We are frequent travelers to the island and always stay at least one week at Hanalei Beach Resort and love it there, but we were a little disappointed with this place. I hate to say this because I'm a VRBO host myself and I know all the work that goes into making a place homey, but this fell way short.
Other than the obvious wear and tear (mold in the bathrooms, water damage on the walls), and the mattresses that were old and super lumpy, not having bathroom mats, but one of those tony towels for the floor that you get in cheap motels, there were some MAJOR issues that got in the way of us fully enjoying our stay:
One stays in a place like this with their family, rather than a hotel, so they can cook meals in, but I had to contact management to deliver knives that were sharp enough to use safely, and the only cutting board was wooden (ew... so unsanitary) and stored under the sink with the cleaning products (double ew!), so they delivered one of those too. There is no way to prepare a meal with one cutting board, let alone multiple meals, so I cannot imagine why they felt that was ok. Same with the pots and pans - I made French Toast one morning and the only non-stick pan was only large enough to fit a single piece of bread, so that was weird and cumbersome and it took forever. There weren't mixing bowls, or a cooking sheet, or a coffee grinder -- in short, the kitchen was not stocked thoughtfully AT ALL. A lot was missing and what was there was not good quality.. The coffee maker is so cheap and old that the coffee came out tasting extremely burnt, so we had to go out for most meals and go find coffee each morning. A huge inconvenience all around.
The other thing that falls into the unacceptable category for us was, their (2) duvets for the #2 bedroom and no cover on them and both dried, crusty... something on the material. SO UNSANITARY I was mortified that they would have a duvet on beds with no cover that CLEARLY was not being sent to the dry cleaner in between guests. My child was in that bed, so we took it off, I gave her the duvet off my bed and I froze my butt off with just a sheet.
Overall - great location, HBR is awesome and the location of this unit it wonderful, but the unit itself is really tired, overpriced and not thoughtfully managed. A Motel 6 experience for a Four Seasons price tag.
