To be blunt, this was a pretty awful experience. I hate being negative, but I don’t want anything we went through to happen to anyone else.
We were beyond excited to arrive in Hawaii, and excited that we were going to be able to travel the island of Oahu in a converted van. When we arrived, Titus informed us he wouldn’t be ready until 4pm (which is normal for Airbnb check-in time anyway) because he was inspecting the van to make sure it was good for us to use. Which we appreciated. So, we took a $70 Uber to his address around 4:15pm. He then sent a message saying he had a few other things to do before he would be back. So we waited on the curb for a bit, until he sent another message asking if we could meet him at another location. We didn’t want to spend more on an Uber, so we asked him if he could just meet us at the original address given on Airbnb. After waiting on his curb for 2 hours, he finally arrived. We were just so excited to be here, we didn’t say anything about that. Titus was very nice and showed us the van and all of its features. When we left his address and started the car, there were multiple lights on the dashboard (the battery light, check engine, maintenance required, and another I didn’t recognize). I figured since he had just been inspecting the van for the 2 hours we were waiting, this maybe had something to do with the modifications of the van-I know, rookie mistake on my part, but I’m a 22 year old girl what the hell do I know. I figured if it was on Airbnb’s website, it wouldn’t be a sketchy situation. The second day we were in the van, the AC started blowing hot air. After we went on a hike, we were heading back to Honolulu to get to the ocean. During this drive back, the ABS light came on, and shortly after that the speedometer started going wild. I started to freak out but luckily my boyfriend was driving. He knew we were going to break down. After this light came on, the entire dash board flashed and then everything completely shut down. We were lucky enough to (barely) turn into the parking lot of a residency. We crookedly ended up in someone’s parking space, and we’re informed by the manager of the residency that we weren’t allowed to park there. But the steering wheel was locked and the car wouldn’t even tick. It was completely shot. Obviously we called Titus and he answered and we informed him of the situation. He said he was going to call his mechanic and get back to us. At this point we were hot and freaking out a bit because we had no idea where the hell we were and my boyfriends phone was dead and mine was on low battery. After going back and forth with Titus for about 1.5 hours, we had given up. He offered to Uber us somewhere, but where were we supposed to go? Our transportation was shot, and our stay was shot. We still had 6 more nights in Oahu and had to figure out where we were going to stay. Everything was super expensive since it was so last minute. Titus never showed up, so we told him we were just going to leave the van there and find a hotel to walk to (with all of our luggage, surfboards, ect). So, we got a hotel room which was about double the cost of the Airbnb we booked, and we’re 22 years old so it’s not like we have money to burn. We spent almost a year saving up for this trip and ended up having to spend a lot more than planned. We had no transportation for the remainder of our trip and ubers in Hawaii are extremely expensive. So our plans were kinda shattered.
This van should NOT have been up to rent. We were put in a dangerous situation and it could’ve been a lot worse if we decided to go on the far hike we originally planned on going that day! Being broken down in unfamiliar territory is scary! Especially with no plan B. Clearly all that time we were sitting on the curb, the van wasn’t being inspected as it should’ve been. I don’t know what he was doing during that time but he screwed us pretty hard. This was a once in a lifetime vacation and it ended up a train wreck. I hate being the Karen but I’m just being straight up, this was an awful decision. Please please please if you’re planning a trip here, just get a hotel and a rental car, or go through someone else. Titus was very kind vocally, but his actions clearly show he doesn’t care about his customers because if he was renting out to family or friends, I highly doubt he would’ve rented out this van without getting it checked by a mechanic. I honestly don’t think Airbnb should continue to advertise his vans because it was not in the condition to be rented out to anyone.