Let me begin with the good:
The location is great aside from not being beach front. However, in fairness there is a small beach and enough sand in front of this unit then I expected. It’s good enough to go have some fun and will certainly keep the kids busy until you drive to a proper beach. You’re approximately 10 minutes north of famous Ka’anapali Beach and 10 minutes south of Napili beach and D.T. Fleming beach which is a hidden gem. There are numerous restaurants, grocery stores, ABC store, gas station, and food trucks all in walking distance. You’re also walking distance to the farmers market and fish market. You're close to almost everything you need.
The unit is very well stocked with dishes, utensils and supplies. There’s pancake syrup and other basic necessities. Great for making your own banana macadamia pancakes! Another great thing is the fridge has a water dispenser (although not cold/but there is an ice maker), you don’t have to buy water. There’s also a laundry machine.
The unit also had snorkeling equipment, body boards, beach chairs and even kids sand castle play sets for the beach. I’m not certain if the kids toys were mentioned in the description but a good idea so you can leave yours at home. We ended up bringing ours but could have saved the space in our luggage.
Last but not least is the view, it’s wonderful and I think this unit has a better view than most other units because it’s a corner unit so you get the lanai view and the side window view which most other units won’t have. The only draw back is part of your view is the roof of the building next door.
The concerns that I had with the unit are as follows. When we arrived we had check in issues as our 3 keys wouldn’t work. Our second set of new keys also didn’t work and the front desk wasn’t answering the phone so I had to run down 4 flights of stairs again and again (elevator was taking too long) while my family waited outside until they eventually let is in with a master key. Long story short, it wasn’t until the next day that they solved the door locking mechanism. It’s a touch key card. So we were stuck inside unit we were told we can come and go and ask security to let us in when needed. Janelle responded to this issue and called me on the condo phone and tried her best to assist but there wasn’t much she could do about it. She did assure us that this was the first time they ever had such an issue.
Aside from that I had 2 big issues. The first is the unit is listed as having AC but the AC is only in the living room and doesn’t cool the room well let alone the loft upstairs. The ceiling fan is also very weak. The master bedroom has no AC at all and is hot and humid. The ceiling fan in the master bedroom provides little to no wind. There is a standing fan in the bedroom and you can open the windows but it’s still an uncomfortable sleep in the master as well as the loft. Two brand new ceiling fans would help but the unit needs an additional AC in the master to meet the expectations of guests especially in a tropical climate.
The other issue I had was the cleanliness and bathrooms. When we arrived I opened the fridge and there was a huge strand of long hair dangling from inside of the fridge. The downstairs bathroom also had a long hair sitting on top of the nicely laid out towels hanging on the rack. The restroom upstairs isn’t of the same quality as the bathroom below, which isn’t represented well on the photographs but worse was the toilet seat downstairs. It’s terribly stained and I was embarrassed to even allow my family to use it. Frankly it has unacceptable stains embedded in it considering you can but a new soft closing toilet seat at home depot for $18.00 plus tax. Cleaning it won’t help. It needs to be replaced. The baseboards are old, peeling away from the wall with black crud in-between and the bathroom walls have terrible brown stains dripping down that are old stains that look like they have been there for months if not longer. The bathrooms were poorly maintained and don’t live up to the rest of the unit which is nice. A lot of the utensils were not cleaned properly. I took photos of everything but don’t think I can upload them to my review. There was also construction going on next door. Also, keep in mind that the stairs to the loft are very narrow and the cable TV in the unit is terrible. I know we don’t go here to watch TV but when you have kids you may want to play some cartoons and the cable isn't easy to turn on and changing channels takes forever.
FYI I did ask for an additional hour to check out but didn’t hear back from the host. I was hoping to explain all of these things to the host upon check out but didn’t hear back from her so I informed the front desk prior to checking out. I did eventually hear from the host and was offered a partial refund.
The place has a wonderful view, location is very good but I would not stay here again nor would I recommend this place if it does not have proper AC and if the bathrooms are not maintained. If the AC, ceiling fans and bathrooms are addressed, I think this would be a superb place.