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Top > United States > Hawaii 
| Vacation Rental Complaints |
| 21. |
Cockroach Nightmare VR 14048 and VRBO 89917
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We rented this property because we were going to adopt a newborn baby. The woman who rented it to us sells her properties as “meditative retreats”. After our baby was born and we were at the house, I was obviously awake a lot in the middle of the night. One night I thought I saw a baby cockroach, but thought “not in …..”. The next night, I went to open the dishwasher and saw a huge cockroach and knew that we were staying at a cockroach infested house.
We immediately called the owner to let her know that we were leaving because we have a newborn and can’t be around cockroaches. She told us that she was too busy with trick or treaters to talk and would call us back. She never did. We packed up all of our stuff with a newborn and left that night. We had paid her a substantial amount of money for that night and the next 7 nights.
My husband called her the next day and she was horribly abusive. She told him, to paraphrase, “what are you so broke that you can’t wait for (the amount of money we had paid)” and then said (paraphrasing) that one cockroach is not a big deal and then, the real wonderful comment was “I’m not your (swear beginning with f) mother”….right before she hung up on him.
Fast-forward 10 days of the owner refusing to respond to our emails and we get a check for only our security deposit in the mail. We had given her a substantial sum for the upcoming week of rent and she basically told us by letter (through her husband or associate) that she’s keeping our money even though we had to vacate due to cockroaches. So, she is keeping our money for the period when we were not staying there and when we had to stay in a hotel and claiming we should have allowed her to fix the problem.
BUYER BEWARE!! DO NOT stay at any of her properties. She will email you back right away when she wants your money but will then tell you that a property with cockroaches is habitable and that you should stay while the cockroaches are dealt with, even if you have kids. I would never ever, ever, ever stay at any of her properties again.
THE VRBO number is 89917 and the vacation rentals number is 14048. She has properties in Yosemite and Hawaii also.
Date Added: Nov 22, 2010
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| 22. |
VRBO 136625
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Owner Darrell Gardner is very difficult to contact once he receives the deposit and there is a penalty for cancellation under 120 days. The home is very poorly kept and my wife spent a day cleaning the kitchen and throwing away insect-ridden food that had been left by previous renters. Scorpions got crushed by my son in the living room. The "lava pool" is a 3 foot deep vinyl-lined dipping pool and the mini-golf greens have rocks placed all over to cover the torn areas. We replaced batteries in 2 of the smoke alarms that kept beeping and multiple light bulbs were burned out. The 4th day, there was a gas stove fire and explosion, likely secondary to a faulty igniting unit, which burned up the stove and my arm and chest hair. When the owner, Darrell Gardner, learned of the situation, he was very rude and said we "were interrupting his family holiday in Las Vegas and it was going to cost him $1000 to fly back to Hawaii to put a $2000 stove into his $2,000,000 home." We vacated immediately. He has refused to refund any of our money. There is a reason he has only 2 old reviews on the VRBO 136625 website. Please avoid him and his home if you desire a safe family vacation. As far as fishing with him, consider extra life insurance or, at least, as he previously wrote on his VRBO listing, "strongly advise travel insurance". I find it so curious he quotes the bible on his fishing charter website.
Date Added: Dec 13, 2010
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| 23. |
Not a rental home complaint, but avoid Adventure on 2 Wheels
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I highly recommend not renting from this place. Their mopeds are old and the speedometers don't work. But my warning to others is based on the details below:
The Ala Moana shop is a tiny white shed next to Alana Doubletree Waikiki.
I rented a moped for 2 days at $30/day and it was due to be returned at 3:45pm. I ended up running late (I was caught in Honolulu Saturday traffic) and got there at about 4:30. I rushed there because i thought they closed at 5pm. When I got there, there was only a girl in the shop, who told me she didn't work there. She didn't know what to do with the returned moped and she didn't even know where the helmets were kept in the shop. I left the moped with her, helping her lock it up because she didn't even know how to unlock the chain. She told me everything was "all good" and that I was free to go.
Two days later, I got a call telling me to pick up my credit card receipt because they charged me for another $30 because I was late. The person who called told me that their manager Wayne charged my card because it was returned at 6pm. I asked if I could speak to Wayne but was told he was at the other shop. I explained my case to the person who called me and asked if it was possible to get the charges reversed, and because I returned it at 4:30pm, not 6pm. I also had no intention to return it late and that had I known they would charge me, I would have taken it for one more day. The person who called me said he would call Wayne for me and try and talk to him, he then called back about 2 minutes later and said Wayne said he would not reverse the charge. I tried to call Wayne myself at the other shop and was told he stepped out about and would not be back until about 4pm.
It's not about the money, it's the principle. It's so cheap and petty to charge someone for an extra day without any warning and not even bother to call back. He just pocketed $30. And the fact that the person at the shop front didn't even work there shows how dodgy and irresponsible they are.
Date Added: May 15, 2012
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| 24. |
Studio at Rocky Point, Sunset Beach, Oahu
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This studio was oceanfront, but the beauty ended there. It is right in a very trashy and rundown area, complete with "beware of dogs" signs, houses covered in blue tarps and plenty of garbage everywhere. The house itself didn't have the ammenities it was said to have had. It was so rundown. The door was rusted so bad it took several minutes to lock and unlock it, and even open it. The couch was mildewed, the bed was very old, shaky and cheap with old heavy bedding on it. The bathroom door would not close but half-way, the refrigerator wouldn't close without bungie cording it, there was a big hole in the bathroom ceiling, and the screen had a hole that was plugged with toilet paper to try to keep the bugs out. There was NO toilet paper, NO handtowels, NO hand soap, NO garbage cans, NO washer/dryer, NO gear as listed, it was dirty (unwiped, food left around, and of course, the bugs) and the TV was broke. It shows a telescope in the pictures, but it doesn't work. We couldn't find the snorkle gear, boogie boards, or any of the other things listed on their website. Neil White, the property manager asked if we really needed a TV out there, (ugh, yeah!) so he brought by that night a little 14 inch one to get us by till he would buy a new one - which he didn't. We told him upon checking in that we needed to pay the cancellation fee and find a new rental unit, that this bed was not going to work out for us, then we never heard from him again. He wouldn't answer our calls or emails for over a week. For the price we paid, we felt really mislead. A room at Motel 6 for $175 would have been a better deal. We left after 3 days and got a $130 beautiful oceanfront unit that even left us a welcome basket of goodies! We really don't want anyone else to get taken advantage of though. This studio from the pictures doesn't look that bad, but in real life it is not up to rental standards. The Management is super nice to get you to stay there, but then will leave you hanging. Be warned, your money is better spent elsewhere!
Date Added: Jun 4, 2011
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| 25. |
support staff
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Do not just walk away Run ---FaST!
Hello Relaxation (HR), Vacation Rentals, and Shaked Homes LLC are affiliated with the same support staff. They are very helpful, until there is a problem. During our stay, there were several problems with our accommodations, including locations and incorrect checkout dates. We ended up moving 5 times and stayed in 3 different locations and still managed to lose 1 days accommodations.
We were informed (one day before leaving on our vacation) that the condo we had booked (with fully equipped kitchen and balcony) was not available and Hello Relaxations had made other arrangements for our accommodations. The place Hello Relaxations arranged for us to stay, we never saw. Instead we were given an inferior room with a 16 inch wide balcony (no room for a chair even) for 3 weeks of our stay. For the 4th week of our vacation, arrangements were made for us to stay at a Hotel. After checking into the hotel, we discovered that we given a standard room with two beds. This was not a suite as we had expected. We did not have separate sleeping quarters, a kitchenette, or even a standing area on a balcony. When we spoke with the Hotel, they informed us none of the rooms had kitchenettes. New arrangements, for the next day, were made to move us to a different room with a balcony, however now we had no microwave.
Upon checkout from the hotel, our Visa was charged for the room in addition to the funds already given to Hello Relaxation.
This vacation is not what we expected, nor what we had paid for.
Mary, from Hello Relaxation, has not return our last 3 emails or phone calls - when inquires were made regarding the refund of the funds (that is legally ours) from our deposit. After 4 ½ months, they are still withholding funds for utilities (for a place we never did see and did not stay at) and a prepaid days condo rental (where we had to spent the night at the airport) totally almost $400.00.
This was to be a trip of a lifetime, and it was far from a dream vacation. During the last week, we spent more time trying to correct our accommodations than we did enjoying the sights.
If you have extra time and patience, or if you have extra money you do not need, this contact otherwise as stated earlier --do not just walk away Run ---FaST
Date Added: Nov 26, 2011
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