Waikiki Whale Watcher

In general, think of this as an exercise in «You get what you pay for,» and at a price this low only a few blocks from the beach in Waikiki. .. well, Nat W. was not wrong. But again, you have a price this low only a few blocks from the beach in Waikiki!
Let me start by saying the location in general really is excellent. It’s only a half block from the Ala Wai Canal and a few blocks from Waikiki Beach and the Honolulu Zoo. The Waikiki shops and restaurants are all easy walking distance, near and far; a 15-​minute walk takes you to the near end of the shops and restaurants in Kaimuki, with the far end being only around a 35-​minute walk away. Three highway entrances are about 10 minutes away. The staff I interacted with online and in person were very nice. And for what it’s worth, I saw nearly no cockroaches, other than a few dead ones when I was cleaning after arriving and one tiny one escaping down the drain of the bathroom sink one evening.
There are numerous reasons the price here is excellent for the location though. I stayed in a studio for several weeks, which was an exercise in repeating the mantra, «At least I’m in Hawaii.» Overall, it’s an old, dingy place. I admit that I’m somewhat of a clean freak — not too bad, though… I think — and I had to buy cleaning supplies _​immediately_​and scrub the room down several times during my first couple days here because of the grime showing on the floors (especially) and the counters. Really, a new cleaning crew should be found; my room was so grungy as to require multiple moppings and extra vacuuming to make me feel even remotely comfortable in it. I also had to clean the bathroom and kitchen counters a few times to cut down the layers of grime. The furniture is old and rickety, pretty much all with unbalanced legs, doors that didn’t close all the way, or other issues along those lines. My room when I arrived had an approximately 8″ x 4″ hole in the base of the window where the air conditioner could be attached, but without the air conditioner — which wasn’t present until I asked the next day — it was just a hole open to the outside, with no screen or anything.
Speaking of outside, as Nat W. said, the street outside is surprisingly loud, from cars whipping down the one-​lane, one-​way street at all hours (running fast and loud for no reason, particularly considering the short length of the street), to trucks and buses, to loud youths and drunks (hopefully mutually exclusive groups).
Back inside, and onto the bathroom… I mentioned the old, dingy building, so I won’t go into detail about the cracked and peeling appliances, which fit that theme. The shower was uncomfortably tiny (and I’m not large!), and the medicine cabinet (with a broken shelf inside) threatened to fall off the wall every time I opened it if I didn’t open it from just the right position high up on the door.
This is a true apartment complex, so you’ll need to buy all your own supplies — toilet paper, soap, tissues, etc. As a furnished apartment, though, towels (body and hand), bed sheets, dishes, pots and pans, iron and ironing board are provided, which is nice. I also had a well-​worn microwave, with a warped and partially melted outer door — although the inside looked solid — that made me very uncomfortable, although I was assured it was safe to use. (The very few times I did, I stood well away from the microwave in the apartment.) The microwave was complimented by a two-​burner hot plate (with one knob broken off). Other amenities include free Internet — which was spotty enough to be nonexistent — and _​two_​washers and dryers for the entire building, although only one of each worked for the vast majority of my time here.
The price and location may make this the perfect choice for you, but just be aware of what to expect.
To break this down a little more clearly:
People = ****
General location = ****
Price = *****
Cleanliness = *
Specific location *

There were numbers of problems I encountered staying at this apartment.
1. There were lots of cockroaches on the day my roommate and I moved in. I had to bomb the place once and then placed lots of traps until they were almost completely gone.
2. The street the apartment is facing is super loud at night. There are crazy people screaming and fighting in the middle of a night and you hear almost every night an ambulance or police car with an siren passing thru the street. In the morning, you wake up to trash compactor noise.
3. Sometimes the elevator does not work and washer machines are often broken. On top of that, they have pluming issue. We had toilet overflown twice and we got charged for that when we moved out. And of course we did not flush anything other than toilet papers.
4. We had two different managers while we were staying at this apartment. My roommate and I were happy when we heard the first one was quitting. She was not so nice, not so friendly. Well we judged too fast. The second manager we got was even worse. She had a crazy tamper and every time we called, she was just mad at no reason, snapped and yelled at us.
5. The rent went up $ 200 after 9month.. That’s when we finally decided to move out.