I'm not sure why the place has such great reviews, unless everyone is worried about hurting the owner's feelings. I'm sorry, but I don't want another couple to be duped the way we were.
My boyfriend and I arrived the night of January 25th. Our vacation was a week long, however Karon kindly informed us the unit was only available for 5 nights and she could not accommodate us for the last night we requested, the night of the 31st. This was fine with us so we rented a hotel in Waikiki for the last night. My bf and I are both avid surfers and wanted to stay in the North Shore for the Volcom surf competition at Pipeline. We didn't want to do anything touristy, just wanted to live, eat, and surf as the locals did. We decided to look for cottages and decided upon this one.
The night we arrived it was pouring rain. We gathered our belongings out of the rental jeep and trudged up the stairway to our unit. We had the email handy so that we could look up the access code to get our keys, but we punched in the numbers multiple times to no avail. Luckily Karon had left her phone number in the instructions so we called her for further information. Turned out she had accidentally switched a couple of the numbers around. No big deal. We typed in the correct numbers, and away into the cottage we were.
Greeted by ant traps! Gross. Alrighty then, I guess they have an ant problem. Ants were pouring out of cracks innthe ceiling and marching along the window sills. There wasn't any food laying out or anything, so maybe it's just something that happens when it rains. We left them well alone and they didn't bother us much.
We tried to log into the wifi with the email instructions, but again something seemed to be amiss. The wifi name she gave us was "NeatGear62" of which there was no such thing listed. We tried the next best thing, "netgear52" and plugged in the password we were given. This turned out to be the correct one. I wish someone had double-checked that email before it had been sent.
The worst of all were our next-door-neighbors; a couple with three screaming children. If you're going to label something as a "dreamy beach cottage" please, for the love of God, mention that you will be sharing a wall with another unit. Furthermore, what was between the units could hardly be described as a wall; it was a thin, sliding wooden door which had been glued in such a way it could not be pried open. This was obviously supposed to be one single, large unit that someone