Kanaloa at Kona 22203-04, Kailua-Kona Big Island

The Worst!

If you like having hundreds of ants all over your kitchen then this is the place! But wait... there's more! Bugs that is! You also get little tiny critters crawling alongside the ants, are they baby ants? Are they aphids? Mites? Who knows, but you'll... more have hundreds to look at to figure out! But the fun doesn't stop there. You'll also get a dishwasher with a broken rollers! And a washing machine that fills up with so little water, it can't even get soap out of a swimsuit. Make sure you bring your own trashcan because if there is one at in this place, you'll never find it! Might have to bring your own hot water while you're at it because no rhyme or reason here, it'll just disappear. Traveling alone? You'll never be lonely when you can hear everything your neighbors do through the walls. And I mean everything! And don't bother with your alarm clock, the lawn care guys are mowing and weed whacking so early in the morning they even wake up the birds! And if that is not enough for you, he'll try to bill you for a bunch of stuff that was broken before you got there, and then charge you for a few other things that they never explain, so make sure you let them know about every single thing that goes wrong or you will be blamed for it! This is one place where you'll actually be glad when the vacation is over! less

— Nick Vatterott, Stayed 02/04/2025

Disappointed

We’ve been renting at Kanaloa at Kona since 1985. For the past several years we’ve gone thru Aloha Condos and have been very satisfied. We especially love Condo 1604. This year we booked thru Aloha Condos and made arrangements thru the owner, Elaine. When we... more checked in, we were told by Castle that we owed a cleaning deposit of $125. They gave us a key, not knowing there was a lockbox. After checking our paperwork from Aloha and Elaine, we confirmed we had already paid a $150 cleaning deposit. Castle refunded only $95 stating we now owed them a $30 registration fee (which had never been communicated to us). We love the location of #1604 but we were disappointed in the conditions. Thank you for soliciting our comments. We notified Elaine Knoernschild of our concerns on 10/14 with no response. less

— Alan, Stayed 10/31/2022

Aloha Condos

I want to leave an honest and fair review since I wish I would have had more info when I booked. Let's start with Aloha Condos. They were good to work with but could have been better. Our original reservation was in April 2020 when... more the world shut down and flights stopped. Aloha condos would not refund us but did give us a credit. The caveat was it had to be used in the same condo at the new booking price. This made it very difficult to rebook but we were able to make it work since it was almost 2k for only 3 nights. Rocco who I mainly dealt with was very professional, nice, and easy to get a hold of. HBR is tucked away in a nice golf community. The resort itself is dated but you can tell they work hard to keep it nice. The pools are small and the main pool I thought was really cute but my husband was not impressed. It was nice having a restaurant on site but it is PACKED since it is open to the public which also will take up the parking! They also do not do to-go ordering if they are busy. The best thing about the resort is the VIEW! Absolutely amazing and one of the best out of the several places we stayed on our trip. The resort and condo are very strict! We have traveled all over the world and have never been anywhere where every time we turn around or open a cabinet there's a long list of rules. My son didn't even make it to the bathroom at registration before someone stopped him and sent him to get his bracelet. Parking was a pain as well. One thing to note is parking for the unit is not near the building and you have to walk up a hill and steps. Yes, they have golf carts that will come get you but you have to wait and it is not worth it unless you have a ton of stuff. The condo was sadly a huge letdown. To be fair, it is huge, awesome floor plan, well-stocked, and the view is amazing. However, it is dated, dirty, had bug issues, and the air conditioning needs to be replaced. Upon arrival, our condo was HOT and struggled to get to a comfortable temperature. The master never cooled down! Thankfully the lock-off portion was available and they let us use that since there was nothing they could do about the air. The unit was picked up but dirty; sticky rings on tables, walking barefoot turned your feet brown, ect. Several pieces of furniture were in need of repair, and not useable. Lastly, the bug issue which to me was the worst problem! It was in the kitchen, and almost every time I would go in there I would see a baby roach. Initially, I was told this is an "island thing". Well, I live in the deep south and this was a pest problem, nice try. We stayed at 3 other places and never saw one bug. I spent my first night spraying Raid, but they were even in the kitchen drawers so you did not want to even cook. Rocco was very nice about it and did offer to come spray the next day but since it was only Raid again I told him we had already done that. The lockoff unit was everything the other large side should have been. It was updated, but still a little dirty, air unit was new and was sized for the unit, and I saw zero bugs. If only needing 1 bedroom that is a good choice. In summary, I think the unit has so much potential and just needs a major update. With the pests taken care of, a new cleaner, and some updated air and replacement of furniture, it would be a fantastic family unit that could probably get even more money. As it is, it is not worth the price not even close for having to deal with those scale of issues. There are much nicer hotels to stay in that offer better policies and don't have these issues. I was very disappointed in our stay because it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip and we spent a lot for a few nights. Also, given our experience, I would have expected a call or email. I did when I got home request a refund of the cleaning fee since I had to clean it upon arrival, and the owners sent me that. So there's that. less

— nichole, Stayed 10/21/2022

Awful

This place is awful, don’t stay here. We left here and went to the hotel next door. Also aloha condos has a terrible policy with their owners and I was only able to get 80% of what I paid back for this terrible place. Place... more was not clean, there was all kinds of stuff broken with the place including the bed, the place smelled of mold and mildew. The AC would not turn off, door to the patio opened maybe 6 inches at best. The bed room window was jammed shut with a butter knife that has a sticky note next to it saying don’t remove.. walls were paper thin you could hear everything going on around you neighbors phone, conversations etc, felt like you had 0 privacy at all. On top of that the on site reps were totally unavailable when I tried to reach out them.. The bathroom was rusted over with water damage, seriously just don’t stay here it’s awful and you will not be able to get all the money back that you paid for it. DO NOT STAY HERE! less

— Dan, Stayed 01/29/2022