Big Island Vacation Rental: Kailua Kona Vacation Rental chateau/country house

February 19th, 2009

(This rental has recently changed its name for a fourth time in 19 months so I wanted to bump it up and get the word out. Original review on August 8th, 2007. I will keep an eye on this (and any other rental reviews I do) so if a name change applies in the future, readers can be informed.)

When we were looking for a little getaway for the Big Island, we decided to do a search for Big Island Hawaii Vacation Rentals and came upon the Kailua Kona Vacation Rental chateau/country house (formerly Nanahounua Retreat, Royal Hawaiian Retreat and Kailua Kona Vacation Estate.) One part of my travel planning business is to stay in rentals to see whether or not I’d recommend them to others, so expect any review of a rental to be very thorough and I base them off of my experience with the rental.

I was excited to stay there based on the pictures alone and it looked like it wasn’t far from Kona. However I was a little apprehensive after dealing with the booking agent. She seemed very nice in all of her correspondence but she just wasn’t very organized. She told me I would be receiving the final agreement and directions after I paid the final payment. I had to ask for it 3x and that was after I had to email her images of my cancelled checks showing I paid because she was never in the office when she checked her email regarding my reservation. That was a little nerve racking when your bank account is over $3000 lighter!

The drive in was a little further from Kona than anticipated, about 25 minutes away due to the traffic. There was an earthquake in October 2006 and while there’s no damage to the property, there’s damage to one of the roads leading to the property. It’s one lane and controlled by a stop light that is definitely on the slow side. There’s a beautiful white horse fence that surrounds the property and a nice stone driveway leading to the house. The house is a light pink with a large yard (rare) and a beautiful view of Kona. There were fresh flowers in the house as well as a nice welcome note. As you walk to the front door there’s a koi pond with several large koi fish and a small fountain. To the right of the koi pond are several containers of herbs you can use in your culinary adventures. As you walk into the foyer, there’s a water feature and bench. If you turn to the left, you will round into the front room with a pool table framed by a lava-esque fireplace. A pool table was a real plus for us as they are definitely a rare find in rental homes. The only problem is if you’re shooting on the end where the picture was taken, there’s a wall of breakables which makes it hard to play or you have to switch to the shortest stick. Beside that room is a formal dining room and a living room with a flat panel TV on the wall that can be angled how you choose. All the furnishings are nice and it’s obvious there have been recent renovations in most of the rooms. There are 2 bedrooms and bathroom on the first floor along with an office/computer and laundry room.

Then you get to the kitchen. It’s the one room that needs a facelift. It may not appear so from the picture but when you’re up close, the white paint is chipped and worn, the countertops could use a little updating and well, there were “friends” in the dishwasher. Now anyone who lives in the islands knows they do not tell tourists about the bug issues and I’m used to the geckos, ants and yes, the occasional roach but the dishwasher was INFESTED with roaches. I couldn’t bear to wash our dishes in there so we hand washed everything. When you’re paying $495+ per night, you expect to not have to worry about that. I am hoping that problem is rectified now.

Click “read more” to continue review….

You go up the bamboo steps to the second floor and there are 2 bedrooms to the left, one with a small lanai to look over the backyard and pools. If you go to the right, you pass a glass block wall and enter the master bedroom with a gorgeous 4 post bed and beautiful furnishings. This is definitely the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in. There’s a small lanai that overlooks the backyard and has a great view of Kona and you can smell the sweet scent of angel trumpet flowers that are just below the balcony. The master bathroom…hmm…well, it could use a bit of a facelift. There’s an old jacuzzi tub which my husband used our first night there and while he raved about it, I was less than thrilled that it sounded like there was a boat with a motor problem in our room. The colors are beige and pink tile and it’s just very dated…functional but dated.

Now comes the pools. Look at that pic. It was those pools that sold us on renting the home in the first place. The top one is a kiddie pool and the bottom is about 7′ according to the specs. I couldn’t wait to float around in them. I’m still waiting. The water is ICE COLD. When you’re in a higher elevation and have a pool, having a heater for the pool is a real benefit. It threw my heart out of rhythm it was so cold! This was in May, we’re not talking December. I was highly disappointed with that. Plus the entrance to the pool could be an accident waiting to happen. No railing, slick and awkward rocks. Just be careful! Now to the left of the bottom pool is a hot tub which we did utilize almost every day. It too has a very awkward entry because there are no stairs going into it, just jagged, uneven flagstone and hiking your leg into it. Very ladylike. If it sounds like I’m being hard on the little things it’s because I used to work in insurance and its unfortunately engrained in me. These are things that could bite any vacation rental owner if they aren’t careful. Please keep that in mind if you own one.

There’s a caretaker on site as well. He’s very nice and all of the guest comments rave about him, we just didn’t get a chance to talk in depth with him. He keeps the grounds very well maintained and I have no beef with him. I do, however, wish that when I asked if anyone else shared the property that I had been told that his place was 50 feet away from the northernmost bedroom. It was never a problem but when I asked the question and was told no, I just kind of felt lied to when I got there. Two last irks, the dryer didn’t work after one go round. It had to be air dried which took forever. Also, they only allowed you 2 rolls of toilet paper per bathroom and then you had to buy your own. Come on…I’m paying over $495 per night and you can’t chip in unlimited TP? Especially when I can see masses of bulk TP in the locked portion of the pantry? I swear I’m not going to toilet paper the neighborhood. Sheesh! (Actually it looks like they’re charging $495-550/nt for that place per night now (we paid $450/nt) and given a recent comment still complains about a cold pool and their hot tub having issues, personally I wouldn’t pay that much for it but it was just the 2 of us. It may be worth it for larger parties.)

In summary:

Pros
Large house to accommodate a large family/many guests (5 bedrooms)
Away from the hustle and bustle of Kona
Great view of Kona
Pool table
2 pools
Herb garden
Most of the house renovated
Helpful, nice caretaker available
Manicured grounds
Koi pond
Luxurious master bedroom
Secluded

Cons
A little too far from Kona if your goal is to run down to grab dinner and come back
A few outdated rooms
Pools are not heated and are cold due to higher elevation in the cooler months
Placement of fragrant Heather plants directly behind all loungers by pool attracts lots of bees
Bug problem in dishwasher
Awkward entries to lower pool and hot tub
Toilet paper limit
Caretaker cottage 50 ft from home

Recommended? Yes as long as you go in knowing what I consider the cons and are fine with them, have a great time!

Comments

5 Comments so far

Emilie on November 16, 2007 1:15 pm
I am so glad I found your review! My family and I have been considering this property for our vacation next May. Your comments are extremely helpful in making our decision.

Have you stayed at other properties in the Kona area you might recommend for a larger group (13-14)?

Thanks!
Pele on November 16, 2007 8:02 pm
I sent you an email, let me know if you have any other questions!
Aloha!
Rachel Carr on December 1, 2007 6:47 pm
We are also looking for a private home with nice grounds, gardens and a pool to hold a wedding. We have a group of 10 (5 couples) we need to accommodate the third week of May 2008. Thank you for any suggestions.
tolstead on January 30, 2009 11:49 pm
My husband and I stayed at this home for a week in September 2008 with my 6 yr old son, my parents and my sister and her 5 yr old son. We found the home 100% true or better than the descriptions on their web sight. We couldn’t keep the boys out of the pools! They didn’t seem “icy” cold, but then we had some good sunny weather during our week. (Maybe it depends on where you come from). The house was very clean and modern and we didn’t see one bug inside the house the whole time we were there. I guess some folks are never satisfied. We had a great time. It is about 15 minutes from Safeway and Costco and in a very quiet neighboorhood of similar type acreage homes in a rural setting. We never saw a neighbor. My husband got a private scuba diving tour with a friend of the owner and had a great time. Apparently the owner now lives onsite and manages the property and grounds, but you cannot even see the owner cottage from the house because it is over 170′ away behind a detached garage. The yard and grounds are well kept, The beds are very comfortable, and the linens are high quality. There was a front load new washer and 2 dryers in the utility room plus an extra refrigerator. There are so many extras included with this home that other homes don’t provide–so we didn’t mind purchasing our own supplies after the supplies provided ran out because we expected to purchase our own supplies. There is even a computer provided for our use! There are also lots of kids toys and pool toys. It’s much better than staying at a hotel and the price per person was much lower than if we had been in a hotel. We have stayed at other vacation rental homes in Hawaii over the years and this one far exceeded our expectations. The only problem we had was that we had to leave and go back to Washington.
PS, When we asked the owner about the “name change” comment above, she said that she changes the heading in her ads periodically to attract different attention as seasons and economy changes warrant. Is this what the initial blogger was referring to?
Thanks for reading my blog! We’d go back to this home ANYTIME. My son is still talking about Hawaii and thinks Hawaii is only this home and pools.
Anele on January 31, 2009 10:00 am
I am very happy to hear you had a good experience with this rental and it seems that some improvements may have been made. It appears the road may be fixed if it only took you 15 minutes to get to Safeway, so that’s good!

Being born and raised in a place where it’s been in the single digits lately, I can tell you that I know what “icy” feels like. When you’re in a higher elevation and there is that risk of not getting the kind of sun the coast gets (especially with the amount of vog covering the upper elevations now) then a heater in the cooler months would be of benefit. Also, you were there in September at the exact same time we were on the Big Island in 2008 and it was in the high 80′s/low 90′s, so the pool likely wouldn’t be cold having had a whole summer to be heated by the sun. I have stayed in plenty of comparable homes and I assure you we aren’t hard to please. I don’t think putting up with a dryer that didn’t work or roaches in the dishwasher are something I, nor anyone else, should have to put up with. It sounds like those issues may have been dealt with and I’m happy about that. I can just tell you having a chef come to the house to cook for your anniversary and having him open the dishwasher to see a bunch of little “friends” was embarrassing. We have come to expect roaches here and there because whether you see them or not, they’re there…anywhere in Hawaii. But I don’t expect them where I try to clean the utensils I eat off of.

You’ll also note I didn’t steer people away from this rental, I said I’d recommend it. It’s especially good for larger parties like yours as there aren’t too many rentals that accommodate that many people. I will note that I’ve received several emails from people who chose not rent here after having dealt with the process because they had the same experience with the owner that I did and 2 who have stayed there and said their review was not approved (like mine which was much less direct than this one) because it wasn’t 100% positive. It’s good to know the method behind the name changes but with every name change, I will change this review name because it is a place we stayed and I do want others to be informed in an unbiased manner, not what is filtered through rental websites. Because it’s my blog, I have vowed to call ‘em as I see ‘em. You had one experience, we had another and I’m glad yours was better!

Big Island Vacation Rental: Kailua Kona Vacation Rental chateau/country house

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