Renting the Hale Kulani (aka Ali’i Mana) Ruined Our Vacation
- House beyond the pool is the one that
complained twice.
Nine of us recently rented the Hale Kulani (aka Ali’i Mana) vacation home in Lahaina, Maui and it was by far the worst renting/vacation experience I’ve ever had. Since there’s no place for me to provide feedback on our horrible experience, I decided to share it here. Here’s our story:
Sunday: We got settled in the house a little late because the prior renter stayed late. We went to dinner in town around 6 and got back around 10 p.m. Two couples sat quietly in the hot tub and everyone else went to bed.
Monday: Half the group got up at the crack of dawn to go golfing. The other half went shopping in Lahaina. We get back around 4 p.m.. Two local friends were invited for dinner so there were eleven of us total (this is important later): six males sitting around the table playing/watching a chess game, one female at the BBQ, two females in the kitchen, one male sitting in a chair in the living room and another female in the shower. The owner came over at 6:30 and told us she had been getting noise complaints all afternoon (we got back at 4 p.m.). We turned the music down and sent our guests home. Shortly after, we got our first “official” complaint from http://www.hawaiianbeachrentals.com. They told us they heard we had a party with 16 people and a dog, and that we were going to have a a wedding on the property — WHAT?? We invited two friends over, no dogs and no wedding. LIES! We quietly played games the rest of the night.
Tuesday: We got up early and went to a beach just north of Lahaina. The landscaper came back with his dog (did I mention he was also there on Monday around 4:30 to do edging), hot tub maintenance was done (homeowner rudely commented on water level) and fence maintenance was being done. At this point we’re starting to feel harassed – we can hear the homeowner talking about us on the phone (she lives in a cottage next door) and she’s been at the house two days in a row.We called http://www.hawaiianbeachrentals.com and asked if they could relocate us. The homeowner calls and reassures us that everything is fine. We should enjoy the house. Just keep the music down. We grilled steaks and seven of us sat on the lanai for a quiet dinner. The guys played spades and girls played bananagrams inside. No music.
Wednesday: We got up feeling a little better after our chat with the homeowner. We drove to Kihei and checked out Makena Landing and Big Beach. Around 3 p.m. we get a call from http://www.hawaiianbeachrentals.com with our second noise complaint — REALLY?? We were so lame the night before it’s not even funny. They tell us if we get one more complaint we’ll get evicted. We spent the rest of the day/night arguing with each other and http://www.hawaiianbeachrentals.com. We were NOT getting evicted based on lies and a lame 6 p.m. noise complaint. We got a half-assed refund for the remaining nights, packed up our stuff, threw out all the food we bought and bailed. On MANY occasions we caught http://www.hawaiianbeachrentals.com telling lies in an attempt to intimidate us.
Thursday – Sunday: We relocated to the Maui Coast Hotel in Kihei. It was a great hotel and we managed to salvage what
was left of our vacation. It was nice staying at a place that actually values customer service. When we left the Hale Kulani (aka Ali’i Mana) we made sure it was cleaner than when we got it and even did the walkthrough with http://www.hawaiianbeachrentals.com to make sure everything was ok. And get this, http://www.hawaiianbeachrentals.com just notified us we won’t get our $1,000 security deposit back because of:
- Extra guest at the home
- Party on Nov 15, 2010 at the home
- Dog on property
What a joke! I’m not at all surprised they don’t allow open comments/feedback on their site. I do see a couple positive pieces of feedback, so I can only assume they made them up like all the lies they told us. I’m so angry about the way we were treated, I’m not sure I’ll ever stay in a rental home again. In short, I do not recommend staying at the Hale Kulani (aka Ali’i Mana) in Lahaina or renting any vacation home from http://www.hawaiianbeachrentals.com. Stay in one of the amazing hotels on the Island instead. Pass it on.
Gardening in My Rubber Boots 
I would post something on TripAdvisor and also contact Better Business Bureau.
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Oh, wow, sorry to hear about your bad vacation!
Here this might help you if you plan to return to the Island!
First go to the Kapaa, Hawaii and stay at Candy’s Cabin this is Independent owned vacation rental, were you can relax have and enjoyable time and party if you want to.
Candace Kepley is the owner
808-822-5451
I hope this information helps you and if it helps me WIN that’s great too : ) Annie
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If I didn’t know it was a real life experience, I’d say it was a movie.
donna
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Next time go to Cabo. Heard it was much nicer than Hawaii. Yes, call the BBB and complain. Tell the landlord that you did not have a dog, because, if you had brought it to the island with you, it would have had to be in Quarentene. Sorry you had a bad experience. Quit the partying. haha.
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That stinks! But thanks for passing along the infomation so that others don’t get put in that same situation.
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Sorry about your vacation from hell in paradise. I think they have a inside money racket going on to make an extra thousand bucks off of everyone who stays if you ask me. I would report them to the Chamber of Commerce, Better Business Bureau, and any travel agency sites. There is no excuse to be treated like that.
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Hey Angela – I’m so, so sorry about your experience…but thank you for sharing the information so someone else doesn’t get burned. Have you tried Trip Advisor? I’ve used them a lot to research where to stay, and they always have lots of comments (both positive and negative). Maybe there’s a place on their site where you can write down your experience? You might also check Hawaii’s BBB. I really think you ought to take this further, considering they’re keeping $1000 of your hard-earned money. Sorry, my friend.
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So unfair. Was it the landscapers dog too!? So sorry that happened.
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Wow! That is unreal – what a scam. Sorry it happened to you and ruined your vacation.
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What a horror story! House rentals sounds like a really icky way to vacation. I’ll be sure never to use http://www.hawaiianbeachrentals.com . What a terrible way to be treated in such a beautiful vacation area. Sounds like a scam.
-L
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Boo! That is so unfair. I just wanted to whine about your bummer vacation rental experience.
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All I can say is TripAdvisor! You can post a review about the location and everyone searching for it will see your negative feedback. I ALWAYS check trip advisor, even if we’re using our condo timeshare trades. It’s a great source.
These people need to have your feedback shown to any possible future renters.
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The whole horrible experience was like being in the twilight zone. One absurd accusation after another by the owner of the Ali’i Mana and http://www.hawaiianbeachrentals.com and not one person at the agency treated us with any respect whatsoever. I felt the constant harassment made it very apparent that their goal was to evict us and keep all of our money. I am so disgusted and I hope people read this and seriously consider other options when staying in Maui so they can avoid the same thing happening to them.
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So crappy of them. Especially when the dog belonged to their own employee. I bet this isn’t the first time it’s happened. Complain to BBB, any major vacation and travel sites, and I bet the state government has a tourism site as well. They should get notice of these complaints, and maybe as a fat chance you’ll get the deposit back.
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If you paid the $1,000 security deposit with a credit card, dispute the charges with the bank holding the account. They will be required to have the merchant validate the charge, and if they don’t or can’t, you get your money back.
If they do attempt to validate the charge, then there’s an opportunity for mitigation.
If you didn’t pay with a card, $1,000 is certainly worth filing a small claims suit over. Hopefully you didn’t sign anything to the effect of “any disputes to be resolved in the state of HI”.
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YIKES! burn them to the ground, angela!
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How MORTIFYING!!! Firstly, it isn’t exactly every day that you plan a trip to Hawaii but then once you get there to have to deal with this complete BS is a horror story come to life!!! I cannot believe that someone would go above and beyond to ensure that your experience there was terrible… Knowing you and the group that you were there with, I know that your side of the story cannot be even close to an exaggeration and am truly sorry that you had to experience such a terrible time while trying to relax and have a vacation!!! Please let me know if you get any kind of justice out of this whole ordeal.
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That is some f’n BS!! I’ve stayed at a bunch of rentals and have NEVER been treated like that. Quite the opposite actually. That really sucks for you guys. And to think all that just to come home to a winter storm and horrible traffic. What a trip, i still wish i coulda been there though :)
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Wow. I can not believe that happened to all of you. What a horrible experience! Thanks for letting me know about hawaiianbeachrentals. Adam and I were looking for a house to rent this spring and we had came across that site! I better let his parents know too! Good timing and thanks for getting the word out!
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Better Business Bureau, strongly worded emails, any place you can rank them: Yahoo, trip advisor, etc. I’m trying http://www.vrbo.com for my Maui rental….I hope I don’t encounter what you experienced! :(
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I am so sorry to hear about this! What a terrible thing :(
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Wow Angela im sorry to hear that but if you paid with a check or credit card cant you cancel the check or contact the card company. I hope you get your money back and your next trip is less stress
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I read this the day you posted and told my husband about it. He thinks the neighbor is in on the whole think with the rental company. He also thought you should turn them into the Better business bureau.
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Karma will get them, it always does…..
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I am so sorry to hear about the horrible experience. A friend told mine from work mentioned this experience and the frustration involved with this mess.
I hope in the end you guys are able to sort the deposit thing out! Wishing you the best of luck!
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:( I’m sorry Angela. That really sucks. Not often we get to go on vacation.
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OMG Angela, I guess I didn’t hear the whole story from you on Thanksgiving! That is really bad… blog was a perfect idea. After reading the other messages, you have a lot of great places to tell your story. That will really hurt their business. Do it ALL!
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When I searched google for Ali’i Mana your post came up second – way to go in protecting future vacationers!!
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Angela, I can’t believe that you guys were treated that way. I would turn them in to the Better Business Bureau and to all the travel agents in the area.
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Save yourself from the hell we went through by avoiding the Ali’i Mana and Hawaiian Beach Rentals!!
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What a HORRIBLE experience!!!! I’m so sorry you guys had to deal with a bunch of crooks! I definitely sugggest posting your experience on trip advisory!!! Many travelers look to that for recommendations. And report to BBB!
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Wow! I can’t believe that! How insanely horrible! :( That does sound like a movie, crazy. I’m sorry for you guys and your trip, thanks for sharing!
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Thanks for taking the time to write this blog Angela! The way we were treated really was mind blowing. The owner of the Ali’I Mana is a horrible human being, and I found it ironic that there were so many religiously themed decorations on her walls. She’s really trying to be Christ like… Not only did she lie to us on multiple occasions, and clearly had others (including herself) spying on us, but I firmly believe that her phone call to tell us that it was ok to turn on the music, and to have a couple of guests over was merely a ploy to get us to spend one more night fighting amongst ourselves, and stressing out on what should have been our vacation, so that she could get one more nights rent out of us before we made the decision to cut and run (a decision that we made only after the muscle bound goon that they’ve hired to manage the property, and to apparently attempt to intimidate guests assured us that the only stipulation placed upon the return of our “damage” deposit was an approval of the condition of the house after his and the owners walkthrough). The property manager also lied to us repeatedly, and belittled our repeated attempts at resolution through phone calls by stating “you must be bored”. We saw no help from The agency, (Hawaiian Beach Rentals)http://www.hawaiianbeachrentals.com/Hawaii/Maui/Lahaina/AliiMana.htm despite the fact that the rep. who informed us that our deposit would not be returned works in their nonexistent “guest services department”. Please pass this blog on to everyone you know, and do yourself a favor by never using any of these companies.
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What a horrible experience. It must have been so frustrating to be powerless to such a crooked operation.
I am glad you were able to get out and salvage the rest of your trip! Hawaii should be a restful, peaceful place, not a nightmare!
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This woman must get her kicks out of doing this to people. Wonder how many more she has done this to. She probably is going to use that security deposit for her own gain. I bet if she did that to enough people, she would have her place paid for in not time. Blood Money
Angela, I know you are not that wild of a person, Too bad you don’t take after me. I AM the wild one.
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We’ve uses local rental agencies and have never had an experience like this. What a nightmare! To be in one of the most peaceful places and experience unkind locals. So sorry for all of you to have had to go through that. Hope you get your deposit back.
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We’ve uses local rental agencies and have never had an experience like this. What a nightmare! To be in one of the most peaceful places and experience unkind locals. So sorry for all of you to have had to go through that. Hope you get your deposit back. Thank you for sharing your story.
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Sounds as if they had another set of renters and they wanted you out. Do they have a better business bureau. I’d fight for that $1,000. They came out ahead.
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What a frustrating experience! All the comments so far are so helpful. Perhaps you could also contact Tourism Hawaii and share your experience with them? They may want to know and may also be able to direct you how best to move forward against the company if you wish to. Glad the hotel treated you well in the end so you’re entire vacation wasn’t a write off.
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Thanks for spreading the word so everyone knows to avoid using http://www.hawaiianbeachrentals.com and the Ali’i Mana. Their vacations will be so much more pleasant if they do!
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Also, the company (agents) that we were dealing with who were supposed to be with the “guests services department” work for this company
https://www.vacationrentalagent.com/
(a partner with http://www.hawaiianbeachrentals.com)
It seems like they use as many people and companies as possible so that they can all act like they aren’t the ones who are screwing you, or the ones who can do anything to help you.
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I would post something on Tripadvisor and call the better business bureau. I’m so sorry your vacation turned into a stress-fest.
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What a nightmare. We have had three great vacations in Hawaii. Sounds like we were lucky!
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what a terrible vacation..i cant believe you cant leave a comment on their site. thanks for sharing. sorry you had such a bad vacation.
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I notice that when you do a search for Ali’i Mana on Google your story is the top entry. So hopefully by using your blog for good you can save others from bad vacations.
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Did you pay with a credit card? If so I would charge back the entire thing.. they misrepresented the product and did not deliver. I had to do this with Cabins I rented in Gatlinburg a couple years ago.
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