A host should be rated on their ability to handle situations and accommodate when their guests are inconvenienced. This is probably the the most beautiful Airbnb I’ve stayed at, but the worst customer service I’ve experienced in my years of booking through this app. My family of 9 reserved the Kumu compound months in advanced because it promised AC, it was a dealbreaker for us so we were willing to pay the extra money over our budget to stay here. Dan let me know a little before check in that the AC unit was broken. It was disappointing but I understood because things happen, I had to remind him of how important AC was. My family was very uncomfortable that night. He tried to get it fixed but when the unit failed again no solutions were presented. There was also no timeline presented to me for when it would be working again.
I shouldn’t even have to explain that my sister is pregnant for them to understand that since they advertised AC as an amenity that it should be provided. We did not expect to be uncomfortable during our stay. We paid them a lot of money. So we offered reasonable solutions. We asked for partial credit for the days the AC was out. He said no. We asked for temporary portable units (that he could use in the future if this ever happened again). He said no. He said that if the conditions were unsatisfactory for us, that we should all leave the next morning. He asked a family of 9 to leave and find another place to stay on an island where everything is already booked for the month of July as an appropriate solution. I was really offended at this point and contacted Airbnb, they said we met the conditions for a refund and that they would be taking care of the situation moving forward. They also apologized for him and said that it was a poor reflection of their company’s standards.
It was my moms birthday. My 5 siblings flew in from different states. We do not get to spend time or vacation together like this at all. I worked really hard to make this a special experience for everyone and I’m very disappointed that they spent a lot of money and prepared for this trip, just to be uncomfortable.
If you offer an amenity that lots of people search for and want to use on a hot and humid island, please have spare parts ready so it can be fixed or have portable cooling units available for back up. AC units fail all the time and if you’re charging an arm and leg for this amenity, it should be provided to your guests. Anything else in the house could’ve been broken (the dishwasher, the TV, the toilet, etc) but it was something that we were specifically looking for during our search.
I felt that Dan did not care about me or my family. He did not care if we were comfortable or not. And he did not care about our experience overall. It is easy to get good ratings when things don’t go wrong and you rarely have to interact with the host. I hope nobody has to go through this. I’m really not one to complain or write reviews like this, but I’m just being honest.