Last weekend we returned on the red-eye from Honolulu. We had spent the first four days in a condo-hotel on Waikiki Beach, then the last five days on the North Shore in a little town a few miles west of Haleiwa called Waialua. I knew I wanted to split my time between Waikiki and the North Shore. We had never taken the kids to the Polynesian Cultural Centre because it was simply too much a drive, and had never explored the North Shore for more than a few hours.
There are very few hotels on the North Shore. Accommodation is your choice of beach bungalows, a few B&Bs, and the Turtle Bay Resort at nearly $200 a night, and... privately owned condos. The price for privately owned condos started at a low of around $100 a night and ranged up into luxury beachfront five bedroom estates for nearly $1000 per night. I scanned VRBO and Home Away. Some of the search engines were really annoying--the engine would not remember your previous search parameters and you would need to keep repeating your requests to narrow down the listings by availability dates. For March Break, I started searching and booking for a place two months in advance which was, I found out, not nearly soon enough. Many places were already booked. Still, I had a choice of a few condos for around $105/night.
Here are general things that I found were different about renting condos, versus hotels:
1. Payment: I was asked for 50% at the time of booking and 50% on the first day of my rental. So little flexibility if you need to cancel or get cold feet. I paid with my credit card, which made me uneasy, giving my credit card information including security code to a stranger over the telephone. The bad thing about paying half so far in advance, is that if you arrive and find out that the condo is a dump, you may already have run out of time to dispute the charge for the initial deposit if you change your mind. For a hotel, you could upgrade or change to another suite, and you could also receive a full refund with at least two days' advance notice.
2. Cleaning Fee: In addition to hotel taxes, you need to pay a one time cleaning charge, ranging from $70-150. I paid $90 for mine. Unfortunately, when I arrived, my condo was not cleaned. Apparently the cleaning crew claimed that they were not expecting us until the next day. So, while we ate our dinner, they cleaned around us. For the record, $90 pays for less than an hour of cleaning. They changed the sheets, vacuumed, and wiped down the bathroom and kitchen, but it seemed to be an excessive amount for the work done.
3. No Maid. We are responsible for cleaning, doing dishes, and taking out the garbage. We were given a supply of sheets and towels. We ran out of toilet tissue and since it was our last night, we didn't bother asking for more. We ended up using a kleenex box instead.
4. Neighbours. Our first night sleeping in the condo, we heard a loud rapping on our ceiling at 1:11 am that woke us all up. It went on for a few minutes, then stopped. The next evening at 9:40 pm, the neighbour living upstairs knocked very loudly at our door and told us that our air conditioning was so loud that it kept her up at night. The loud rapping was her attempt to communicate this fact to us. Strangely enough, she had never heard the air conditioner before with other renters in before us, so she claimed that the air conditioner must be broken. My husband and I did not find the air conditioner to be excessively noisy and we easily slept through its sound even though we were sleeping right beside it! I am a light sleeper, which made the complaint even more strange. The next four nights we slept without air conditioning, which made it a little uncomfortable for us. I emailed the owner, who replied that we should refuse to turn off our air conditioner. I can tell you that I was in no hurry to fight the neighbour on my vacation. I go on vacation to relax, not to get into confrontations with the locals.
Also, after we had rented out the place, the owner told us that his condo rules did not allow a rental, so we were to claim that we were his friends, staying for free. There were also extensive rules sent to us stressing the need for quiet hours, and to avoid running up the stairs and on the roof. In these types of conditions, we could not relax and *not* think about the neighbours. In a hotel, we would not have to deal directly with neighbours. The front desk would deal with complaints like loud air conditioners.
5. Flexible Rates. As with hotels, there is sometimes room for negotiation. I contacted two condo owners, who both agreed to lower the cost to what I considered reasonable, getting a discount of 17% on one and 20% on another.
6. Parking. By staying on the North Shore, we saved on parking fees. Waikiki parking fees for our condo-hotel were $22 a night. All condos have free parking.
7. Shampoos and Soaps. You need to supply your own, although previous renters had left behind an interesting selection of Pert (an extremely drying shampoo that is usually the cheapest name brand shampoo) and Head & Shoulders! What was nice is that someone had left behind Calamine lotion, Isopropyl Alcohol, and Hydrogen Peroxide.
8. Fridge Leftovers. This was the weird part of the experience. The previous renters had left behind an assortment of open sauces, a margarine tub (I've never bought margarine in my whole life!), an open milk carton, and an open orange juice carton. Not knowing whose these mysterious previous renters were, we did not dare using their food. What if they were direct spout carton drinkers? Ewwwwww! So we ended up throwing out their extras so that they would not get mixed up with ours.
9. Dishes. To re-wash or not to re-wash. We ended up re-washing most of the dishes in the cupboards that we wanted to use. What if the previous renters did not do a good job washing? I suppose I should have this same concern if I went to another person's house for dinner. What if they didn't do a good job washing their dishes before serving us on those plates? Hmmm. Also, let me say that the next time I rent a condo, I *must* have a dishwasher.
10. Breaking stuff. One of my biggest fears is that I will be charged for damage that I did not cause. What if I did not notice something that the previous renter broke? Would I be held responsible for it? In this case, the top shelf of the refrigerator was missing (!), as was the fridge handle, the TV remote control was not working properly, and there were not full sets of dishes (4 of each thing, for example). So it would be hard to know what was missing. Well, so far, we haven't been charged for those things, but I haven't seen my latest credit card bill yet... I made a point of emailing the owner to report the problems.
There you have it. We *might* stay in a privately owned condo again, but I will have to let the trauma from this last experience mellow over time. I read the reviews for the condo and they were all positive. I would like to write a review outlining the problems I experienced (uncleaned room, complaining neighbour) but I can't decide whether I should. I suspect that people write reviews when they are very happy or very unhappy. I'm in between. So take reviews with a grain of salt.
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