We rented a cottage in the small town of Ka'a'a'wa, on the windward (eastern) shore of Oahu. The Web photo of the cottage looked charming, and the conversation I had on the phone with the owners went very well. While I was talking to them, I heard chicken sounds in the background, and the owner said that he wanted us to understand that they were in the country, and that there were chickens in the area. We wanted to the stay in a more rural area, so we said fine. What the owner failed to tell us that the chickens were theirs, and they had the run of the property - and the houses.
When we arrived, we found the cottage looking like it did in the photos, but the structure was not in the best shape — there was a lot of cosmetic work to make it look good. The bedroom had french doors leading out to a small deck, with a view of a backyard pond and waterfall with a mountain behind. That was good. What was not good was the fact that there were no screens in the door, and with no air conditioning, we had to keep the doors open all the time. There was a bamboo shade, but it was not secured at the bottom. On the first morning in the cottage, I went out for a run, and Eddie woke up to find a chicken in the bed with him! When we complained to the owners they were surprised that it bothered us, and told us that most of their guest enjoyed the chickens (they had only been renting since April, and we were there in June).On the Big Island, the cottage we rented was purported to be in an orchard. In truth, the orchard was a lot on volcanic soil with a few fruit trees. The photos on the Web made it look much nicer than it was.
The condo we rented on Waikiki was fine. It was comfortable, air conditioned, had a lanai with a view of the water, and was very reasonably prices.
The moral of our story is that if you use the Web to find non-traditional lodging, get all the information that you can be for making a deposit.
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