Laura B.
The location made it easy to get around Maui, but the area felt rough, with homeless people and drug users around. Maui itself is beautiful. I’d stay somewhere else next time. The parking was a mess from the start. We arrived around midnight and had to fill out a permit form in the dark, with no pen provided. Everything nearby was closed, so we drove all the way to Kihei just to find one. We parked in the Hono Kai lot only once, with the pink slip displayed, and still got a notice asking for information I had already given. After that we parked across the street because we were worried about being towed. I understand being careful about parking given the number of homeless people and drug users nearby, but a Chevy truck with a windowless camper, which looked like someone’s home, stayed in the lot the whole time we were there. The property manager and maid seemed to watch when we came and went. We were told we’d be fined for smoking outside the designated areas, then harassed and lied about for the rest of the stay. One morning, though, I saw a property maintenance worker smoking in his car. Our host also said not to smoke or vape on the beach, while we saw people smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee there. We were told the resort has no authority over the beach and can’t set rules for it. The stairwells and walkways felt gross, with old water bottles and a dirty Band-Aid on the ground. It seemed like only the pool area got cleaned. On our first morning, at 12:30 AM, we got a warning for vaping by the grills, after we’d driven to Kihei for a pen to complete the parking form. The property manager noticed me vape twice, but I never saw him doing maintenance or picking up the litter. We got a lot of long instruction messages, and the day before checkout they asked us to confirm our departure time. I clearly said 11 AM. We left at 10:25 to plant a tree, and when we returned at 10:45 the maid was already cleaning our room, though we still had belongings there and hadn’t checked out. We’d cleaned the dirty dishes, refilled the soap, which had been watered down when we arrived, and swept the floors. I left a note about what we’d cleaned and suggested she focus on things that had been filthy when we arrived. When I went back in, she was very rude about the note and said she’d seen us leave, so she thought it was fine to enter. Even if we’d left at 10:25, we had clearly told them checkout was at 11. The maid then told Angela the condo smelled like marijuana, which was absolutely untrue. I told Angela she should check the condo herself because I didn’t trust the maid and thought she was lying. It felt like the maid made a false accusation whenever we mentioned her poor cleaning. We’d been to Maui twice before, and the hospitality was a big part of why we returned. Hono Kai had none of that. Permanent owners and residents gave us dirty looks and frowned at us. The property manager seemed unhappy, and the maid was rude, grumpy, and untrustworthy.
