Hawaii Condos: Vacation Rentals

If you’re planning a Hawaiian holiday, have you considered renting a condo rather than settling for a hotel room?

I’ve tried it both ways, and certainly favor the condo route. Not surprisingly, I found pros and disadvantages on each piece of the equation. A condo provides more flexibility and frequently a lower price, but requires further study before you leave home, and a bit of housekeeping while you’re on holiday.

In particular, I like getting a room or suite with a kitchen or at least a kitchenette, and condos come out ahead of hotels on this comparison. While dining out each day is okay for a few days, it soon loses its allure; it expands my waist while cleaning out my pockets. With a kitchen or kitchenette, I can planto have at least two meals a day in my room. I’m also a snacker and like to have a refrigerator and microwave handy, especially late in the evening and early in the morning (I’m a night owl and sometimes an insomniac).

On the other hand, renting a condo in Hawaii usually means you’ll have to clean up after yourself. You will need to do minor cleanup on stays of a week or less, but beyond that timeframe, it will become more like the housekeeping you do at home. Still, if you’re reasonably neat, it shouldn’t take you more than an hour or two a week to keep your unit in reasonable shape. And most condos do provide essential cleaning supplies (check with the rental agency, of course).

When renting a condo, you should check on the same sorts of things as you would when renting a hotel room: When was the unit last renovated or refurbished, how good are the bed and the pillows? Kitchen equipped units are great, but they'll also drive you crazy if they're not properly equipped. You'll keep asking youself whether or not you want to go out and buy things like pots and pans when you'll only be there a couple of weeks. Take the answers you get to these questions with some skepticism, but after you check with a few rental agents you should begin to get a feel for what’s offered.

Since a stay of a couple of weeks or more will have you spending a lot of time in close proximity with your partner, family, or fellow vacationers, you'd be wise to check the size of the room. Here's where we'll give the advantage to condos over hotel rooms; generally speaking the same amount of space, of equivalent quality, will likely cost less in a condo than in a hotel.

Obviously, the condo strategy will require more research, and that means looking around the Internet. Here are some search engine phrases I found helpful when I was doing my research (I've included quotation marks for the sake of clarity; you won't need them when you're doing your searches): "Hawaii vacation rental", "Hawaii condos", and "Hawaii condo rentals"; you can also substitute island or city names for "Hawaii". Personally, I found Craigslist quite valuable. Pick your island, then click on to Vacation Rentals within the Housing category.

And, don't be shy about taking the initiative yourself, and posting a rental-wanted ad on Craigslist or other online media. It costs nothing and could result in opportunities you wouldn’t otherwise find. Begin by looking at ads already on Craiglist (the Housing Wanted section of the Housing category) and after that create an announcement listing your specifications; it doesn't take long.

Be cautious with your payments, too. A credit card will often protect you against dishonest people and when you have a dispute about fees or some other issue.

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For lists that will help you find and rent a suitable condo, please visit my Hawaii condos website. The site features lists that will help you specify your needs, determine the quality of the building and unit, catch the key safety issues, and provide an extended list of search phrases. Aloha!

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