Guestbook Comment

Guest: Al Moore (Not Specified)
Date of Stay: 06/01/04 Review Submitted: 06/16/04

This home worked out great for us -- a family with 5 kids. Kailua is a great town . . . we wouldn't go anywhere else on Oahu. From this home you can walk to the grocery store and Pizza places, and the beach is actually less than 7 minutes away. We would go back again. Aloha!

Recommended for:

Great place to stay!

Guest: Christina (Spokane, Washington)
Date of Stay: 01/14/12 Review Submitted: 01/28/12

This was such a wonderful place to stay. Very homey and comfortable and above all, very clean. They have every ammenity that you could want and you feel like you are at home. The owners were great to deal with. I would recommend this place to my friends and anyone that is staying in Oahu. It's close enough to the beach, just a short drive, close enough to town for food and shopping. (I highly recommend Maui tacos for their fish tacos). We would be glad to stay here on our next trip over. Thank you for your hospitality!!

Recommended for:Families with young children, families with teenagers, age 55+, girls getaway.

Christmas in Paradise

Guest: Annie and Jo (Boise, IDaho, USA)
Date of Stay: 12/24/11 Review Submitted: 01/21/12

We rented the house for Christmas week. It was very spacious, lots of sleeping space with very big rooms and lots of space in the kitchen for three cooks at a time! The owner was friendly and helpful. (We left a charger and she called right away to alert us.), the house was clean...well used, but acceptable. Not sure why there was a hole in the ceiling in the kitchen. We had plenty of ants and roaches. The owner had the house sprayed while we were out one day. We were not too upset at the insects as we are used to this issue in the tropics. One thing that would have made us somewhat more comfortable would have been a larger dining table. There were seven of us and our family style is to eat two meals a day together, gathered at the table, when we all make such an effort to be together. At least ten people could have slept in the house but dining would have been a challenge. The location was fine for us. Because all the kids were there just for the week, we usually were in the van to go any place. For us, as a couple, we like to be within easy walking distance of the beach, which this is not. I would consider staying in this home again.

Recommended for:Families with teenagers, sightseeing, age 55+, girls getaway.

Excellent location and lodging

Guest: Debbie (Oklahoma)
Date of Stay: 01/09/12 Review Submitted: 01/16/12

My adult sons and I very much enjoyed our 3-day stay on Oahu (on our way home from 10 days on Kauai). Carol was a joy to work with. There was not a reservation at the house on the days on either side of our stay, so we very much appreciated Carol’s welcoming us to check in early (since our flight arrived in the late morning) and to check out late (since our flight left at 8 pm). She was so easy to work with from my initial inquiry about the property through our check out. When we arrived, the exterminator was just finishing up his routine visit, and Carol’s husband was installing new smoke detector batteries, so I believe that shows attention to detail and concern for the well-being of their guests. There was plenty of room, and although the accommodations were not fancy, they were certainly more than adequate for our needs; we were quite comfortable. The home is very well equipped and Carol furnished excellent maps of Kailua and Oahu. I really appreciated being able to park in the garage! The location is great—out of the hubbub of Honolulu and Waikiki, but still quick access to these areas by easy highways. The beaches nearby are lovely. We enjoyed dinner in downtown Kailua; grocery shopping and other restaurants are just a few blocks away.

Recommended for:People with disabilities, adventure seekers, families with young children, families with teenagers, sightseeing, age 55+, girls getaway.

An Exceptional Home and Excellent Service

Guest: Russ (Kaneohe, Hawaii)
Date of Stay: 12/01/11 Review Submitted: 12/27/11

Usually when a home is described as charming or cozy, the tacit understanding is that the home is undersized and small. Neither is true of this home which is both charming/cozy and exceptionally large and spacious. We stayed here with our two young children for two weeks and lacked nothing. This home has a large "cabin" feel and includes every convenience we could think of, and then some: All new kitchen appliances, cooking items, cups, plates, utensils, grill, coffee pot/filters and of course all the furniture. Small items too, made this place great, such as coffee, non-perishable foods for customer use, strollers, beach items, toys for children, garage with automatic opener, just to name a few. Two of the rooms are large enough to be separate living rooms in themselves. Additionally, Carol, the property manager was friendly, responsive and kind to us. We felt like we were people she cared about and not just another customer, even after we departed. We used the house as temporary lodging after moving here so we could have time to find a permanent home. Carol went out of her way to familiarize us with the area, provide Do's and Don'ts of Hawaii, tips for living, and was willing to answer any question we had. If she didn't know, she found out. Yet, she was also respectful of our space and privacy. If you are vacationing, or moving here like us, this is the perfect place to temporarily hang your hat. All is provided at this house so you can focus on enjoying a vacation, or finding a new home. We would certainly stay at this house again if we had to do it over -- and if we ever move from Hawaii and come back here to vacation, this is the place we will come. Our only regret was that we couldn't make the home a permanent place to live.

Recommended for:Tourists without a car, romantic getaway, people with disabilities, adventure seekers, families with young children, families with teenagers, sightseeing, age 55+, girls getaway.

Nice house in excellent area of Oahu

Guest: MM (Bay Area, CA)
Date of Stay: 11/23/11 Review Submitted: 12/08/11

We were very happy with our stay. This is a very nice area of Oahu. The Kailua beaches are excellent, and Kailua is a fun little town -- big enough to have decent restaurants & supermarkets, but with a real small-town feel. There seem to be no hotels in this area so it's a real locals' place. You're a million miles away from the hell-hole of Waikiki, but you can get to down-town Honolulu in less than 30 minutes if you want to visit museums etc.. The house itself is very nice. We had 6 people and there was loads of room. It's not super luxurious but is nicely decorated and well-designed to get the island breeze throughout the house. It has all the amenities you need and is good value. It's a 10-15 minute walk to the beach. One nice benefit over a hotel is that there are things like boogie boards,beach chairs, mats, towels available. The owner was very helpful in providing advice on restaurants. All in all we'd be very happy to stay here again.

Recommended for:Families with young children, families with teenagers, sightseeing, age 55+, girls getaway.

Highly Recommend Kailua House!

Guest: Caferose (Temecula, CA)
Date of Stay: 07/25/11 Review Submitted: 08/08/11

The listing was accurate. The house was a cute beach bungalow that I would guess was built in the 50's. It has that mid century look to it that we found cool and charming and was located in a nice quiet neighborhood. The house was clean and well stocked. If we had any questions, the manager for this property got back to us promptly. The manager also turned us on to Buzz's Bar and Grill nearby for dinner and cocktails ( ask for the BFRD -Big Fat Rum Drink) which became our favorite restaurant on the island. If you want a reasonably priced place to stay away from Waikiki, this is the place.

Recommended for:Romantic getaway, families with young children, families with teenagers, sightseeing, age 55+, girls getaway.

Great Location! Big House

Guest: Philip (PA)
Date of Stay: 06/04/11 Review Submitted: 06/29/11

I recently stayed in this house June 2011 for a week long with 7 adults. The bedrooms were plenty large enough as was the overall house. We never felt cramped. We were a bit worried about the house not having central AC but the 2 AC units, fans, and the cross breezes kept us plenty cool! Carol is fantastic to work with...kind, laid back, and flexible. We'd stay here again!

Recommended for:People with disabilities, adventure seekers, families with young children, families with teenagers, sightseeing, girls getaway.

Still happy after five stays! Great location and Value.

Guest: Repeat customer (Mesa, Arizona)
Date of Stay: 04/17/11 Review Submitted: 06/11/11

We finished our fifth stay this past spring at Ke Ohana Hale and plan to go back again soon. The house is in a quiet residential neighborhood which is very pleasant for walking. The home is spacious and has a master suite with sitting area with bathroom and AC, a second large bedroom with two doubles, futon and AC and one smaller bedroom without AC. There are ceiling fans throughout the house and louvered windows to allow the trade winds to blow through. The shared non-master bathroom has shower/tub combination and single vanity and windows to the large back yard. The dining room is spacious and has a large table that would seat many. The decor is comfortable island-style furniture and offers many places for group and individual relaxation. There is a pleasant lanai with gas barbecue for renters' use. There is a full kitchen with nice electric appliances and also a full laundry room with washer and dyer - great for clothes, towels and swimsuits after a day at the beach. It is convenient to Kailua downtown, Kailua beach park and easily reached from the airport by the H-3. Unlike the negative reviewer, I disagree about the house which is most certainly not run down, nor is it a "bad neighborhood," but one typical of windward O'ahu in Kailua. Having lived in the Islands myself, I understand that an occasional cockroach is a fact of life in Hawai'i where they live outside in the open and may even fly in through open doors. They do not have the negative connotation of an "unclean" home as they do on the mainland. I certainly did not find the house to be infested. The owners themselves live on the adjacent property and are always available for any special needs. Having visited now so many times, we feel more like family than renters. I strongly recommend this charming house as a great quality and affordable place to stay on O'ahu, away from the crowds and commerciality of Waikiki and its resort hotels. If you would like a taste of what real life in Hawai'i is like, this is a great place to stay.

Recommended for:Families with young children, families with teenagers, sightseeing, age 55+, girls getaway.

Kailua's great; but this place was lacking

Guest: anon (Surrey, BC)
Date of Stay: 12/27/09 Review Submitted: 11/24/10

Kailua is beautiful, would go back in a minute. The accommodation was disappointing. It is spacious, which was great, but not in the nicest neighbourhood. Short walk to the beach. The house is run down - cockroach problems, holes in the kitchen ceiling, rusted out shower bars and faucets, etc. We were very disappointed compared to the pictures we saw then and that we see now. Never saw cockroaches in our many trips to Hawaii before this - saw lots of them here! Been to another house rental since and helped us realize the problems with this one.

Owner response:Ke Ohana Hale is clean & a comfortable family home, with lovely tropical breezes flowing through it. New or not (and some are new) none of the faucets & shower bars is rusty. The neighborhood is considered one of Kailua's nicest residential neighborhoods. This is not our opinion but that of the residents of Kailua, the City and County of Honolulu and all real-estate surveys back this up. It is safe, quiet, not a lot of traffic. Residents are primarily professional and crime is 4 on a scale of 1-100 with 100 being the worst. We have regular pest-control service and we even called them back for an interim treatment to satisfy this family. We regret that this family was unhappy with their stay in our home.

Recommended for: