Kailua Kona Estate — Local services in Hawaii

►Beautiful Views, But Everything Else Fell Apart◄ This was supposed to be a 3-star review, but it dropped to 2 when the host chose not to make things right. We paid a premium for the Kona Estate House and received a subpar experience riddled with issues: roaches, spiders, very little hot water, no air conditioning throughout the home, and a complete lack of labeling or organization. The owner, Jason, was not proactive. He only responded when pressed, and even then, his “solutions” came with excuses. For example, when we complained about the heat, he said, “See if it gets cooler at night” and blamed the dryers for raising the temperature. At this price point, those responses are unacceptable. He claimed the house had passive cooling—it didn’t. I had to fix the airflow myself because the fans were all turning in different directions. The pest situation was alarming. Screens were torn or improperly affixed, allowing bugs to enter freely. I saw a spider the size of a tennis ball—Jason laughed when I mentioned it. Roaches skittered across the counters while I tried to prepare meals for my kids. centipedes and mosquitoes as well. Pest traps were under the beds, so we couldn’t even store luggage on the floor safely even though we had to because there weren't dressers or closets for use. The kitchen was advertised as “state of the art.” In reality, it was oversized and poorly organized. Nothing was labeled, the oven didn’t fully work, the fridge displayed filter warnings, and basic cookware for large families was missing. We had to buy our own roaster. There were Raid chemicals stored above the dishes. With 42 cabinets and 24 drawers, you'd expect some system—but there was none. It’s not designed for large families despite seating many. Bedrooms were small and lacked dressers. Water pressure was poor. There was no hot water for dishes and barely warm for showers. Yard work was done during our stay, and the owner’s cats wandered the property freely, making us feel like intruders. Also I must mention the bathrooms. You will get a similar experience at a local fast food joint. The bathrooms are stalls. Anybody can come in while you are using it. Worst of all, Jason mishandled the security deposit—we had to chase him down after our stay to get it back. He made empty promises and implied that our complaints were inconveniencing him. We didn’t come on vacation to troubleshoot someone else’s property. The views and pool were beautiful, which is the only reason this isn’t a 1-star review. But unless you’re planning to sit outside and ignore the house entirely, I cannot recommend this property at this price. It was grossly misrepresented and deeply...

3 good points and waaaay too many bad points. The veiws are stunning. The pool was long, cool, and refreshing on those 90 degree days. The landscaping was a painting of color and texture that I have never before seen. Now to the bad. No ac.on 90 degree days, this is AWFUL! It definitely cools off a bit at night, especially IF there is a good breeze and you leave the doors and windows open, with just screens, but there was not always a good breeze. Sleeping sweaty is the worst. Leaving the doors open had it's own problems. The screens had gaps that let in bugs, and a "previous renter" walked right up to our door, late at night, looking for their airpods. Super creepy. His hand could have just pushed through the gaps/screens and unlocked the screen door. We were lucky to have a few adults, in our group, awake at this time. The owner lives about 30 feet away (annoying) so the guy could have easily reached out to him for the airpods. Super sketchy. The kitchen was huge, which could be great, except for nothing is labeled and it is hard to get hot water to run reliably. Oh, and so many roaches. EWWW! A guy came and put out traps, but we found some in our bag after we left. Floors had weird gaps and dips and we're tripping hazards. Cats roamed the property freely. No big deal unless you have an allergy or don't like cat hair on your out of door furniture. Owner living (practically) on the property was weird, but only annoying a couple of times, and mostly because we had to leave windows open, so we heard whenever they left or got home. Lost that secluded feeling we hoped for. Also, their house had AC... huh. I wonder why?... The wildlife was only a little intrusive. Birds? are LOUD at night. Made it hard to sleep with the windows open. A 3-4 inch ?Huntsman? Spider showed himself and freaked out some of our guests. We caught him (careful! They move FAST) and took him outside. House keeping was still there when we first arrived. They left the laundry going which heated the house even more. 4 dryers. There was still dirty towels and linens. The price point and the fact that the owner dismissed a huge amount of our complaints makes this a 1-2 star. We made our vacation work for us, despite everything, but we would not recommend this...

The pool and the view were picturesque. That’s the only reason for the 2 stars. A member in my group did reach out to the owner and recommended he rectify the situation with me, but he didn’t, he had opportunities during our stay to fix our concerns but he side-stepped basically all of our concerns while appearing like he was trying to help. First… the cockroaches. This just shocks me. On day two of our rental my BIL was cooking in the kitchen and moving some pots/pans around and multiple cockroaches skittered off. Hundreds more were seen/discovered the rest of the trip. Day three of our rental a pest control guy came to set down traps and spray poison (despite an infant being in the house). We were not made aware he was coming. We hadn’t even reported the cockroaches yet which means the owner knew about them and didn’t tell us before coming, or before booking. It’s a simple fact I wouldn’t have booked this house if I had known there were cockroaches in it. I have stayed at hundreds of Airbnb’s all across the world and this is the first time I’ve had cockroaches in my Airbnb. It’s ironic that this is also the most I’ve ever paid for an Airbnb. Second was the AC. The irony here is the owner (who lives on property - so weird) has AC in his home but then tells us there’s a breeze/passive cooling system (wasn’t actually set up - my BIL had to do that) that keeps this house cool. Simply not true. Part of this passive cooling system requires we leave the doors open (but there’s a noise ordinance…) it makes no sense to require us to leave all windows and doors open but also keep the noise level down. Since noise ordinance is a state law, we should have been able to close the windows and doors without worrying about being cooked. We opted to leave them open (no choice really) and just had to tell all the kids in our group to be quiet. The third major issue was a lack of hot water. I didn’t personally experience this one but I know it really upset my family because they were doing a lot of the cooking/heating up baby bottles and had to find alternative methods of heating up the water to use for everything they needed hot water for. These issues, let alone three of them, should never be a part of what I paid for this...