Kona Reef Resort by Latour Group

This review is specific to unit F5. I have stayed in many rental units and this one has to be near the top, if not the top, of my list. First off the location is within an easy walk to 'downtown' Kailua-Kona, with lots of restaurants, shops, and bars. The complex has a nice pool and great lounging chairs. The only drawback is there was only one functioning grill/BBQ of the four. The location is great for watching sunsets. The condo is very clean and comfortable. It is ground level at the front door (no stairs) but the back patio is elevated, so you don't have people walking by your sliding glass door all day! Privacy is important to me. This unit has separate A/C units for the main room and the bedroom, so you can enjoy the sliding door being open to the main room while keeping the bedroom cool. The kitchen is important to us and this one has pretty much everything you need for pots, pans, utensils, etc. Also, the owner seems to be okay with the cleaners leaving any unopened leftover food, which is a wonderful bonus as you don't have to waste money on things like cooking oil or various spices. Although we did not utilize them, the owner has a large variety of water 'toys' for renters to use. Obviously, we were very pleased with the opportunity to stay in this unit and will stay there next time we are on the Big Island.

There's a reason this is the pic on the website for this rental. Ground level, view of nothing but a rock wall. Between a parking lot and the pool. Room needed work. Toilet tank drained and refilled every 15 minutes. Reported it day 1, never fixed. Numerous other repairs needed. Couch was horribly uncomfotable. Was the property waterfront? Yes. Short walk down the road to a nice lagoon, bars and restaurants, which was awesome, because its $15 an hour to park anywhere in Kona

When we arrived we were assigned room E3. This is bottom floor E building next to the pool. A dark little room that shares a common patio with rooms E1 and E2. The room has a view of people sitting at the pool. The room features a king bed in the bedroom, along with a pullman in the living room. The sliding glass door does not have a locking mechanism, just a handle. According to the on site personnel, these rooms are pre-assigned by Raintree and there is no option to move us to a nicer room. So this glorious hole cost me 2 years of points... Fabulous. We went to Hilo to stay with friends for the first couple of nights. Interestingly enough, we came back on night 3 to find that someone had started a plumbing project in the kitchen... How I wonder did they figure that we would not return? Back to Hilo we went. This would have been our 5th stay at the Kona Reef over the last 10 years or so. This it the third occasion where we have booked it through Raintree Vacation Club. Last year we di as well, and we had to leave the first night because the whole room smelled like someone had poured an entire bottle of Clorox in the place... burning eyes, it was bad news. On day 2 we bought cleaning supplies and cleaned it ourselves. So my point, the Reef is nice... we've rented other rooms there through other companies that have been just fine... but please, DO NOT RESERVE YOUR ROOM AT THE KONA REEF USING RAINTREE VACATION CLUB! You'll be sorry. Ive posted pictures of the room including the wonderful tub, and the mess the plumbers left us on day 3.