Secret Falls Retreat — Hotel in Kauai

I'm writing this so I can save you the time, just stay and book somewhere else. ||||Where to begin.. from the start of trying to book our stay, the communication was seriously lacking, and you could tell the main motivation here is $$$, not the well being of their customers.||||After awaiting a response from my initial inquiries, the first request from Darcy was to Venmo her $200. I felt uncomfortable, as maybe it could be a scam.. I don't know her, this isn't a business account I'm Venmoing, this is a single person. There's no receipt, no email confirmation, nothing, just please Venmo me for your stay. I get the need to put down a deposit, but a legit business can take your credit card, or maybe have a Zelle account set up for their business, not a personal Venmo account. Plus, would be nice to have an actual confirmation or receipt of the booking. But there was none of that.||||Okay, so we get to the retreat to first pick up our rental car from them, looks a little shady.. the place is run down, there is "stuff" everywhere, dogs everywhere, chickens in cages, not to mention a litter of pitbull puppies.. but the view, the view truly is something else, so that is what made us think "okay, we'll try to give this place a go."||||Fast forward 3 days, and it's time for our stay at secret falls (they didn't have any openings for our first 3 days of vacay, so we stayed elsewhere). the whole day Darcy kept texting us, don't forget your payment is due in full, in CASH. no where beforehand did she mention that we would be paying for the room in cash, we never agreed to that, she just assumed that we would pay in cash and then demanded it. plus, being so adamant about paying in cash is just weird! again, no receipts, no confirmations, nothing. ||||so still, we arrive, and we're excited about the view at least, and the nearby waterfall. we get there, we go down to the waterfall asap, because it's just not comfortable "chilling" at the property or in the room, with the whole family around (4 kids), with the rental car business taking place in our area, with the pitbull puppies, the chickens, so we go straight to nature to try and breathe! think you'd do the same..||||we get back from our hike (mind you it's straight through the jungle), we're hot, messy, dirty, and we just want to relax, get clean and have a nice night. but we get to the room and we cannot relax.. there's no AC and it is just SO hot in the front rooms that they put you in (which btw, are right above the garage, so you can hear everything), there are ants all over the kitchen, the power actually went out, so there was no electricity, there are stains on the carpet, the couch, it's just not kept up and NOT COMFORTABLE. ||||We expressed that we were not comfortable, and we wanted to leave. Darcy still DEMANDED money from us, and THEN runs to her car, to block the driveway so that WE CANNOT LEAVE THE PREMISE! I have a picture of it, she literally blocked us in, until we PAID HER CASH. And now, she is keeping the deposit for our car, which has nothing to do with our stay, and she is claiming that she cannot provide our paperwork or receipts or ANYTHING, as "they are destroyed for privacy purposes," which why would that be the case unless you're doing something you're not supposed to be doing.||||It was just SO uncomfortable, unpleasant and unprofessional (and actually still is, we are still trying to get our deposit back for the rental car). I hope no one has to go through this experience. The owners here only care about MONEY and not people and certainly not your wellbeing. ||||I hate that I had to write this review, but it really needed to be done. I am going to be contacting the county, the BBB and more about this place because this is NOT a bed and breakfast or a retreat and should never call...

Before choosing this place I looked and did my research for weeks. After calling and speaking to Darcy I decided to chose this since she was very nice and informative over the phone. ||||Forward to when we arrived: pulled up and it was defiantly not what we expected, no biggie I wanted something different. Darcy and Tim were both welcoming and Darcy showed up to our rooms, we had booked two of them. I must admit the view is amazing. The rooms were ok, nothing fancy but it worked. It was really hot during the day but did cool down at night. There were fans in the rooms we had directly on us all night. Really the only down fall with the rooms were the bugs, bugs everywhere at night, we kept having to wipe them off our bed and would feel then crawling on us at night also bugs in the outside bathroom. We chalked it up as where it was located. ||||The next morning we woke up pretty early as our normal time was 5 hours before. We felt pretty awkward like we were Intruding and felt we had to be as quite as possible. It pretty much like that the 4 nights we stayed. We made sure we stayed gone all day so when we went back we went to bed. Except out last night we enjoyed the eve there by the pool while my son played with river and the little girl that was staying with her family, that was nice. ||||I had to ask for towels twice and felt like I was putting them out. We just felt like we weren't very welcome there or they just didn't like us. Who knows. All we did was just be polite and do our own thing. My husband even suggested we leave and get a room. I wanted different and this defiantly was. ||||Last!!! What really gets me. Upon leaving I left my hanging clothes there and when I realized it I immediately let them know, it was the same day. Unfortunately I had already left the island. It has been months since I left and they have been giving me the run around and refuse to mail mail my clothes. I offered to pay Venmo, send a pre paid shipping label, and even have a friend on the island pick it up. I get that it's my fault but how can a business run like this. Someone spends a lot of money and chose their place but refuse to go the extra mile and just mail items that was left behind. Unbelievable!!! My daughter jokes and says that they like them so much and wanted to keep them why else would they not mail them back!!! ||||I will never refer anyone to stay here. I believe In honesty through and through and this just lacks!! Not just take my money and the costumer service goes out...

My girlfriend and I stayed here for 3 nights and had an amazing experience. You're in a beautiful "in-law suite" and contrary to what one reviewer said, we heard zero noise from the garage below. The owners, Darcy and Tim, are two of the nicest people you will ever meet and were incredible hosts. Tim is a local and knows all of the best spots for food, scenery, etc. Darcy made sure the fridge was stocked with fresh fruit (picked from their property), yogurt, granola, coffee, creamer, and basically anything you could ask for. They even had eggs from their chickens at a cheaper price than most markets. Not only that, we were able to get a rental car from them that was cheaper than turo and the rental car companies on the island. We had no problem paying cash, as she made this request up front. ||||Did I mention the breathtaking view of their backyard? IT IS INCREDIBLE. The pool is salt water and such a great place to relax, unwind and take in the views. There is a trail from their backyard that leads through the "jungle" and takes you to the waterfall. Unfortunately, we had so much going on and weren't able to experience it, but their son offered to take us there! He's been there many times and knows the best route there and back, so if you get the chance, do it!||||The rooms, bathroom, and kitchen were very clean and updated. If you are anything like us, you're basically going to only spend your time there to sleep and eat breakfast. The rest of your time should be spent exploring the island! They even had a litter of pitbull puppies, and they were adorable. WHO WOULD COMPLAIN ABOUT PUPPIES?! Overall, this was one of my favorite places we stayed, and we visited three islands while I was there. When our stay came to an end, Tim offered to take us to the airport, free of charge obviously, which saved us an Uber ride. Again, this family was so nice and accommodating and left us eager to come back! ||||Enjoy your stay, I promise you won't be...