Kauai can be pretty expensive - especially when it comes to stays, so when we stumbled upon Stephanie’s place - we thought it was absolutely perfect! Especially for a big group of us who were in town for a wedding.
I made the booking and a month before our stay - I submitted a request to stay a night early, which was immediately approved. When my partner and I arrived to Kauai, we followed our check-in instructions and arrived to the place at 1:30pm (check in time is “after 1”). When we walked into the house, we were immediately taken aback, as there were a set of slippers/flip-flops at the bottom of the steps, which looked like it had just been taken off in a hurry. After removing our own shoes and walked up the stairs to look at the rest of the house - we were shocked to see that the houses was in disarray - as if a party had just taken place. We contacted Stephanie right away about our findings and after she had spoken with the cleaners, she informed us that the cleaners had gotten our arrival date wrong and therefore did not have the house cleaned and ready for our arrival.
We were a little annoyed, as we had picked up lunch and were looking forward to enjoying it on their beautiful balcony. Nevertheless, we understood that mistakes happen, and so we decided to have lunch on the beach. Stephanie was not only quick to respond to our messages, she was very understanding that our vacation had been disrupted due to this delay, and therefore refunded us that night’s stay, which was appreciative. We informed Stephanie that we had a luau planned for that evening and were hoping to shower and get ready before the event. However, the house wasn’t ready in time, so my partner and I had to quickly change in the car and make do for the luau. As the luau was coming to an end - I reached out to see if the house was acceptable for us to stay in or if we needed to find a hotel for the night. Luckily, Dawn was able to respond to our messages right away and gave us the okay.
After a long and exhausting day, we finally arrived to our airbnb excited to shower and get into bed. We inspected the bedrooms and undid the covers to the master bedroom and what we found was disturbing. At first we saw some stains on the sheets, and although annoyed - we decided to just quickly rewash it. However, when we peeled back the sheets - what was uncovered down to the mattress was absolutely repulsive. Both the mattress cover and the mattress itself were covered in multiple large stains. We contacted Stephanie right away, as well as airbnb support. Due to time changes (Stephanie was in the mainland) Stephanie was unable to reply immediately. Airbnb support listened to our frustrations, and helped guide us in the right direction. With it being so late at night at this point, and hotels being so costly - airbnb agreed to cover our hotel room charge that exceeded our 1 night’s stay of our airbnb.
The next day we awoke to Stephanie’s messages - apologizing and asking for a second chance to make it all right. I would like to make note that this review is based solely on the place and not against the hosts - Stephanie and Dawn. Stephanie especially - worked diligently to resolve the issues as quickly as possible. She being thousands of miles away was able to coordinate in such a quick and timely manner - the delivery of new mattresses and bed sheets - all before noon. We found it weird that new pillows weren’t also ordered - considering all the ones there are old and stained, so we just ended up buying our own. Stephanie had good customer service and gave us 50% off our entire stay as well.
After that hiccup in the beginning, my friends and I had a decent stay overall. The house has a beautiful deck with an incredible view. A few things in the hose are a bit outdated and can use an upgrade. The house needs a deep clean; more time could be spent with detailed cleaning between guests (hairs from previous guests found in showers/bedding, as well as a moldy wooden spoon found in dishwasher). We were told the pull out couch was fairly new, so we did not inspect it. However, when our friends pulled it out to make their bed, there were visible stains on the mattress protector. The ‘air conditioner’ is not a central unit, but rather window units in each bedroom, so the house got rather hot and humid.
Again, to reiterate, this review and rating is based more on the house and experience, and not against the accommodating hosts. In all, although Stephanie was great - we would not stay again