# Pahio Kauai Beach Villas Pool News



## DeniseM (Oct 15, 2007)

This seems to contradict what other owners have been told, but I got my MF bill today and the enclosed newsletter stated the following:

*This is an average [maintenance fee] increase of approximately 14%.  The inclusion of two new expenses, pool complex and unit renovation, were the main contributors to the increase.  The condominium association is moving forward with the construction of a new pool comples.*


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## DaveNV (Oct 16, 2007)

Denise, I don't know if you saw my post from a few weeks ago:  http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55245

Sounds like you've received the MF increase Lani talked about.

Dave


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## DeniseM (Oct 16, 2007)

Thanks for the link, I did miss your post.  The new pool sounds GREAT!  I'm glad we bought now.

Another thing the newsletter addresses that you referred to is that airport check-in is now at the Budget counter and you need to sign up for their Fast-Break program to be able to access it.


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## bigeyes1 (Oct 16, 2007)

Sheesh. I wish they (Wyndham/PAHIO) would get their story straight. Having said that, it's good to hear KBV will be getting their new pool.  It does sound nice.  

So, the airport check-in is back now??  We're already Fast-Break members.  I just hope that doesn't mean we have to actually rent a car from Budget.


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## JeffW (Oct 16, 2007)

I received a message for a recent Shearwater checkin, and I thought airport checkin might only be available if you were also renting from Budget.  

Checkin at their main complex (Kao Kei?) wasn't bad at all, though because of luggage problems, it took until 3 hours after we arrived at LIH before we checked in, and ended up with the last unit (213, view of golf course).  We had called earlier to request a decent room, and was given a list to choose from (213 not on it).  I can't help but think if we checked in sooner (like at the airport), we might have gotten something better.

Jeff


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## rickandcindy23 (Oct 16, 2007)

So those of you who have been, what do you think of the interior furnishings, appliances, upkeep of the PAHIO Kauai Beach Villas?  

I have thought of purchasing, but I wondered if they were keeping them up as they should.  I think Shearwater is absolutely wonderful, but the interiors of the units need a little makeover, though not much.  They definitely need newer carpet in some of the units, and new upholstery in all of them.  I am bracing myself for the maintenance fee bill that will be coming along in a few days.


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## armrecsys (Oct 16, 2007)

*Up keep of Pahio*



rickandcindy23 said:


> So those of you who have been, what do you think of the interior furnishings, appliances, upkeep of the PAHIO Kauai Beach Villas?
> 
> I have thought of purchasing, but I wondered if they were keeping them up as they should.  I think Shearwater is absolutely wonderful, but the interiors of the units need a little makeover, though not much.  They definitely need newer carpet in some of the units, and new upholstery in all of them.  I am bracing myself for the maintenance fee bill that will be coming along in a few days.


I share you feeling about Shearwater, I think that place is great , but the interiors needs a lot of work. What is happen to the already high mantance fee. The  unit I stayed in the carpet had holes in it. That please is to nice to let the interior and upholstery get out of hand. If I was an owner I would wonder where is my money going.
Linda:rofl:


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## bigeyes1 (Oct 16, 2007)

armrecsys said:


> I share you feeling about Shearwater, I think that place is great , but the interiors needs a lot of work. What is happen to the already high mantance fee. The  unit I stayed in the carpet had holes in it. That please is to nice to let the interior and upholstery get out of hand. If I was an owner I would wonder where is my money going.
> Linda:rofl:



I'm a Shearwater owner and did ask about the refurbishments.  Here is the response I received from the Assistant Resort Manager in mid-Sept. 



> The refurbishments of The Shearwater units are being scheduled by the developer and the Board President David Walters. We will be notifying the owners when we know when and which units are scheduled for refurbishment. I do not know why there is a delay in this project as it was scheduled to start this year. If you have any other questions please let me know. Thank you



Thus far, I have not been notified about any scheduled refurbishments at Shearwater, which doesn't surprise me.


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## tombo (Oct 16, 2007)

I assume Shearwater is being delayed as Kauai Beach Villas has by Wyndham. PKBVs mgr said that the permits and everything needed to build the new pool at PKBVs was approved and construction was supposed to have started this summer or early fall 2007, with completion by the end of 2007 or at latest early 2008. I am staying at PKBVs in feb 2008 and was calling to see if I would have a pool at the resort to swim in when I am there. Then I read that the pool would be finished in summer 2008 so I called back. I was told by the resort manager that after Wyndhan purchased PKBVs they had to get new permits. Who knows. However I had asked her at the time I originally inquired if it was going to take an assessment to build the new pool (I was looking at a couple of resales and needed to know) and I was told that we had enough in reserve to build the new pool with no assessment. This was early 2007 ( about Feb). Now we have a 5 year loan added to our assessment? I smell a Wyndham rat. I guess if we get a new pool it will be worth it, but I am upset that we didn't supposedly need an assessment to build the new pool until Wyndham bought us! Now supposedly no new assessment but a 12 to 14% MF in increase. Thank goodness we didn't get an assessment!


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## jacknsara (Oct 16, 2007)

tombo said:


> ... Now we have a 5 year loan added to our assessment? ...Now supposedly no new assessment but a 12 to 14% MF in increase. ...


Aloha,
While I didn't take notes at the Jan 07 owners' meeting, my recollection is that a loan was mentioned and I did my own calculations to come up with a 12% - 14% increase (i.e. ~$100 on a 1b/1b).  Lani reminds us every year that their management system relies on strong reserves so that special assessments should never be needed.  
Its hard to say how much of the schedule looseness is Hawaiian time versus Wynham.  A bigger challenge mentioned last January was getting a contractor to agree to commit to such a "small" job.  They were trying to bundle it with other "small" jobs.
I maintain an excel sheet comparing the budget line items year over year.  If I didn't know better, I'd guess that they aim to maintain a 12% - 14% increase per year and just attribute it to a different special cause every year.   Their management fee is a straight percentage of MFs (also applies to reserves), so they have a powerful incentive to push increases to the tolerance limit.  I've reconciled that the baseline was artificially low due to developer subsidies.  I am just a bit concerned about the long term compound escalation.   
Jack


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## slabeaume (Oct 18, 2007)

I'm an owner at KBV and usually ask for a renovated room when I make my reservations.  They have been very nice.  A couple years ago I forgot to ask and we ended up with an older unit.   The floors were rather worn, but things like the mattresses and most appliances were in good shape.  One of the AC's did freeze up, so we contacted them and they replaced it with a new unit very promptly.  The renovated units are nicer, but I didn't mind the older unit too much----it was in Kauai, after all!  




rickandcindy23 said:


> So those of you who have been, what do you think of the interior furnishings, appliances, upkeep of the PAHIO Kauai Beach Villas?
> 
> I have thought of purchasing, but I wondered if they were keeping them up as they should.  I think Shearwater is absolutely wonderful, but the interiors of the units need a little makeover, though not much.  They definitely need newer carpet in some of the units, and new upholstery in all of them.  I am bracing myself for the maintenance fee bill that will be coming along in a few days.


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## DeniseM (Oct 18, 2007)

slabeaume said:


> I'm an owner at KBV and usually ask for a renovated room when I make my reservations.



Do you know which of the ocean front 1 bdms. are renovated?  Mahalo!


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## tombo (Oct 18, 2007)

Same quetion here. Which of the G building oceanfront 2 bedrooms have been upgraded? I am asking because I have booked a 2 bed room in the G building for Feb 2008 and I am hoping I got lucky.


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## slabeaume (Oct 18, 2007)

DeniseM said:


> Do you know which of the ocean front 1 bdms. are renovated?  Mahalo!



The only ocean front building we've stayed in is the F building (the one slanted towards the ocean).  Not sure what all units are renovated, but the 2 1 bedroom/2 bath units that we stayed in there were renovated.   I know they also have different check in days of the week for the different buildings.  F had a Sunday checkin.


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## jacknsara (Oct 19, 2007)

tombo said:


> Same quetion here. Which of the G building oceanfront 2 bedrooms have been upgraded? I am asking because I have booked a 2 bed room in the G building for Feb 2008 and I am hoping I got lucky.


Aloha
As one tugger to another, I'm sure it was more skill than luck but you have done very well. 
We have stayed in the G5 (1b2b) for the last two years and will be there again the last two weeks of Jan 08 (out on 2/2/08).  (We stayed in G4 annually for several years prior)
G building is great.  The sliding doors & windows might be a bit stiff from the salt corrosion, but the lanai is so close to the ocean that its hard to imagine spending much time inside worrying about the age of the furniture or carpet.  If anything doesn't work call maintenance.  The corner between G & F building is quite windy, but the 2b2b are in the middle of the building and not on the corner.
Biggest problem is the loud ocean sound is 24/7; it gets into our dreams.    We don't use the air conditioner (corner unit on 3rd floor is very windy)
Jack


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## tombo (Oct 20, 2007)

Thanks Jack. You sure made me feel good about my purchase. I purchased a deeded unit G-12 floats 1-52 even years sight unseen. I actually asked for G-12 when I called reservations (no reason other than it happens to be on my deed and is 3rd floor) and got it for the week I want to go in February. I am so much more interested in location over furnishings. Many of the "higher end owners" in some high end chains will stay near the beach, or on the beach with no view but brag on their furnishings. They also like stay in mega resorts with 1000's of guests crowding everything from the pools to the beaches. I go to the beach to see the beach, hear the ocean waves, and smell the salt air. I have really great leather furniture and a 50" HDTV at home, but no views of the Pacific from my rear deck. If I can't stay oceanfront at the beach, I don't go. I don't stay in Knoxville to see the Smokey Mountains, and I am never a "short stroll to the beach" either. Just my personal opinion. Thanks again for telling me how close we will be to the ocean and how glad we will be about our purchase when we walk on the lanai and soak in the sights, sounds, and smells.


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## DeniseM (Oct 20, 2007)

tombo said:


> Many of the "higher end owners" in some high end chains will stay near the beach, or on the beach with no view but brag on their furnishings. They also like stay in mega resorts with 1000's of guests crowding everything from the pools to the beaches. I go to the beach to see the beach, hear the ocean waves, and smell the salt air.



This is exactly why we purchased 2 ocean front weeks at KBV.  We own one of those higher end weeks on Maui, but it has turned out to be a disappointment - mostly because of the tremendous growth in the area around the resort since we bought it 5 years ago.

And Jack has been a tremendous resource, too!


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## tombo (Oct 20, 2007)

Denise, congrats to you on your purchases. I saw on another post what you paid for them and I would have bought either or both of them if I had seen them for sale myself. You are lucky they didn't ROFR them. I had purchased a non oceanfront 1 bed 2 bath to trade and when I decided to sell it (for more money than you purchased either of yours for) after I purchased my G-12 EOY, Wyndham ROFR'd it. Timing is everything.

When are you going to KBV for the first time? We will be there the end of Feb and I sure wish it was sooner. I have been to Maui and Oahu, but a couple of my friends tell me that I will like Kauai best of all. Heck if I like it as well as I liked Maui, that will make it a tie for my all time favorite vacation destination as I have never been anywhere I liked better than Maui.


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## DeniseM (Oct 20, 2007)

tombo said:


> When are you going to KBV for the first time? We will be there the end of Feb and I sure wish it was sooner. I have been to Maui and Oahu, but a couple of my friends tell me that I will like Kauai best of all. Heck if I like it as well as I liked Maui, that will make it a tie for my all time favorite vacation destination as I have never been anywhere I liked better than Maui.



We will be there for 2 consecutive weeks in July.  We've been to all the islands (even Molokai) and Kauai is our favorite.  I know we are going to love KBV!  You might enjoy my travel page with our last Kauai trip - I have lots of ideas of things to see and do on Kauai.   The webpage host is moving and the backgrounds are all down, so it doesn't look quite as pretty as it should, but the pictures and text are all OK.


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## tombo (Oct 20, 2007)

Denise,I loved your travel page. I was wondering how you find out if the tour of the temple will be available when we are there as I would love to see that. Also are the gardens a must see or just ok? Was your snorkeling tour good enough to see the Napali coast on it's own, or you would recommend adding a helicopter tour to it too? Finally for you or anyone other tuggers, what is the best place to eat taking in consideration the view and the food? It will be my wife's 12th birthday and I really want to take her somewhere special (which is why we are going to Kauai when we are). Poor thing hasn't had many birthdays as she only has one every 4 years (leap year), and she will have hers in Kauai in 2008. I feel sure this will be a birthday to remember and appreciate advice on where to have her 12th birthday party supper. I have considered the Princeville hotel but some of the reviews of the food and prices were less than spectacular. A good sunset location would be great but in the end of Feb rain could always be a problem from what I have read. Looking for suggestions. Thanks, Tom


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## DeniseM (Oct 20, 2007)

tombo said:


> Denise,I loved your travel page. I was wondering how you find out if the tour of the temple will be available when we are there as I would love to see that.


Their calendar is online here - Kauai Hindu Temple



> Also are the gardens a must see or just ok?


We loved the Allerton Gardens, but we especially like that kind of thing.



> Was your snorkeling tour good enough to see the Napali coast on it's own, or you would recommend adding a helicopter tour to it too?



The Napali Coast trip was great and we used a coupon from the Entertainment book that saved us about $80.  It included a lot of sight-seeing along the coast.  We also loved getting so close to Ni'ihau, the forbidden island.  It is a long day - go prepared with motion sickness meds, hats, cover ups, and sunscreen.  We don't do Hawaii  helicopter trips - they crash way too often!  And more about Hawaii Helicopter crashes.



> Finally for you or anyone other tuggers, what is the best place to eat taking in consideration the view and the food?



The best view without a doubt is at the Beach House restaurant across the street from the Lawaii Beach Resort.  There is a sunset picture taken at the restaurant on my webpage.  Make the reservation NOW and request a window seat.  (See the last 2 pictures on this page - the sunset picture was taken from inside the restaurant!)



> It will be my wife's 12th birthday and I really want to take her somewhere special (which is why we are going to Kauai when we are). Poor thing hasn't had many birthdays as she only has one every 4 years (leap year), and she will have hers in Kauai in 2008. I feel sure this will be a birthday to remember and appreciate advice on where to have her 12th birthday party supper. I have considered the Princeville hotel but some of the reviews of the food and prices were less than spectacular. A good sunset location would be great but in the end of Feb rain could always be a problem from what I have read. Looking for suggestions. Thanks, Tom



Congratulations on your wife's 12th birthday!  My mom also had a leap year birthday and that is a very special day when it only comes once every 4 years!


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## tombo (Oct 20, 2007)

Denise thanks for all of your help. I might ask you some more questions in the near future. In the OP you said you had received your maintenance fees for 2008?  I haven't received mine yet. When are they due?


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## DeniseM (Oct 20, 2007)

I just got it this week and it's due Nov. 12th. $883 for a 1 bdm., 2 bath, ocean front.  I paid it online with a credit card for the points.


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## slabeaume (Jan 1, 2008)

tombo said:


> Denise thanks for all of your help. I might ask you some more questions in the near future. In the OP you said you had received your maintenance fees for 2008?  I haven't received mine yet. When are they due?




I just received my maintenance fees bill yesterday.  Mine's due the end of Jan. 

Leap day will be a great one for us this year, too!  That's the day we fly to Kauai for our annual 2 week vacation.  Can't hardly wait!


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## tombo (Jan 2, 2008)

We check out on March 1st and move to the Hilton next door for 2 days until our flight home. My wife's 12th birthday will be our last night in Kauai Beach Villas.


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## slabeaume (Jan 3, 2008)

tombo said:


> We check out on March 1st and move to the Hilton next door for 2 days until our flight home. My wife's 12th birthday will be our last night in Kauai Beach Villas.




It would be a better birthday present if you were checking in then!


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Jan 3, 2008)

tombo said:


> *My wife's 12th birthday *will be our last night in Kauai Beach Villas.


Clearly, a child bride!!! :rofl:


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## kapish (Jan 3, 2008)

Here are a few pictures my friend took when he and family stayed at the PKBV. He said the furnishings were "fine!"


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## jacknsara (Jan 3, 2008)

kapish said:


> Here are a few pictures my friend took when he and family stayed at the PKBV. He said the furnishings were "fine!"


Aloha Kapish,
Unit G13 perhaps? I'm just guessing.  Did they say?
Two weeks and two days and counting.
Jack


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