Thoughts on vacation rental (my experience)

[EightFingers]

Rented a place in Kapoho Beach Lots and overall loved it. Beautiful area and the weather was great almost all the time. Wish I knew about tthis kind of thing a long time ago. Sure is nice to cook my own food (mainly grilled outside) and not be forced to eat out all the time. Great to have laundry facilities which saved packing a bunch of extra clothes or having to make a long trip into town. Great privacy too!
Problems: We ASSUMED there would be TV... nope, wasn't hooked up [B)] we should have asked but never even thought about it. Tripped curcuit breaker. When the microwave was started at the exact same time the fridge started up, the breaker tripped. Couldn't get a hold of the manager, so I bought an extension cord and ran the fridge to a different circuit. I would have reset the breaker myself, but the panel was locked in the garage and I wasn't given access to the garage. It took three days to get a responce from the mananger and that was after I finally called the owner in California. Minor thing and I was glad I could do a work around.
Coqui didn't bother me a bit, slept with the windows open every night.
Two flying roaches were summarily executed by me. No centipedes found.
Even with the two problems, I will do this again, so much beter than a hotel!

[Devany]

Eight,

This is how we were introduced to Puna for the first time. I ended up writing a story on sustainable tourism for Edible Hawaiian Islands Magazine ebcause of our experiences at Hale Balleja. Here is a link: http://www.ediblehawaiianislands.com/con...inable.pdf

Many vacation rentals do not offer Television. Many do not offer internet, but in the case of Hale Balleja they have no TV but they do have a local internet connection that you can pay by the week for. We bought a device called Sling Box and were able to watch our home TV, even the DVR and On Demand on our computers. It worked out pretty slick. My husband never would have done it the first time, except he did not want to miss the basketball playoffs. Since the intial purchase we used it in various places.

Another thing to ask VR owners is if Cell Phone service works in their area and if not is there a house phone where you can receive calls. The area where we stayed did not have cell coverage, but they did have a house phone, so we were able to leave the number with our house sitter and my husband's office.

Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

www.eastbaypotters.com
www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com

[EightFingers]

Forgot about the phone. Yes, ours had a house phone and we were also able to get cell reception

Edit to add:

Thanks for the link! Now I'm hungry (again) []

[TheodoreJay]

My favorite Kehena accomodation was great w/ kitchenette, wi-fi, phone, laundry, outdoor shower. The thing I liked the best just grab a towel and walk to da beach (leave all of my other crap back at the cottage).

My all time favorite accomodation ever is somewhere in the middle of Puna on a farm in a cabin off of the grid (solar power and rain catchment water), lots of flowers/plants, totally out there.
Only minor complaint was the owners dogs would get riled up at night and bark at almost anything (gotta luv dumb animals).

[mgeary]

My wife, Pamela, and I had an excellent adventure last year in a vacation rental in Kapoho. We found the place thru VRBO (vacation rentals by owner) after a recommendation here on PunaWeb. Check this out if you are interested in the Kapoho area: http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/reg...ict/kapoho or Google up "VRBO" if you're interested in some other area.

As it turned out, we met KapohoCat, who manages that property as a vacation rental and perhaps others, and even attended a PunaParty at Cat's house during our vacation, meeting several of the wonderful people here on PunaWeb F2F. That was a most excellent evening, part of a most excellent vacation. Hi, Cat, and thanks again. ;-)

The vacation house we rented was worth the money that we spent. I like the idea of a house instead of a McResort, where you come and go as if it was your own house (which it really is for the rental period). We had cable TV, full kitchen facilities, and all the rest of what makes a home a home. The only thing I'd complain about (which I did in the owner's journal) was that it was HOT. We were there in July, and the large windows in the living room faced southwest, without adequate curtains/shade/covered lanai to create shade.

Our vacation was a working vacation, because although we did lots of fun touristy/volcanoey/snorkley things and ate way too much good food (Kaleo's and the Thai restaurant in Pahoa are excellent, IMHO), we spent quite a bit of time checking out the neighborhoods as possible future places to live. We drove around HPP, Orchidlands, Leilani, HB, Kea'au Ag Lots, HA, FF, Glenwood, etc., etc., etc., to get a feel for the various neighborhoods.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mgeary1126/Hawaii2008Mark# Here is a link to my photos of that trip (we've had others there), and http://picasaweb.google.com/mgeary1126/H...008Pamela# Here is a link to Pamela's pictures of the same vacation. The Kapoho vacation rental is there in the photos. We started our vacation with a Tom Petty concert, so don't be confused with the Hollywood Bowl pictures, they actually are part of the 2008 Hawaii vacation.



Aloha! ;-)

[aline]

we have always used vrbo and have never been disappointed on any of the islands except this last trip. Rented a house in hpp,there was a huge gouge across the front of the tv screen of course right in the middle,got there and found out the water was not drinkable, the pool and hot tub that was the reason we took this rental consisted of a blow up pool that you could reach across and the hot tub was so slimy we wouldnt get in it. The dryer didnt work,which we didnt find out until we did a load of laundry and the master bedroom bed was tilted greatly.When we looked under it it was held up with a hydraulic car jack. Needless to say we wont stay there again, but over many years vrbo has been a winner for us. But no matter what we were in Puna and it didnt ruin our vacation at all

[mdd7000]

We are looking for a vacation rental for 1-6 months (more on that later). Anyone have any ideas on rentals within the Waiakea school system?

[Liz]

aline - I hope you reported that place at the vrbo site. It helps those of us with nice places when the lousy ones get reported. Hope you have a better stay next time. :-)

We have used vrbo when staying on other islands, and also while looking for our place here (years ago). Most were good, but we also had one of those bad ones (on Kauai, not relevant here). It helped us to know how - & how not to - set up our own place.

aloha, Liz

"The best things in life aren't things."

[missydog1]

aline, horrors!
What was the vrbo # on that winner?
Please share!

[Erlinda]

We love to rent small houses in Vacationland when we visit East Hawai’i. They’re a lot less expensive than hotels, we can cook (which is a big advantage for me because I have some weird food sensitivities), and there’s great snorkeling within walking distance. And we always meet cool people when we go for walks. People don’t really talk to you when you’re in a hotel/city.

We also found places using vrbo.