The place was nice. Right on the water. Beautiful views. Didn’t see any whales, or seals but there were plenty of people snorkeling off of boats along the edge of the reef. We took this trip out to Oahu for two reasons, one to celebrate my birthday which was on the day after we arrived. The other reason was to have a surprise proposal picnic for my girlfriend (now fiancé). I hired one of those luxury picnic companies, a private chef, and photographer and I thought that this Airbnb with its amazing yard that faces the ocean would be the perfect spot for it. Boy was I wrong. When I reached out to Jerri to ask if it would be okay to have this small intimate picnic there at the property, she, without hesitation declined my request and suggested we do it down at Makaha surf beach. That should have been my first clue as to the type of host i was dealing with. If you know anything about Makaha and other local spots, these beaches tend to be for locals and are full of homeless…..so it’s probably not a good idea to set something up like this at the beach here in Makaha. No problem, I just reached out to the picnic people and they found us a beautiful site in the North Shore. Then, the day after I proposed to my fiancé , my parents flew into town to congratulate us. However, when we entered the Airbnb that we picked for them down in Waikiki, it turned out to look nothing like the one that was advertised on Airbnb’s website. It was dirty, smelled bad and I literally felt like we got “Catfished”. There was no way on earth I was going to allow my parents to stay at that place. Knowing Jerri had several other units on her property, I reached out to her and Richard to see if we could rent one of the other units for my elderly parents (ages 70 and 73 years old). She declined my request. Hey no problem….our place sleeps 4 people. We figured we could just bring my parents back with us since it was getting late, they were tired after flying from Nevada (6 hours) and having to spend almost three hours getting the run around from the host of their Airbnb down in Waikiki….oh, and they were starving. I just wanted to get them off the street and figure out their next move in the morning. Boy was I wrong! Jerri straight up had a temper tantrum and basically accused me of trying to sneak my parents into the place. She literally screamed at us from her balcony that looks over the rear yard. She straight up ignored my parents when they tried to say hello to her. I couldn’t believe what i was seeing. After spending nearly three hours trying to get my parents situated and then paying nearly $5K to stay at Jerri’s place, i would have expected a little bit of compassion for their situation but Jerri would have none of that and took on an attitude as if someone was trying to take advantage of her. After paying almost $5k to stay at her place and seeing how my parents weren’t even welcome to be there, and the look of complete humiliation on their faces, I think the only person who got taken advantage of was me. Not to mention, that when she was screaming at us from her balcony, I offered to give her an additional $1,000USD right there on the spot and she said, “No! It’s not about the money” and proceeded to tell me that the place was only set up for two people. I’m not even sure what that means because the place sleeps four people. I literally couldn’t believe her attitude. The place was nice but after seeing how uncomfortable she made my parents feel, we went and stayed at another Airbnb in the much nicer north shore area. I gladly paid an additional $5k to stay somewhere else where my fiancé, parents and i were much more comfortable in a much nicer place with amazing host. Oh and by the way, Makaha is full of homeless and junkies…..did I mention that already?
P.S. I absolutely would never stay here again and would never recommend anyone I know to stay here. It’s nice but it ain’t that nice.