Everything worked great. Air conditioning was very cold! Trunk opens very aggressively

Booked a Toyota Camry on Turo for our Hawaii vacation. What we got instead was essentially a mobile ecosystem.

A few hours before pickup, the host messages us saying the Camry is unavailable and asks if we can just take a Jeep instead. Also casually mentions there’s a car seat in the back that we can remove ourselves and leave “in the corner of the parking garage.” Excellent start.

She says if we REALLY want the Camry, she can “swap cars tomorrow.” Because obviously what everyone wants to do on vacation is spend day two participating in a vehicle exchange program.

We decide to just take the Jeep.

We open the doors and immediately discover:
- sand everywhere
- food wrappers
- and roaches. Actual roaches. Crawling on us while driving.

When I message the host, she explains that when renters return the cars, they “don’t always send pictures of the wrappers.” Which was a fascinating way of admitting these vehicles apparently aren’t inspected or cleaned between rentals.

She tells us to turn around because she has another vehicle for us.

Great.

Second SUV:
- more sand
- more wrappers
- more roaches

At this point I’m basically wondering if the roaches are listed as additional drivers on the reservation.

Then she says she may need to cancel our reservation entirely because she “clearly needs to clean the cars.” Meanwhile we are stranded on vacation trying to get to a dinner reservation.

I repeatedly try calling her because maybe a phone conversation would be easier than this chaos, but she refuses because she’s “driving” …while actively texting nonstop.

Eventually she offers us $30 off for the inconvenience. (Spoiler alert: never actually refunded it.)

Initially she wants US to drive the infested vehicle back to another location 15 minutes away. We decline because we’ve already spent half the evening participating in Turo Survivor: Waikiki Edition.

She finally arranges a closer drop-off point at an apartment building with 30-minute visitor parking. We still had to walk back to our hotel afterward.

The agreement was that she would fully detail the car and leave it in our hotel parking garage around 10 PM.

The next morning, the car is better… but still sandy. At that point we just accepted our fate and tried to enjoy the vacation.

Then comes the grand finale.

On return day, she sends us a list of gas stations with VACUUMS and asks us to clean the car before returning it.

Ma’am.

You handed us two consecutive roachmobiles with snack debris still included at no extra charge.

I replied that I would return the car trash-free and in the same condition we received it in, which frankly felt generous.

Afterward I checked reviews for her other vehicles and multiple people mention roaches. When I asked about this earlier, she said, “It’s a problem in Hawaii.”

No. Roaches happen. Roaches PLUS Cheetos wrappers is a management style.

Avoid this host unless your vacation goals include:
- insect exposure therapy
- surprise vehicle roulette
- detailing labor
- and unpaid customer service negotiations.

10/10 great car and great host!! would definitely recommend