Ahi Hale — Hotel in Hawaii

What I liked: The location was great for the 0415 wake-up for the 0445 departure for the airport (KOA). The 5-mile drive this early in the morning took only about 13 minutes. This is the only reason I would recommend staying here or refer anyone to pay to stay here. I liked that the room I stayed in (B) had a key to unlock it, not a keypad The owner communicated well and I appreciated phone the call to confirm my arrival time.||||What I really disliked: There was no mention that I would have a shared bathroom. Also, the property inside was very filthy and quite frankly, disgusting. I observed only the kitchen area, shared bathroom and bedroom where I stayed. Here’s what I saw: ||—stainless steel kitchen sink appeared not to have been cleaned in weeks. Grime around the edges of the sink with small bits of food debris in the sink strainer-food catcher device. There was no product under the sink to even clean it. ||—the trash can was full to the top; the lid with the flip cover was filthy; noted ants crawling around trash can ||—the stove top was filthy; the drip catchers under the electric burners could have used several go-around of oven cleaner to clean them (or perhaps the cleaning person wrap them in foil?)||—the bathroom floor was totally neglected; hair in the corners from (multiple?) past guests; truly disgusting ||—sink was filthy with hair in it as well ||—mirror had debris on it (from flossing?); This Was Repulsive. Period ||—the apparatus behind the toilet holding the extra toll of toilet paper was super dusty and grimy; months of neglect? ||—used Kleenex / tissue on floor beside trash can; the floor was dusty, unswept||—shower had excessive amounts of soap residue (from shampoo and soft-soap bottles) on the flat areas in the corners where products are placed; dark hairs in shower (yuck)||—I questioned whether the sheets on the bed were clean...||—bedroom had two wobbly lamps; one did not work, even when switching out the lightbulb from the operational lamp. Replace them with some that work reliably||—grime marks on outside of door above, around and below the door knob - if they’re noticeable, they really should be cleaned off. ||||Finally, later on in the evening after I arrived, there was a terrible mix-up with two Russian guests who had arrived (English was not their first / primary language); after 10-12 minutes of hearing noises downstairs and outside with no one coming in, I went outside and downstairs to assist them. I did a little translating and explaining for them, and offered to help them find their room. The owner really messed up their reservation!! The first room they were told was theirs had guests sleeping in the bed after the keypad was used to open the door. Terrible. The second room opened had clothes strewn all over the bed. Obvi someone already rented this room as well.||||My recommendation? The owner needs to look at every room rented out as well as the living space. Would she pay to stay there? Seriously doubt it. Every room needs to as clean as acceptable by a commercial facility. This property needs thorough, daily cleaning after guests. It was NOT worth the $130+ I was charged...

Spend the extra money, and don’t stay here. While we found the place to be tidy and comfortable, the communication and listing were entirely unhelpful and inaccurate. While we got the “private studio” it was essentially a master bedroom within a shared apartment with other guests who did not know it was a shared space. We had an a awkward moment running into them in the living space with a “ugh we didn’t realize other people were staying here” which was awkward and could’ve been avoided with better communication. The landlord did not have the room ready, and we had to hunt her down in order to get the room code (which we got several different codes for and had to follow up continuously until getting the correct information). I called her about an hour after our check in time was supposed to be ready to confirm the room number and code and she told me we were “free to go now, but she would be by to clean it up in 30 minutes or so”. Again the room was already supposed to be ours at this point, but had not been cleaned or prepared. When we got there, two and a half hours after our check in time, when she told us the room would be ready, no towels were provided and the trash can was still full from previous guests and the shower was clearly untouched as well. The comforter smelt of smoke, and the smoke detector had been removed from the wall entirely. She gave two different room codes on the phone, and I had a bad feeling about it, so I texted her to confirm, and she gave me two totally different codes. The building is not very well marked either. Later on, we went out for the evening, and upon returning the driveway was totally packed with cars! Very confused about where they belonged and why. We were worried about noise with all the cars, but it was not disruptive. I texted her to double check about our parking spots, and she responded rather rudely regarding the race of the guests in the back apartment as being the reason for all the cars. The whole experience was just sketchy. If you can, definitely spend a little extra money to stay somewhere else. My husband and I are pretty chill about renting places, we’ve stayed in yurts, tiny houses, cabins, and aren’t complainers. So to write a review such as this is rare! The whole experience was just simply chaotic, if we were to do it again, we would’ve stayed elsewhere. The booking agreement could’ve benefited from more transparency and information so that playing telephone with the landlady wasn’t necessary. Anyhow,...

Stayed 1 nt May 2022 in upstairs room A. We didn't know this upstairs area is akin to a hostel with shared bathroom, livingroom and kitchen. Customer service, communication and housekeeping is very poor. The bathroom was dirty (we wore rubber slippers to shower), an old dirty pair of sandals found in bottom drawer and there was a hole in the wall by the vanity; bedroom was dirty (rubbish from previous occupant found under bed and in the mini frig), bedroom itself is unfinished with unpainted drywall ceiling and walls, no closet doors and some electrical sockets didn't work. Can't speak for the other bedrooms. Bed was comfortable and there's a newish ceiling fan/light (blades were dusty) and miniblinds, a/c unit worked, mini frig in room was handy, nice lanai. Nicely furnished livingroom w/tv, kitchen still needs work and better cleaning (found gecko carcass in middle of kitchen floor). Another tenant stayed in room B, arriving a day before us. She said the place was really dirty when she arrived and spent at least half an hour cleaning it herself. Housekeeping only stayed for 5 minutes. Only 1 bath towel per person, but the housekeeper was found outside the front house and we went over to get add'l bath towels. Hand towels and face towels not supplied. The coded bedroom door lock worked well, though the front door was wide open when we arrived and we weren't given the code for it (got it from the other tenant). The location was decent with off-street parking and wifi. I'd say it's still a work in progress, but just noticed pictures posted on another site from a year ago of the unfinished room A showing progress has not been made in that length of time. Might be okay for larger family on a budget when occupying all 3 upstairs bedrooms and having the space...