there. Hope this doesn’t fall on anyone’s face. I basically gave up and didn’t bother to report it.
The above were all issues which the host CAN control.
There are other pros/cons to the location, not to the fault of the host:
-big windows but NO privacy which means all the tenants in the next building can and probably are watching you
-parking is in another building resulting in a 3-5 minute walk or a couple street lights down. Spaces are a tight squeeze (decent pricing though)
-air conditioning works in the bedrooms but you are responsible for manually emptying the bucked when it gets full
-laundry in unit is a plus
-no rice cooker in kitchen
-no drinking water filter in kitchen
-both showers have stairs to climb up/down for entry
-lastly, check-in is 4pm standard. They will not hold your luggage. The nearby hotels won’t do it either. If you get there early, you’ll need to pay $8 per luggage to store your luggage a block away at a nearby shop. Just something to keep in mind.
All in all, it was an option to keep my group together but ultimately if I were to re-do this trip, I would listen to the other reviewers and stay in a hotel instead.
3 stars from me.