Backpackers Hawaii Vacation Inn and Hostel — Hotel in Oʻahu

I had a great stay here and loved the location. There were a couple issues I'm going to bring up. On my first day in the dorm me and another American guy were hanging out on the porch and our roommate from France came back at 8pm. We hadn't even met her and we politely said hello; but she was very rude, didn't even acknowledge us, and was oblivious to us. We then made a passing joke in sarcasm and laughed about it. This French girl was also oblivious to hostel etiquette and did not clean up after herself. Numerous times she would take her sandy suitcase from the dirty floor and place it on the kitchen table transferring sand and other debris onto the kitchen table and not cleaning up after herself. By this point the other American guy had already checked out and she checked out several days latter. Before she checked out she went to the owner/reception and complained about me, I'm in my mid forties and grew up with three sisters and know how to be around women and how to appease them. So I was called to reception and berated by the owner because of this very young immature French girl who didn't like me and the other American guy and the sarcasm we had. Because the other American guest had left I became the fall guy. She was rude and oblivious to many things in the hostel and did not clean up after herself and the kitchen table thing as well. So because of this I was told by the owner that if there was another incident they'd ask me to leave the hostel which is ridiculous because I'm 44 and have been traveling for over a quarter century and never been asked to leave anywhere ever hotel, hostel, anywhere. In addition to this why would you believe a young immature French girl over a 44 yrs old man that has more credibility, is a professional, and not an nanny working in the US! I also had another incident, or shall we say incidents, with a long-term guest who was staying in the same cabin/bungalow as me. On the first day he was very nice when I arrived, then after about two days when it became known to him that he could not have a position of seniority, mentorship, and power over me he began not to like my presence because I didn't appease him. He was actually very rude to me and another guest when we were talking at the kitchen table at a normal level and he came out of the backroom he sleeps in and confronted us in a sloppy manner and told us to not be talking and to take our conversation outside the cabin. Mind you, this was at 8 PM at night, noone else was in the cabin except me, a female guest, and him. I found this incredibly rude and I told him to listen to some music or for himself to leave the cabin if our conversation bothered him. This man also would cook his fish in the cookware and not clean the frying pans fully and 100% so that when you cooked eggs the next morning your food smelt of fish. I never said anything to him about this because I thought it was a one off incident and it wouldn't happen again but it kept on happening. I then figured out what pan to use so that my eggs didn't smell and taste of seafood! Lastly, there was a very young and disrespectful staff-volunteer from Iowa who was rude to me, a paying guest, and told me to shut my mouth and keep it closed. I bit my tongue only because we were in a van evacuating a tsunami; but in the real world you don't get to talk that way to your seniors (someone old enough to be his dad) and then think you can run your mouth. In the real world you get dropped and submitted like a wrestler would do, which could have happened to him if I had chosen that route. Be careful staying here, it's a very nice location; but very unprofessional and amateurish staff-volunteers that think it's okay for them to confront guests and talk to guests in any other way than with the utmost respect is beyond me. That's not the Aloha spirit and Hawaii I know! If you want to take your business to the next level maybe don't hire children and people with mental health issues...

If you're afraid of open windows and lizards, maybe Hawaii isn't for you 😉

This is an excellent hostel for a really great price compared to other hostels on the Hawaiian Islands. It's exactly what you'd want for barebones accomodations.

I've stayed at several hostels around Hawaii and it's very common to have windows that are permanently open around the building with no AC and doors are left open a lot.

That is the magic of Hawaii.

Perfect temperatures year round. Little to no mosquitoes.

If you leave your bedroom door open for a couple hours before you sleep, it will be nice and cool when you get there if you turn on the fan. Of course, if you feel like you have to sleep under blankets you may feel too hot.

If you're truly afraid of paradise, you can spend $300 to $1000/night and someone will put you in a perfect little bubble that is protected and sanitized and conditioned so you can avoid everything and feel numb to the human experience and wake up every morning wondering why you feel miserable if you don't have your coffee or breakfast or lunch or alcohol or Netflix.

(I say all of this in response to the other negative reviews).

If you don't like the look of a humble, minimalist bungalow with exposed wood, go to a hotel where they make your hotel room feel like you've never even left your sad, lonely home that looks and feels like a mental hospital with its flat white walls and framed pictures of the very paradise you can't stand being in.

If there is a dirty shower curtain that needs replaced, just kindly let the staff know. They probably didn't notice or forgot to go to town to buy a replacement.

If you think a beautiful place like this is run down and needs AC and closed windows, you're probably the type of person who wears water shoes so you don't hurt your feet on the reef when you shouldn't even be stepping on the reef and destroying it. You probably touch sea turtles too. And you probably take coral and star fish which is why the reefs don't look like those you see on your TV or picture frame.

That exposed wood isn't "run down." It's called, "character," and you don't have any.

You think watching Fox News or CNN makes you cultured while you sit in a Lego house and think you've made it.

Don't go around leaving bad ratings on someone's business because they spent years passionately curating something authentic for you to experience.

If you want a bland, sterile, American hotel, then go book a bland, sterile, American hotel.

If you don't like tropical air and the most harmless tropical lizards waiting by the lights to get rid of all the insects for you, take your special little Ugg boot wearing, Starbucks sipping butt to get some special little air in a special little room built for special little person just like you. I'm just glad the CEO who curated it for you knows how high he can charge you for it.

Thank you BackPackers for keeping this place affordable for those of us who are not pampered babies and want to experience one of the very rare places in the world where an open-air hostel can exist all year round.

If you have to choose between adding air conditioning or keeping prices the same, please keep the prices right where they are so we can all come again. For many of us, we'd rather sleep outside or in the back of a car than pay for a white-washed hotel.

The staff here is wonderful. It's a small family business that actually cares. They've worked so hard to make this place what it is today.

The only neutral and not positive comment I can make is that you MUST check-in during business hours. There is no service of any kind at night. We had a friend who had a hard time getting her backpack from secure storage after-hours but did get lucky eventually run into an employee.

Overall, excellent experience. Our expectations...

Location is the only thing this place had going for it. I booked two nights in the back house. Upon arriving the manager seemed polite but not overly friendly. After checking in he gave me directions to the back house after climbing 3 flights of stairs with two bags I found my room. It was an absolute horror fest - the door did not close/lock properly, there were no openable windows just a portable fan covered in dust that when tried was absolutely useless. There was an open vent at the bottom of the room with a window staring straight onto the common deck with a curtain that provided lil if no privacy. The bed was pushed up against what appeared to be a door that divided an adjoining room. The sheets and duvet looked and felt like they had never been washed. I wanted to leave immediately I had not been well prior to this trip and my flight had been long and exhausting so I thought I’ll have a shower and change and reassess. The shower/ bathroom had so much mould it was disgusting. The place did not look like the photos online and I felt I had been duped this was a $20NZD room not a $202NZD room. I’ve stayed in hostels all over the world cheaper than this one and have never been so utterly disappointed. I decided I couldn’t sleep there it was too much I wasn’t even willing to suck up one night towel over sheets so I looked online for alternative hotels by the time I found something (45mins away from the hostel) it was getting late I didn’t want to leave without checking out because and I wanted to let the manager know why I was leaving and also wanted him to know I wasn’t staying so I could at least try get refunded. The office had closed but I knocked and was greeted by a raging manager who told me put the keys in the box and f* off when I told him I was I uncomfortable and wanted to do the right thing by letting him know I was leaving and return the key. I would not recommend this place nor do I ever wish to see it or the nasty manager again. Two days later I called asking for a refund. I said I did not mind a partial refund as I used the shower that day and thought that was fair but they would not refund that night to me at all not even partially. These people are obviously more about the profit than the property...