Overall, we were happy with our stay at Lucia's place. The condo itself was clean, well appointed, and as advertised, with the pictures doing it justice. We appreciated having a full kitchen and a washer and dryer in the unit. Secured parking was included and while that was a very nice feature, as other reviewer's have noted, it was on the 10th floor and took a substantial amount of time to get in and out of the garage (between 5 and 10 minutes, depending on traffic). Having read those reviews, I didn't initially think it was going to bother me but after several trips up and down, it was annoying.
It was conveniently located downtime with ample shopping within walking distance. We did note that there was a large homeless population in the area, but none of them ever bothered us. The check in instructions given were very detailed and described the process thoroughly, only one problem which is noted below.
On the negative side, the upkeep of the building on the individual floors (not the lobby) didn't feel like a priority and the hallways smelled like the other tenants food. This is out of the hosts control, but was a bit surprising as I walked to the room the first time and not what I expected especially after walking through the lobby.
By far the biggest concern we had with the rental was with our check in process, how it was handled, and the follow up to make it right. Our flight into Honolulu was a late flight, arriving at 10:00pm. We got to the rental shortly thereafter and on leaving our car parked in the loading/unloading zone, I ran up to the room, only to find the combination given for the door didn't work. I tried a separate combination that was also given as they said it had just been changed. That one too didn't work. I went back down to the car to make sure it was ok, before going back up and trying both combinations again, thinking that I maybe did something wrong as I was quite tired after the long trip. Again, neither combination worked.
Back at the car, I called the host to ask them for help getting into the room. They asked me to go back to the room and try both combinations again. I did that for a third time and still couldn't get either to work. I called them back, walked them through what I was trying and they said they would be there in 20 minutes or so. Meanwhile, as we didn't have anywhere to park, we drove around the block for 20 minutes until they arrived and I met them back at the room while my family waited in the car at the loading/unloading zone.
They struggled with the combination themselves for several minutes before unlocking the door and telling me to park in the parking garage by taking a ticket and they would cover it. We parked in the garage in our designated spot on the 10th floor and then proceeded to go to the room. Since they couldn't get the lockbox open, they decided to they had to cut it off the door. This cutting process and the subsequent cleanup was happening as we were trying to get our two little kids to bed after a 7 hour flight and 1.5 hours trying to get into our room. They finally got the lockbox removed, a new one installed, and the mess vacuumed up.
At this point, I thought we were good and were going to be able to go to bed but then they told me that I needed to exit the parking garage and then go back in using the pass which had been locked in the lockbox. They gave me money to pay for the ticket we got when entering. I had to go down the 10 levels, pay the attendant, exit, go around the block, back into the parking garage, use the token, and then back up 10 levels to our parking spot. I was not very happy about that but did it just so that I could go to bed. All told we were able to get our kids to bed a little after 12:30am, 1.75 hours after arriving at the location.
I understand that bad things happen and life doesn't go as planned, but this is what sets the excellent apart from everyone else. Yes, they got us into the room, no it didn't go as planned, but they did come out and get us into the room. What I would hope for in a situation like this is something from them to recognize the inconvenience of the situation and try to go above and beyond to make it right. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. There was no attempt made by the host to make up for it or to show exceptional customer service. I sent an email the following day requesting something and I was given a $20 refund which on a $620 bill, felt insignificant.
This will sound contrived after the experience related above, but all things considered, we were very happy with the rental. If everything goes smoothly and you are not in need of anything while you are there, nothing breaks, and everything works as planned, it will probably be a 5 star rental. In our case, when something didn't go right, they were relatively quick to come and get us into the room, but all of that effort was just to get us back to status quo. My chief concern is that after that very bad first impression, they didn't do anything meaningful to make up for the negative experience that we had. There was a token gesture made, but it had to be requested and it amounted to 3% of the total paid.