Kanaloa at Kona Vacation Rentals

Airfares are up, and some are worried the Hawaii tourism industry may suffer as a result. Of course travel wasn’t exactly cheap a few months ago when the industry saw a big increase in winter visitors over the previous year.

Whether or not Hawaii travel will be affected for long by the recent changes in airline service and high fuel prices is impossible to say. What’s certain is that for many people, there’s an easy way to make this year’s trip to the Big Island less expensive than the last one.

Oceanfront—or not?

The big expenses associated with any Hawaiian vacation of course are airfare and lodging. The former you can’t do much about, beyond shopping around for the best deal. But when it comes to choosing your hotel, resort or vacation rental property, a wide range of options exists.

Naturally no one wants to travel to Kona and stay in a dump just to save a few bucks. But in a top-of-the-line resort like Kanaloa, you can save hundreds of dollars simply by passing on the higher priced oceanfront listings and choosing a garden or fairway view unit instead.

Now I know, for some, that’s hard to imagine. Oceanfront is what many people want when they come to Hawaii—the closer to the water the better. I know because I used to be one of those oceanfront addicts myself! But if affordability is an issue—and even if it’s not—there are good reasons to consider an non-oceanfront rental.

First a few caveats. Of course there are complexes where “garden-side” is really “street-side”. You don’t want that. There are also complexes where the living room is oceanfront and the bedroom is perfectly positioned for traffic noise—watch out for those. But at Kanaloa and other high-end places you’re not sandwiched in between the street and the shoreline, and the same high quality extends throughout the grounds.

A cost comparison

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. Outrigger’s “Best Available” rate for a two-bedroom oceanfront unit at Kanaloa for seven nights in July is $345/night, compared to $259/night for a 2BR fairway-view unit. That’s a difference of $600 for the week, not including taxes.

Private owner rentals are less expensive overall but a similar price difference exists. Two-bedroom oceanfront listings at Kanaloa on VRBO average from $250-$300/night during the summer, which may or may not include air conditioning. My two-bedroom fairway-front Kanaloa unit, situated about 100 yards inland, is $165/night with AC included.

The $100 day or more you can save just by adjusting your location within the complex can more than offset the current round of airfare inflation.

Enjoy the savings

What many regular oceanfront renters don’t know until they experience it for themselves is how enjoyable and relaxing a garden or fairway unit can be.

Staying in a luxury condo a stone’s throw from the shoreline, but not right where the waves are crashing, has an appeal all it’s own. Birds are singing. Geckos are darting through the flowers. Sun and clouds are coloring the hills.

To me, it all feels just as Hawaiian as that view from the oceanfront lanai. The sea is still right there when you want it, but you might start to enjoy the peace and quiet of coming home to the garden side.

So what to choose? As the owner of a fairway-front unit I’m clearly biased. And don’t get me wrong, there are some spectacular oceanfront condos at Kanaloa and elsewhere in Kona that are great if you can afford the premium rates. But if you’re worried about the cost of Hawaii travel this year—consider a garden or fairway unit.

–Condo update. I have some new discount offers listed for my Kanaloa at Kona 1002 unit. I’m also in touch with a network of other owners of great Kanaloa condo units, so if my place is booked send an email anyway and I’ll forward you inquiry on to them.

April 10, 2008. On Tuesday a reversal of the normal tradewind pattern brought a cloud of volcanic gas (”vog” = volcanic smog) into portions of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park normally open to visitors. The Park was quickly shut down, and some two thousand visitors were quickly ushered out of the area. The Park remained closed on Wednesday, as did a school in the nearby town of Volcano.

A new vent in Halema‘uma‘u crater on Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano has been releasing clouds of sulfur dioxide-laden gas steadily since a sudden outburst of activity on March 19. Not killer really, but not healthy either!

Prevailing winds typically direct the gas plume south across closed areas of the park and out to sea. A park service air quality monitor shows that by Thursday morning the normal pattern has resumed, but no word yet on whether the park will reopen to visitors today.

Check Park Service announcements for the latest information, and here’s a brief story posted today on National Geographic News.

Changing topics completely, I just received word that guests booked to stay in my Kanaloa at Kona condo June 26 - July 3 have had to cancel, so that week is now again open. I also still have some discounted dates open in late April and May. Right now between spring break and summer vacation is a nice time to visit Kailua-Kona, and some decent fares are still available from the West Coast.

March 30, 2008. All Hawaii travelers take note: Aloha Airlines just announced they’re going out of the passenger travel business as of…tomorrow. Purchased Aloha Airlines tickets after March 31, 2008, will not be honored.

Any of our Kanaloa at Kona condo guests affected by this, please get in touch with me.

This is hard to believe, and is going to affect a lot of people. What happens if you have a flight booked on Aloha Airlines any time from April 1 on? According the press release issued today, “Code-share partner United Airlines and other airlines are prepared to assist and accommodate Aloha’s passengers who have been inconvenienced.”

I don’t know yet what that means. I don’t know if United is adding any extra flights, or if you can fully or partly redeem your Aloha tickets on United with no extra fees. But it seems doubtful that most passengers currently booked on Aloha will be able to simply transfer to another airline for the same dates and times.

Aloha is also saying that passengers unable to switch to another carrier can seek refunds through credit card companies or in bankruptcy court. It’s a pretty bleak picture.

UPDATE: More details on the Aloha Air situation in this article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Hawaiian Airlines has posted some information for Aloha Airlines ticket holders here. They’re adding some capacity and have some reduced fares on inter-island flights. For mainland travel they’re offering free standby travel to Aloha ticket holders during the first three days of the shutdown, through April 3. That’s not going to help too many people. Beyond that, they advise booking at full fare as soon as possible.

I’ll try to post more on this when more information becomes available. For now, if you are an Aloha Airlines passenger I would drop whatever else you may be doing and contact United or Hawaiian Airlines immediately—there’s sure to be a huge demand for whatever seats they have available.

March 20, 2008

Kilauea volcano is showing some very interesting activity this week! Apparently a gas build-up caused some significant explosions, resulting in rocks and gravel raining down on a portion of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park normally open to visitors. As of now some trails in the park and parts of the Chain of Craters Road are closed due to elevated levels of volcanic gases, and I suppose also risk of further explosions.

The volcano has been slowly erupting lava for decades, providing one of the most awesome spectacles on the Big Island–or anywhere. The recent explosions weren’t in the fissures on the side of the volcano that have been producing the lava, but rather from one of the big craters near the summit. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reports that these were the first explosions in Halema`uma`u crater since 1924 and the first eruption of any kind in Kilauea caldera since September 1982.

Lava also continues to flow and enter the ocean outside the park, and the area is open for viewing. The conditions change frequently so check with Hawaii Volcanoes National Park for more information. A trip to the Big Island really isn’t complete without a visit to the volcano, and a chance to see fiery lava flowing into the ocean is not to be missed!

UPDATE: The rental condo at Kanaloa still has April-May dates open at discounted rates.

Our Kanaloa condo guests often ask about the best deals on car rentals in the Kailua-Kona area. Unfortunately it is hard to see what the Big Island has to offer without a car. The good news is that rental prices are generally reasonable (although gas prices in Hawaii are frightening!)

Arriving in Kona you’ll definitely want to rent something at the airport. I usually just check one of the big travel sites for whatever seems to be the best deal, but there are some options available. You may want to check out Car Rentals in Hawaii, Discount Hawaii Car Rentals, or Hawaiian Discount Car Rentals. All of these claim to offer reduced rates on at-the-airport rentals from the national rental companies, and there are some good deals to be had. But be sure to compare–I sometimes find that Travelocity beats any of these.

If price is not really an issue and you want to tool around the Big Island in a Lamborghini Gallardo or Jaguar XK Sport, this Exotic Rentals company can set you up.

A far cooler option (to my mind) would be to rent a VW Westfalia Camper Van! I’ve never done this but it sounds like fun. Spend a week relaxing at Kanaloa and another week exploring the Big Island in a Westfalia from GB Adventures. (They’ll rent you a tent and Coleman stove too–and check their website for Big Island campground information.)

Need something even larger? Harper Car and Truck Rental is a local company that rents everything from cars to large vans, trucks and motor homes. If that’s not quite your thing, you can also tour the island on a Harley from Kona Harley-Davidson.
This is probably a good place to mention that there are lots of options for bicycle rentals in Kona. You can rent a road or mountain bike by the day, week or month from a number of shops–for starters check out Cycle Station or Hawaiian Pedals.

Anyone have any good or bad experiences to share about any of these companies?

Our Kanaloa condo rental site has new discounts posted for open dates in April—not a bad time to be in Kona!

Still trying to decide on the best configuration for the blog, rental site, and other features I want to add. Look for an expanded list of Big Island travel links and a Hawaii blogroll coming soon.

Today’s post, for whoever may be interested, is again dealing with the business of condo rental management. Can a private vacation rental site generate any extra revenue through Google AdSense, without risk of losing potential guests? We’ll see.

Why advertise the competition?

Those “ads by Google” you see on our Kona condo rental site are the result of our having joined the Google AdSense program. In exchange for hosting the ads we get paid a small fee each time somebody clicks on one of them. It might be argued that this was a very bad idea. I spend a lot of effort getting people to visit the site in the first place—why then provide extra temptation to leave? Especially when many of the ads are for other condo rentals—our competition?

Admittedly this is an experiment, but I’m reasonably certain we’re not going to lose potential guests this way—and hopefully quite the opposite. I’ll explain why in a moment, but first, a word about how the program works. I don’t choose the ads that appear—Google supplies them automatically based on the site’s content. So naturally, the ads you see are mostly for condo rentals in Hawaii, and other travel-related services in the Kona area.

I can, however, provide a list of specific websites we don’t want to see advertised on Kona1 Vacation Rentals. Do I maintain a screen-out list? You bet. But it’s a very short list of other private “by owner” rental sites focusing on properties at Kanaloa. Nothing against these folks—we’re all a very friendly and supportive bunch, and often exchange referrals. But if someone lands on my site, I do at least want to them to consider my place first.

It would be impossible however to screen out more than the smallest fraction of sites offering rental accommodation in Kona or elsewhere on the Big Island. And I don’t think that’s a problem. It’s no secret that there are hundreds of choices out there, and people have already seen that wide range of possibilities before ever landing on my site. Those looking for something smaller or in a lower price bracket aren’t going to rent my place anyway. And a large percentage of my guests already know they want to stay at Kanaloa, having been there before—for them it’s just a matter of choosing a unit.

Visitors will see other Kanaloa at Kona rentals advertised here. In the few days since we started this I’ve seen ads on our site from Outrigger (Kanaloa at Kona is part of the Outrigger chain) and from various travel packagers and discounters offering all sorts of great-sounding deals. I’m not just unconcerned about these ads, I’m particularly hoping that people will take a look at them!

I feel that I’m in a nice position here because I know that what I have to offer is always going to be a better deal—meaning equal or higher quality at lower cost—than any promotional offering from the resort chain, or Expedia, or any Hawaii discount travel dot com with a long hyphenated name. So hopefully people will click on some of these ads, take a look, and then come back to Kona1.

(A special note to prospective guests—if you find what sounds like a better deal through one of these ads, I’d like to hear from you. I might be able to beat it!)

I’ll have more to say about price comparisons another time. But for my next post—how about something not about the condo. Yeah.

Mahalo to anyone who is actually reading this!

Longtime visitors to Kona1 Vacation Rentals will find some big changes here, including this, an occasional blog about…well, what is this blog about?

Whatever I say now in this first post is likely to change over time, but for now here goes.

Obviously the site’s primary purpose continues to be to advertise our great Big Island rental condo, located at south end of Kailua-Kona at the Outrigger Kanaloa at Kona resort. One component of the blog as I envision it will be posts containing updated information on the condo—changes we’re making to the place, rental availability, and special discount offers from time to time.

I’ll also post some occasional reflections about this whole project of owning and managing a rental property in Hawaii from a home base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. With hard work and a little luck we’ve had great success since purchasing the condo in 2002, and it’s pleasing to think about all the people who have enjoyed the place since that time. But keeping the calendar full, the bills paid, the condo well-maintained and (most importantly) our guests happy has been, and will always be, a learning experience. (Translation: It hasn’t always been easy!) The blog will include some thinking out loud about some of the changes that have occurred over the years, and the challenges that lie ahead.

The goal however is not to write a blog ABOUT a rental condo—I think that would be a little weird. The blog is more about Kona itself, or the Big Island, or Hawaii—I’m not sure yet how broad the scope will end up being. I will be writing a (hopefully regular) series posts with information and travel tips that may be useful to our guests and other travelers, including updates on current and upcoming events.

Finally, my intention is that a fair portion of this blog will have nothing directly to do with the condo or Hawaii travel at all. From the underlying geology on up, the Big Island is constantly changing. There are a lot of stories to be told, which I hope to begin telling on these pages, at least in abbreviated form. The ecology and natural history of the islands are a subject of particular interest to me. I want to share some of what I have learned over the years, and report on some of the amazing science being done—particularly in the realm of species conservation and ecosystem protection.

OK, enough for a first post. And I didn’t even get around to explaining the rationale behind some of the features of the new website, including…Google ads? Stay tuned.