Complaint Review: Pacific Ohana Hostel

My girlfriend and I were looking for a place to stay on 2/20/11 after our plans changed and came upon this hostel. The attendant there (James) said they had a private room available for three nights, so we booked it for $227 plus a $30 deposit and $15 for parking that first night. We paid in cash since they charged a 5% fee if you used a credit or debit card. They also do not log their records in a computer because "the owner hates computers" so the poor kid at the desk is maintaining manual records in a ledger. We paid, left our car in the lot, and went to dinner.

When we returned from dinner and went to the room, we discovered it was completely infested with bugs. Roaches, beetles, bedbugs, and others that I don't even know what to call them, not to mention any that I couldn't see (like mites or fleas). I don't mind a bug or two in a hostel, I get it that bugs are rampant in Hawaii, but this place was INFESTED. We had killed at least 20 bugs in the first 10 minutes when we turned the lights on and at least 20 more in the following hour. I have photos of these critters (alive and dead) on my phone. A pull back of the sheets revealed a harrowing number of bedbugs all scurrying away and the curtains were replete with beetles and more bedbugs.

At first we decided to just deal with it, figuring you get what you pay for, and went down to ask James for some bug spray and a towel to put under the door to keep the bugs from entering freely. He was very accommodating, giving us an industrial-sized bug spray canister (they must have this complaint a lot) for bed mites and bedbugs. I took this up to the room to find my girlfriend huddled up in the middle of the living room with our luggage on the verge of tears because she was so grossed out. I went into the bedroom and sprayed everything: walls, screen door, floor. Then, out of curiosity I sprayed it directly on one of the bugs crawling up the wall. It fell, but then quickly
flipped over and ran away. This led me to conclude that this spray was insufficient against the bigger bugs.

Gritting my teeth, I pulled back the sheets and sprayed the whole mattress. It was at this point I realized how ridiculous this was. I was (ineffectively) spraying my own room for bugs in a place where we would not be able to get any sleep for fear of getting bitten all night. I had had enough, so I went back downstairs to talk to James. I told him what happened and what we'd done to try to fix it and explained that we just wanted our money back so we could go somewhere else. We hadn't even been checked in for 3 hours at this point and all I'd done was spray the place for bugs.
James noted that the owner had a strict "no refund" policy and that the money was already in the safe. He also apologized profusely, saying he understood the place was disgusting but needed the job, noting that his room there was even more disgusting than ours. I asked to talk to the manager and he called him, mentioning we wanted a refund, but the call was very short with the manager
obviously not caring at all and hanging up before I could speak with him. I then said I'd call the police and he urged that I do get them involved, so I did.

Before the police arrived, we opted to cut our losses and take a room with two single beds at the hostel next door (which is INFINITELY nicer and cleaner) just so we could go to sleep.

Upon speaking with the officer, I learned the police can't do anything because no actual crime was committed (well, one may argue "theft") but the policewoman and James both gave me very good ideas on how to report this place to the authorities. Since I was just visiting, small claims court was pretty much unfeasible for under $300, but I was told of many other ways to make my story known, including here on RipoffReport.com.

As we were leaving our other hostel, I stopped by to try to reason with the manager, but he would have none of it and welcomed any sort of complaint that I could create. So, here I am. I do not wish for anything more than my money back ($227) and for everyone who comes across this to learn how filthy and awfully-managed it is.