Our Experience Renting from Leslie Hill in Maui, Hawaii

Travelers should be wary when renting properties advertised on VRBO.com. My wife and I had a great experience renting a condo in Kauai two years ago, so when we were planning a 9-day trip to Maui this Spring, we went back to VRBO, expecting a similar find. After we determined that we wanted to rent a unit in West Maui, my wife spent hours looking at listings on VRBO. We both agreed that a unit listed for "The Kuleana" in Kahana (West Maui) looked like what we were after. After expressing our interest via VRBO, we were contacted by the owner, Leslie Hill. Both of us with busy lives, we were eager to lock up the rental, buy plane tickets, and plan our vacation. We paid Hill in full to reserve the condo (in retrospect, a big mistake), mailing her a check. We declined a travel insurance option offered by VRBO, still operating in a mode of trust, based on our positive experience with the trip to Kauai.

When we arrived in Maui, we were shocked. The condo was clearly not the one in the photos shown on VRBO.

The decor was similar, perhaps indicating that the VRBO listing had taken photos from another, larger unit in the same complex. The shots of the view and living area spaces were set to mislead renters, with the difference only obvious once you stood in the actual unit. Worst of all, the unit was in an awful condition, with stains on nearly every surface. The furniture, carpet, and bedding was badly stained. One appliance, the dish washer, was outright broken, with parts lying on the floor and sharp edges exposed at foot level. An amateur attempt at fixing the appliance had been attempted with duct tape, presumably by the owner. The dead bolt on the door was non-functional, the smoke detector (missing a cover) was also apparently broken, and a power outlet had been yanked from the wall, exposing electrical wires. Horrified, we attempted to call the owner, but we had arrived after 10pm. We had no choice but to leave a message and stay the night in the unit. In the morning, we took pictures and video to document the condition of the condo, and then immediately set about finding another location to stay. Given the circumstances, we requested a refund for all but the one night we had stayed (having no choice) overnight. We also offered to pay the "cleaning fee" detailed on the VRBO listing. Even that seemed unreasonable, but we saw no way to avoid paying for the night we had slept there.

When we reached Leslie Hill, her reaction to our displeasure with the unit was odd. She immediately issued canned disclaimers about the photos on VRBO, making me think that she had experienced customer complaints before. She claimed to have known about the broken dishwasher, but said it was "in the process of getting fixed". She also wanted to sell us another unit, owned by her mother. We were dumbfounded; it seemed ridiculous that she would expect us to enter into further business arrangements with her after having just been burned so badly. With regards to the stains, streaks, and security/safety issues, she expressed surprise. She communicated that she would visit the unit the next day and then respond to our request for a refund. However, we found that she had little interest in communicating with us after she had learned that we would not be purchasing a different rental from her. It would be three full days before we heard from her again, and her response was bizarre.

After visiting the unit, Leslie Hill proclaimed it to be in good condition. She complained that we did not give her the opportunity to address our concerns. She mentioned something about steam cleaning the carpets and fixing the dishwasher, but it was not apparent if she had planned to repaint the entire condo and replace the badly stained furniture. Regardless, her offer was to refund two nights out of the 9 we had paid for up front, as well as a cleaning fee. At first, I took this as a mistake, and figured she meant to *charge* us for two nights and a cleaning fee, since we had left the unit after 10am on the first day. When finally reaching her on the phone, she seemed not to remember the parameters of her refund offer, but it was clear that she had no intention of refunding the money we had sent. Combined with what we were paying for the room at our new location (a wonderful resort up the street - Napili Kai), we could have spent all 9 nights at The Four Seasons. A harsh lesson.

For anyone looking to vacation in Hawaii, our advice (besides not renting from Leslie Hill, of course) is to exercise extreme caution with any rentals on VRBO.com. You can clearly get a great deal using this this site to contact private renters, but you also run a great risk. If the listing has no reviews at all, I would be wary. If you have any cause for doubt (perhaps from some negative comments present on the listing), think seriously about purchasing the insurance from VRBO. When you are directly in contact with the renter, request additional photos. If they cannot offer these, or if the photos don't match the ones on the listing, move on. Search other mechanisms that collect reviews and comments on rental properties (such as TripAdvisor.com), and put the owner/renters name through a search engine (or even better, see if they are listed with the BBB). The additional research may seem tedious, but you can avoid a nightmare surprise like we had with our recent experience in Maui.