Aeolian Ranch — Hotel in Hawaii

I love choosing based on reviews and after spending the night here with my husband, I find it completely unfair that people have rated this place so low based on their own personal assumptions of what a "ranch" means. If you know you know. Ranch does not every mean or equal "luxury" literally anywhere unless your going down to Texas where they have those fancy ranch resorts lol anyway so our impressions were the following.

Hotels in the area were super expensive im taking 250 dollars or up, to get a decent one anyway so when we found this little 143 dollar gem we were super excited. The reviews were off putting but decided to take the risk and glad we did!

Unlike other people who left reviews we actually read their full property description which mentions the shared shower, communal area, no children under 12 allowed, etc. So we were already prepared for all these things that others seem to find surprising when they arrive.

We were greeted by the wife owner and it was already dark. It's a place where no shoes are used and they have you take them off inside. People complained about the dirtiness, I paid special attention to this so called dirtiness, it's basically foot traffic over time, but when you walk around barefoot, your feet are not dirty so that means it's just faded naturally overtime because of foot traffic, not that it's "dirty"

2nd the room was very accommodating and simple, sheets were clean and smelled clean, bed was made, mattress was comfy. Our bed frame seems like it was broken in the middle, but it was one of those steel ones so seems it was just bent a bit. We still slept good and the mattress was comfy.

The restroom was clean, the shower was clean. The restroom and shower have a camp feel to it because it's sort of like out in the open but covered at the same time if that makes sense. Which reminded me of my grandma's ranch.

Anyway, the room didn't have a TV but it wasn't needed, best part was opening window and the side porch we had so we could sleep to rainforest sounds. This place was nice.

If you want to feel like your in a regular hotel then don't get this place, if your a nature lover. You will love the accommodations and spectacular views.

Great price, great people, and a big mahalo for everyone that took the...

This is the worst place to stay that I have ever experienced in 40 years. I would say this place is like a real life experience of daunte's inferno. To begin you are treated with a beautiful yard and ocean view. After a few hours of relaxing and charging my credit card the owners informed me that I needed to leave and find a different hotel because my child was under 12. At 10pm at night I tried to get ahold of a car service to bring me to another hotel. I was unable to find one that late on the big island. The owners still insisted I needed to leave. I called Priceline and was hung up on 5 times and finally was told the owner was refusing to refund my money so they were not able to help me! I don't understand who thinks putting a 6 year old out in the rain is something you should do and then try and keep the money as well. After the owner refused to refund the money I was not leaving so they called the police to have me arrested! Luckily the other tenants and the police were all great people and told me to go to sleep and the renter could not kick me out after collecting the money. Once this was over I tried to calm my traumatized daughter down because she was certain I was going to go to jail. After calming her down I got up to get a drink of water and had to brush multiple cockroaches aside to get a drink and I decided I would go without water. If all this was not horrific enough I then climbed into a bed which felt more akin to a medieval rack than a bed. I guess it will make for a...

What a splendid way to enjoy authentic simple communal living! Get away from it all part way up the mountain where the temperatures are 10-15° cooler. The ranch is gated but unlocked, so you can get out of the car and open it, then get back in and drive through. Just be sure to close it afterwards, but don’t lock it. The communal nature was enhanced by being made to remove our shoes in favor of house slippers to be worn in the rooms, hallways, and communal kitchen, shower, and bathroom. The communal shower and separate bathroom were right across the hallway from our room, as was the unenclosed sink. One thing though, there are many small steps between the areas, and our room was a fairly large step down from the hallway, so one could easily forget about that and stumble upon entering. One doesn’t go to Hawaii to watch tv, so the lack of a tv in the room is no problem. There is Wi-Fi though, so one can search online for restaurants that deliver. There are no meal options here. Do not be fooled if you see references to this online or along the way as a “Bed and Breakfast.” There is no breakfast aside from a Keurig and breakfast bars. In that way this is more like a rustic commune or rustic hostel than a bed and breakfast or certainly a hotel. The owners were very friendly, and their emailed directions were very concise. Only two stars though, because our room wasn’t ready at 6pm after we had traveled 18 hours...