The Pros definitely outweigh the Cons…
When you first enter this spacious studio, the first thing that strikes you is the stunning view of the ocean. You’ll see tall buildings, multi-colored water and a harbor. What is cool is that every wall has a mirror so it looks like you are surrounded by the Pacific which you actually are.
The biggest downside to this building is the unreliable elevators. We stayed there for a week and in that time both elevators stopped working, but not at the same time. We did have to wait sometimes an unusually long time (up to 10 minutes), but eventually one stopped on our floor. Being 25 flights up, taking the stairs was completely out of the question. On a positive note, once you arrive on your floor, it is only a few steps until you’re at the front door of the place which we loved. Also, this is a smoke free building which made those stuffy humid days more tolerable.
There is an AC unit in the side window and it worked great. We kept it off when we were out and then set the timer for it to come on about an hour before returning. Since it is just a studio, we were quite cool and comfortable.
The bed is amazing! It is elevated and going to sleep and waking up, your outside view is stunning! We slept very well. Since we were so high up, we kept our blinds up the entire visit.
Friday evenings, there is about 5-minute fireworks display from a local hotel and we got a personal show from our bed! This unit is nice and quiet too.
Having a parking space in a covered garage was a major plus. Most hotels and stays around there charged for parking or simply did not provide one at all. We wished there had been guest parking for our daughter, but she managed to find some street parking within 10 minutes from our place.
When vacationing, one of the most expensive things is eating out, so we try to do most of our cooking at our place; however, this studio is not really set up for much cooking other than maybe breakfast and snacking. There was a set of knives, but no cutting board could be found? We also would have liked to have had a blender. Scissors would have been nice to have there too for cutting off a few tags and opening food containers.
The refrigerator was huge and so was the freezer! We loved this. We shopped at Costco and the Foodland grocery store for essentials and planned a BBQ on the beach with our daughter that lives on the island.
One of the downfalls, in my opinion, was no dresser drawers for clothes? There are two large drawers in the bathroom, but that was inconvenient and on the bottom. Fortunately, we packed light and had most of our clothes hung up. The closet was very packed with stuff before we even added our clothes, but we managed to make things work. We loved the new washers and dryers on the 4th floor. David, our host, provided a card for us to use and we were able to add $10 for washing and drying our clothes about halfway through our trip. We had to provide our own laundry soap and dryer sheets. The dryers run extremely hot, so make sure to keep the setting on low heat.
The shower was great. With the high humidity, two showers a day seemed to be par for the course. Hot water comes out right away and the water pressure was good.
Past guests have left items like rubbing alcohol, suntan lotions and the like in the bathroom. In the kitchen, there were a variety of spices and some olive oil, popcorn, etc.
Paper towels and toilet paper were supplied. Dishwashing liquid, a new sponge, and kitchen towels, along with bath towels, hand towels and wash cloths were provided along with clean sheets on the bed. It was nice and clean when we arrived. There was also a ton of cleaning supplies too to keep it clean.
There were boogie boards to take to the ocean. We saw a broken beach umbrella in the closet which added to the clutter, but like I said we made it work.
There is a nice size sealed trash can under the kitchen sink. We always made sure to clean our dishes, wipe off the counters and never left food out to make sure we did not attract bugs. We always made sure to sweep the floor in case morsels of food fell. After all, we were on an island and there are bugs. Fortunately, we did not see any live bugs crawling around in our studio!
Waikiki is just over a mile from this unit and we walked there one day. We did take a Lyft back. On our last day, we took a sunset cruise on the Majestic Atlantis and the pier was just over 2 miles away. We did drive to that location. What I’m saying is, this studio location is in a great area. We are thinking of coming next time and not renting a car. Of course, if you are wanting to drive around the island then a car is needed, but if you have been to the island a few times and want to stay local, then don’t waste your money on a car rental. You’ll spend less on Lyfts and have more money for fun things.
All in all, this AIRBNB studio was a gem! David, our host, was very attentive and we appreciated how well taken care of this place was. Honestly, it is a 4 out of 5. If there was a dresser for folded clothes, a little less clutter in the hanging closet, a few more utensils in the kitchen and a more reliable elevator, it would have been a 5.