Wandering in Waikiki

Upon arriving in Waikiki, we collected our baggage and made our way outside of the terminal to locate the SpeediShuttles desk.

Before departing Auckland, I called the hotel to enquire as to whether they would be able to book our airport transfer to the resort for us. Unfortunately they couldn’t, but directed me to SpeediShuttle.

SpeediShuttleis a privately owned Hawaii based company. The company began operations in 1999 on Maui and has since grown to become the leading provider of ground transportation shuttle services in the state and the largest fleet of Mercedes Benz passenger shuttles in all of North America.

ethan — *Ethan wishing he’d slept on the plane (Honolulu Airport)*

The concierge was easy to find, and after checking in with her she mentioned that she was still waiting and attempting to locate another group of passengers before we could take off. After a 20 minute wait (with Ethan trying not to pass out from exhaustion), we were ushered across the street and into an air conditioned Mercedes – with wifi!

Our resort was the first stop after a 20 minute drive through morning traffic, we arrived at just after 7.30am to perform pre-registration.

Pre-registration is check-in before your room is available. Fortunately the resort Aqua Palms did offer pre-registration, meaning that we were able to check our bags and head out to breakfast. I did attempt an early check-in, however the guest right before me had asked for the same thing and managed to swipe the last available suite.

This meant that check-in for us would not be until 3pm however the concierge did suggest that we call back around midday to see whether any suites had become available. The entire process of pre-registration took about 20mins and after changing our clothes in the lobby restroom, brushing teeth and cleaning ourselves up as best we could, we decided to go foraging for breakfast.

Fortunately there was an IHOP restaurant directly next door to the resort.

The International House of Pancakes is an American multinational casual family restaurant chain thats specialises in and serves breakfast. It is owned by DineEquity, with 99% of the restaurants run by independent franchisees in North America.

We were seated inside the restaurant, and given laminated menus to peruse.

Now these menus are huge. They include pancakes in different stack values, flavour combinations, breakfast ‘entrees’ (hot tip: they’re not entrees, they’re entire meals), omelettes, french toast, waffles and both sweet and savoury crepes.

I ordered a breakfast of eggs over easy (fried on both sides, but the yolk stays runny – “over” refers to flipping the egg, and “easy” refers to the doneness of the yolk), with a couple of slices of bacon and a 2-stack of traditional pancakes.

Christian ordered a full stack of pancakes and Ethan a stack of red velvet pancakes, which if I’m not mistaken were just regular pancakes with cocoa powder and red food dye added.

On the table were a raft of flavoured syrups – strawberry, blueberry, butter pecan, boysenberry and all pancakes were served with a dollop of whipped butter.

Now, personally? I didn’t think IHOP was anything to write home about, but the restaurant doesn’t really pretend to be anything that it isn’t; it’s a simple, yet clearly hugely effective dining experience where the food is exactly what you would come to expect at a chain that offers up breakfast items – and the food arrived lightening fast.

Our server whose name was Heather, was a petite softly spoken girl whose face seemed to be permanently etched with a smile. She wore a frangipani in her hair (known locally as Plumeria) and sauntered to our table, delicately balancing a huge tray of food above her slight wrist – it was impressive.

In terms of the bill, it was fairly inexpensive for a sit down restaurant, however when ordering or purchasing items in the United States, it pays to bear in mind that the price is not actually the price. In New Zealand, Goods & Services Tax or what we commonly refer to as GST, is included in listed prices in stores therefore advertised prices are what you will expect to pay when you come to checkout.

In the United States, federal, state and city tax percentages differ from state to state, therefore something that I purchased in Hawaii at CVS (a local pharmacy chain) that had a listed price of $3.99 cost $4.17 at checkout, however the same item in Los Angeles would cost $4.34 when taking into consideration state, county and city sales tax despite being listed in national sales advertising as $3.99.

Christian and I had decided that the first server who we got in the US was going to get a big tip. This was purely based on the fact that upon researching the average hourly rate for a server or waitress in the US, I discovered this equates more often than not to no more than $2-3 per hour.

We decided to give Heather a $40 USD tip (the equivalent of $58.76 NZD today) and watched her excitedly as she cashed out our table at the till. She blushed a furious pink, and she looked over to our table with a huge smile reaching broadly across her face.

After breakfast, we decided to jump on the hotels free shuttle, and make our way to the nearby Ala Moana Center.

The Ala Moana Center is a mall on steroids, a premier international and local shopping destination with over 340 shops and restaurants. It boasts high end clothing, beauty and electronic stores, all in a beautiful open-air setting filled with lush tropical landscaping and koi ponds.

We wandered around aimlessly, desperately attempting to whittle away time to midday. We entered the department store Macy’s and I was impressed by the MAC, Urban Decay and Benefit makeup counters. I filed through a number of sales racks, however the tag prices weren’t the impressive deals that I had heard so much about online and from other visitors to the center.

We walked further into the center and I found the Sephora! Christian and Ethan sighed audibly and found a bench seat outside the store to wait. I promised I wouldn’t be long as I had in mind the items that I wanted to purchase.

The first stop in store was the Too Faced counter, where I picked up the ‘Better than Sex’ mascara for $23 USD – I’ve tried to find this mascara for sale locally in New Zealand and can confirm that online NZ beauty store LaFemme Beauty do offer it for sale – however it is often sold out.

Beside the Too Faced counter was the Kat Von D counter – I have been an avid user of KvD products for the last 3 years and love her Immortal Lash mascara, Everlasting Lipstick and Lock It foundation. I picked up the KvD Alchemist palette for $32 USD and her original Lolita everlasting lipstick for $20 USD. The local Sephora online store in New Zealand doesn’t currently offer the Alchemist palette and the lipstick runs at a cost of $30 NZD + shipping (orders over $55 NZD attract free shipping, but I have heard that the shipping time for orders from the NZ Sephora store is horrendous).

I also picked up the Milk Makeup Hero Salve, and a Tarte Tarlette Tease palette before returning to my weary travellers who were leaned up against one another drifting in and out of consciousness. I made a call to the hotel and was directed to the bookings to enquire as to whether there was a room available for check in.

I had booked a twin room, however there was only a room with a fold out couch available at the time I enquired about an early check in. I asked Christian if he would mind, and both the boys looked at me through desperately exhausted eyes that I accepted the room and we made our way back to the meeting point to catch the return trip of the complimentary bus.

The driver arrived and let the guest alight the bus, while she ducked out for a cigarette. I joined her, as there were signs everywhere noting that smoking wasn’t permitted anywhere on the site of the mall. She chuckled and said it was fine as long I wasn’t anywhere near an entry point to the mall and we lit up and shot the shit for ten minutes. I asked her about her job and where she lived on the island, making small talk. She explained to me that the company she worked for drove a number of passenger vehicles on the island and she didn’t really enjoy the route because it was repetitive but tips from tourists were a bonus; however it wasn’t really enough to stave off the boredom of a 13 hour shift.

I learned from this conversation that she was running late to schedule, meaning that the coach that was supposed to be 30 minutes behind her had almost caught up. She explained that this was due to the fact that rosters didn’t take into account meal or bathroom breaks.

Coming from New Zealand I was shocked by this, based on the stringent laws I know we have regarding driving regulations, particularly when driving heavy or passenger vehicles. This kind of work expectation I would imagine would lead to significant potential driver fatigue, putting both the driver of the vehicle and its’ passengers in danger. This is something that I have noted whilst here in the US; employment laws exist generally to protect and support the employer, as opposed to serving both employee and employer alike. It’s difficult to get vacation time – most people I told that I had planned to be in the US just shy of a month were surprised that I would be entitled to have my job back upon my return to my home country. And not just surprised; I’d go so far as to say they were amazed.

We returned to the resort after a short trip via coach and tipped the driver, before retrieving our luggage from the concierge and collecting our key cards. Christian eagerly turned the television on to CNN and we all fell asleep for several hours. After showering, we left the resort again via a double decker bus (costing a mere $2 USD per person for a single trip) and travelled back to the Ala Moana Center to have dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.

The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. is a themed restaurant, based solely on the film Forrest Gump. The first of its kind was opened in Monterey, California in 1996 and since then they have expanded the business to 43 locations, 2 of which are located in Japan and 1 in Hong Kong.

The restaurant was heaving with guests, and we waited 15 minutes to be seated.

After being greeted by Monica, a Midwest transplant who’d moved to Honolulu to study Earth Sciences. She was warm, bubbly and engaged us in conversation, recommending popular dishes and her own personal faves.

We perused the menus and Ethan noted there were some specialty bottomless frosty drinks with keepsake cups on offer. He eyed them excitedly and asked if he could order one as a souvenir.

I relented, and ordered one for myself as well. The cups had battery packs in the bottom, with buttons that activated flashing coloured lights in the base. As obnoxious as they were, we both happily enjoyed our icy treats.

Ethan settled on shrimp mac ‘n cheese (an American staple) to start and a burger with fries.

Customs & Border Protection USA

We landed at Honolulu Airport at 6:30am Hawaiian time, after an eight hour journey from Auckland. Despite the fact that I’d had somewhat of a restless sleep, I felt wide awake and prepared to start the day, despite the film of grime that had developed across my teeth.

As we disembarked the plane, we were shuffled into the terminal by local Air New Zealand staff. Now, the Honolulu Airport is currently undergoing a refurbishment however as the airport is rather large, it’s obviously going to take a while.

Stepping into the airport is like taking a time capsule back into the late sixties. There is a tonne of wood panelling and brown and tan as far as the eye can see, with loads of gold fixtures and fronded plants in huge, concrete garden pots dotted throughout the terminals. I turned to Christian who I knew would be enamoured by the decor of the airport and he whispered to me, ‘you know, Elvis once walked these halls‘. I rolled my eyes and obediently walked forward, ushered single file toward the exterior of the terminal where I could see a pair of buses that looked like they belonged on the island of Rarotonga.

hnl — *Passenger Shuttle, Honolulu Airport.*

We boarded one of the buses and waited a few minutes to ensure everyone had alighted, and then were transported to security clearance and baggage claim in another terminal. I was astounded at the size of the airport, and commented to Christian about how huge the place was. We idly chatted as I attempted to quell the churning in my stomach as we prepared to meet the oft-feared TSA.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that has authority over the security of the traveling public in the United States. It was created as a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks and their reputation as no-nonsense, serious men and women of law is infamous.

On average, the TSA screens approximately 2 million people per day throughout the United States and its’ two territories Puerto Rico & Guam.

Prohibs 3-16-12 — *Image courtesy of US Army.*

In Fort Worth in 2012, a TSA officer confiscated a live 40mm high explosive grenade from a passengers luggage; the fact that firearms, live animals and drugs are still attempting to be smuggled in and out of the US, coupled with the world as it exists today post 9/11 has proven the need for the country to take its’ border security very seriously.

The country’s currently political climate regarding immigration was also a cause for concern, especially during a time where President Trump has expressed definitive and divisive opinions on immigration.

At the end of January this year, President Trump decreed executive order temporarily banning travel from seven Muslim-majority countries. The move sparked protests around the country as people who had previously been approved to come to the United States were being detained at airports and there were also indications that the ESTA visa waiver program would be scrapped in favour of stricter visa-issuances for all foreign visitors.

Although the order was blocked in appeals courts, The Donald has reportedly signed a new executive order, removing Iraq from the list of countries that would be impacted by the travel ban and stating that the order would apply to new visa applicants only. This will mean that travellers who’d previously been blocked by the initial order despite having legitimate visa documentation may now be allowed entry to the United States.

As a New Zealand born citizen, I rarely worry about travelling abroad, for the simple fact that our passports are ranked as one of the best to have in the world. This is based on the number of countries (170) that permit entry to citizens of New Zealand without requiring visas.

Upon reaching passport control, we were asked to enter our passport details into a self service machine that scanned our biometric passports and took our photos. This printed out a slip that we were required to present to the customs officer at security, along with out passports.

As we approached the officer, I hoped that we would get someone nice, or at least someone who would be interested in the fact that we hailed from the land of Hobbits, Orcs, Gandalf and Middle Earth and less interested in my husband’s birthplace.

Christian was born in Lima, and spent several years living in his country of origin Peru before emigrating with his family to New Zealand. At this stage in the game, he is a naturalised citizen travelling on a New Zealand passport and has been a resident in Auckland for the last 27 years. On this basis, you would assume that the length of time he’d been away from South America that the cultural stereotypes that come along with hailing from this part of the world would have lapsed, right? Wrong.

Even our own friends have made jokes about Christian being an undesirable, being ‘randomly selected’ at airports internationally because of his ‘Mexican sounding name’, laughing at his name being that of someone who is quite obviously a Columbian drug mule…guess what, team? It’s not funny. People of colour are routinely treated poorly, or differently because of their given names or familial lineage. The very fact that we cannot make these exact jokes to an anglo-saxon makes these racist. So stop it. It’s not funny. It’s lame and I’m sure you’re smarter than that.

Because we seem to be the most blessed people in the world, our customs and border protection officer (also a department of Homeland Security) was a Mexican gentleman named Luis.

He greeted us warmly welcoming us to the country and nonchalantly asked Christian about his country of birth, how long he’d lived in the country and how he’d ended up in New Zealand. ‘Peruano!’, he exclaimed repeatedly stating that he’d not met many in his line of work and that it was nice to meet Christian.

His language was interspersed with Spanish, and I smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. We came to the US with the explicit intention of enjoying a family vacation and I had been convinced by so many people that we would be treated as hostile, threatening individuals who were intent on causing havoc in the USA – thankfully, my experience couldn’t have been more opposite.

We were fingerprinted and our passports scanned and stamped, before being bid farewell by Luis, where he imparted some words to Christian – ‘you’re a good man, a mano. Take care of your family, you’re doing it right’.

Thank you, Luis!

Charli x

Just a tip!

Tipping a really confusing custom as someone who comes from a country where tipping isn’t required. I figure this is because in New Zealand, our minimum wage equates to, or at the very least is supposed to be something of a ‘living wage’.

Whilst tipping is largely viewed worldwide as an American practice, the history of tipping can be traced back to a practice adapted from Europeans, whose own history of tipping goes back to at least Tudor England, when overnight guests would leave a small gratuity (or vails) for the house servants.

I did some research into the average hourly wage of someone in the service industry in the US, and was horrified to learn that some wait staff can earn as little as $2.50 per hour. In order to make anywhere near enough money to survive, pay rent, utilities, transport costs and just general expenses associated to existing, a waitress/waiter would need to bus at least 4 tables an hour, expecting to receive at the very least $5 USD per table, giving them an hourly rate of $22.50.

If you truly think about the patronage in a restaurant, dinner service during the week is likely to be between the hours of 7pm-9pm. If a waiter begins work at 5pm, it’s likely that during the quieter hours in the lead up to dinner service, they’ll be lucky to earn $2 in tips.

Google will tell you that the median tip rate in the US is $13/hr, which bumps the average full time wait staffer to $42,120 a year based on a 40 hour week. Still, I consider that a lean income. If you perform a quick analysis based on this income, you’d have $23,065 net to work with. And in reality, when you add dependents, insurance, medical expenses into the mix – it’d be tough to make ends meet.

It also makes me super uncomfortable that the culture of tipping places so much power in the hands of the customer. Again, as I’ve said before in this blog, I don’t believe that people are inherently bad; but if you go searching on the internet for stories of badly behaved patrons, waitresses being sexually harassed or inappropriately propositioned – you’ll find them. I feel in these scenarios, there isn’t a lot that a server can do to defend themselves if they want to be tipped at the end of the ordeal.

So, I want to make sure I tip handsomely where I can. In New Zealand, if I receive exceptional service, I will tip a lot. I once overheard my waitress in our local cafe talking to her colleague about how she was stressed out about how she was going to pay her rent after forking out a huge sum of money for textbooks during her last year of university, so palmed a lazy $50 note into her hand when she came to collect my discarded dishes at the end of the meal. Could I have used that money? Sure. Did it hugely inconvenience me to ‘lose’ the money? No.

Did it make a difference to that young lady? Well, I hope so. I think it’s so important to be kind to others who’re less fortunate, so the idea of tipping incorrectly and as a result causing upset or offence causes me hypertension.

I’m huge on the idea of communities behaving like tribes. If we all work together to support each other, we can all achieve and be successful. I’ve been trying to teach my 11 year old son about being kind and taking care of our wider community, those people that fall outside of our immediate family and friends.

Recently I became acquainted with a wonderful Auckland based filmmaker named Rachel, who runs a Facebook group called ‘Mums Mince’.

Three years ago, Rachel cooked a big pot of her mother’s famous savoury mince and dropped it off at the Auckland City Mission to help feed the homeless.

She made huge efforts to do this once a month, but as a solo working parent found it difficult to keep up with the demand. After putting a call out for support on Facebook to her friends, she began Mums Mince which has grown into a 1,500 strong group of strong, community driven women who inspire each other to help feed those in our city who are a little down on their luck, a little less fortunate and just in need of a hearty meal.

Because we are away from home for an entire month, I contacted Rachel and volunteered to do 2 consecutive Saturdays in February.

My son Ethan and I pored over boiling pots of salted water for several hours last Saturday afternoon, cooking 5kg of pasta in our tiny, not made for cooking in large quantities kitchen. My weekends have been jammed with work, events and birthday celebrations to the point where I feel like for the last 3 weeks adrenaline and coffee has kept me speeding through it all. After picking a tonne of spinach out of my wee vege patch, we mixed up 5 large trays of pasta, packed them into a laundry basket and delivered them to the Missions’ drop in centre in plenty of time for the evening meal at 5pm.

I watched Ethan tentatively as he manoeuvred through the queues that had started to form at the Mission, scores of people waiting for their opportunity to sit and break bread with friends and other strangers for the evening.

I could see a barrage of emotions swim across his face as he walked through the Missions’ doors, and as much as I had tried to prepare Ethan for some of the things he would see, it became clear that the reality of homelessness in our community began to hit him like a tonne of bricks.

We didn’t make much of a fuss, walking into the kitchen area and placing our donations on the benches for volunteers to retrieve; as we left, there was a cacophony of very grateful ‘thank yous’ echoing through the dining hall, out into the street where we’d parked in a loading zone.

My son asked a lot of questions on the way home, about why certain things in the centre appeared the way they did, why people there looked a certain dishelved way; I met his curiosity with measured answers, imploring him to tell me why he thought these types of small acts of kindness were important in a city and even moreso a society, where the idea of community has become less and less important.

I intend to carry on this work with Rachel and beyond when I get back from the US and have even been lucky enough to connect with some wonderful people who are excited by the idea of mucking in to help.

On that note? Here’s some advice on when it’s appropriate and expected to add gratituity to your bill in the US and some indicators on what would be an appropriate and unmiserly tip!

Hawaii

Tipping is even more crucial in Hawaii, where the cost of living is higher than the average US state. Because of this, Hawaii has joined a growing number of areas that will add an immediate 18% tip and include this in your bill, however I’ve included some suggestions below on what to tip:

Maid service/Housekeeping – A friend told me recently while vacationing in NY that she would leave a $3 USD tip per day for her maid, which resulted in housekeepers fighting over who was going to turn over her room! As a general rule, $1-2 USD (leave on dresser) is appropriate, however the better you tip, the better service you can expect to get!
Bellboy – $1-2 USD per bag
Taxi – $1-2 USD or 15% of overall fare
Wait Staff – 15-20% of overall pre-tax meal costs
Bar Staff – 10-15% of overall cost of drink/order pre-tax or $1 per drink
Tour Guide – As you depart from the tour, reward a good tour guide by tipping 10-20 percent of the cost of the tours’ ticket.
Doorman – when he hails you a taxi, tip him $1-2 USD
Hotel Concierge – It’s the concierge’s job to assist guests, so technically its not a requirement that you tip , but if you get great service, tipping anywhere between $5-20 is reasonable.

Los Angeles

California’s labour statute spells out exactly who cannot receive any tips: Neither the restaurant’s owners nor its agents are permitted to take tips. Agents of the owner include managers and supervisors; essentially, those who supervise other employees, or have the authority to hire or fire employees. Even if they wait on a table, or help deliver dishes, owners and their agents cannot receive any tips.

For wait staff, barbers, attendants and tour guides in California, your tip can be calculated as follows, based on a percentage of your total bill of service:

10% – not totally happy with the service given
15% – service was acceptable, not exceptional
20% – outstanding service.

In most communities, 15-20% gratuity of the overall bill(s) is an acceptable standard. This is highly subjective however and will vary from state to state.

Nebraska

When you receive tips as part of your compensation, an employees legal rights under wage and hour laws become a bit more complicated. The rules about what counts as a tip, how much the employer must pay you, and whether you have to contribute to a tip pool (among other things) all depend on the laws of the state.

The basic rule of tips, under federal law and state law, is that they belong to the employee, not the employer. Employers may not require employees to hand over their tips unless one of these exceptions applies:

Nebraskan State law allows the employer to take a tip credit. Nebraska’s minimum wage is currently $8 an hour (for 2015). Because the state minimum wage is higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25, employers must pay employees $8 an hour; this means employers may pay tipped employees an hourly wage as low as $2.13 and may take a tip credit of up to $5.87, as long as the employee makes enough in tips to bring his or her wages up to $8 an hour. If not, the employer must make up the difference.

What I’ve learned so far about gratuity is that it could potentially mean the difference between a person being able to eat, get to work or even pay their rent check. And with the words of Rihanna’s grandmother ringing in my ears, I bid you good luck and ask you to be kind when tipping!

Charli x

Guest Appearances.

Hotels are expensive and often as a guest, you’re left feeling disappointed by a proprietors lack of being able to justify the exorbitant rates that are being charged. Or, at least this has been my experience.

Whilst there are awesome metasearch sites available to reduce your expenses like Booking.com offering up to the minute alerts on price drops and discounted rates, when booking accomodation on sites and apps like HotWire you’re often like rolling the dice on whether or not the place will be a complete dive or an elegant experience.

My family and friends welcomed in the 2017 New Year together in a holiday home in Parua Bay, located in New Zealand’s gorgeous Northland.

My brother in law rented the home using the Airbnb app.

Affectionately named Rammed Earth by the owners, the house had recently been vacated by its previous tenants, and the owner decided to try his luck renting out the property as a holiday home.

It had recently been furnished with some pretty funky KMart appliances, but save for a fairly well stocked kitchen and beds and pillows without linens, there wasn’t much else going on.

Because we’d travelled to Northland for the specific purpose of sun, surf, sand, beers and laughter, the lack of a television or wifi wasn’t too much of a cause for concern for the majority of our group (shout out to my BFF Dave who was losing his damn mind because his mobile carrier has pretty lacklustre service in lower density areas).

Based on our NYE experience and after doing some research (read ‘googling’) on the most effective way to travel abroad, I figured that I would sign up for my own Airbnb account and do some sleuthing and cost/benefit analysis on whether staying in Motel 6’s or Holiday Inns was going to more financially viable…being on the road in a foreign country where your own local currency buys theirs at $0.70 to the dollar is an expensive exercise anyway!

Airbnb is an online marketplace and hospitality service, enabling people to list or rent short-term lodging including vacation rentals, apartment rentals, homestays, hostel beds, or hotel rooms.

Airbnb is a community built on a lot of trust; essentially as a guest you’re trusting that your host isn’t going to falsify their ads like some hoteliers are wont to do, leading you to rent a roach infested hovel. As a host, you’re entrusting a complete stranger with unadulterated access to your home with the hope that they don’t screw you by throwing a kegger and trashing the place.

When you apply to rent an Airbnb home, you are invited to tell the host a little about yourself, your accompanying guests if any and the reason you are travelling and wanting to rent their space. I figured because my husband Christian and I are working professionals travelling with our son, it would play in our favour. And in some ways, I think it did.

Our first attempt to book a home was in Waikiki. There are plenty of serviced apartments for you to choose from, however the majority of these places don’t have functional kitchens or are similarly priced or more expensive to the many of the resorts near Ala Moana Boulevard. I guess this is because the hosts roll their daily resort fee into the overall daily price of the rental.

A resort fee, also called a facility fee, a destination fee, an amenity fee, or a resort charge, is a separate mandatory fee that a guest must pay to receive the key to their room rental. The fee is charged in addition to the room rate. As far as I was able to tell, most of the resorts in Waikiki charge this amenity fee. In other US states, some Airbnbs have an occupancy tax that you will need to pay on top of your daily rental fee, however in some instances hosts offer 5-20% discounts on long term stays which sort of counters this charge.

There were very few Airbnb options in the area we wanted to stay while in Hawaii, so I ended up booking a twin room at the Aqua Palms Resort for the paltry sum of $139 USD per night. On top of this, we will be charged around about an additional $18USD per day, based on an average of 9.25%-13.25% of our overall room charges.

The Aqua Palms‘ hotel resort fee includes:

Beach access
Beach loungers
Beach towels
Fitness center access
Shuttle service
Internet access
Newspaper
Phone calls
In-room safe
In-room coffee
Laundry service
Outdoor pool
Microwave

Regardless of what I kind of think is an egregious for a hotel to charge, as service is what you’re paying in most cases over $100 USD for, I still feel like we got a great deal on our room.

Both Los Angeles & New York also charge additional fees for tourists under the guise of ‘accomodation tax’. Whilst I think this is a great way for the cities to collect additional monies from visitors and capitalise on their statuses as ‘Must See Places Before You Die’, I do kind of think it could be also be a deterrent for some working to a budget and…well, it’s a bit mean.

Guests who occupy a hotel, motel, bed-and-breakfast, boarding house, or transient club, apartment or room pay the Hotel Room Occupancy Tax to the hotel operators or remarketers (when a room has been purchased from an intermediary like Airbnb). The hotel operators turn this money over to the City. The tax varies, and is based on the cost of the room.

A private house in which a room is rented is not considered a hotel, therefore may not be liable to pay these taxes to the city. Unfortunately I cannot confirm this, as we elected to only stay in homes where we would be the sole occupants.

Our first stop after Hawaii will be in LA and as my absolute favourite band in the whole world Concrete Blonde gained infamy and was formed in West Hollywood, I really wanted to stay here. Celebrity hair stylist Guy Tang also has a studio in West Hollywood, and I have on good authority that it’s Drag Queen City, so I feel like it will be a home away from home of sorts for me.

Our Hollywood Airbnb is pretty basic, a 2 bedroom apartment located 2 blocks from the WeHo Gateway Mall, 15mins from the Walk of Fame, Chinese & Dolby Theatres and most importantly to this self professed Fat Kid, around the corner from the world famous In-N-Out Burger.

I had decided up front that there were several amenities that our Airbnb selections would need to have; firstly and of the utmost importance, we all needed somewhere to sleep. You would think that by specifying that you have 3 guests, at least 2 beds would be necessary, but some hosts will advertise their homes stating ‘sleeps 4′, when the reality is that they have a fold out couch, an arm chair, a bean bag and a blow up bed. If anything, this is a con to Airbnb and definitely something to watch out for.

Secondly, it was pretty important that we have access to a washer and dryer, or at they very least a laundry service of some kind. The appartment building we are staying in in WeHo has coin operated machines in the basement which we can access, which means I can ensure I’m not dragging around a suitcase of rank clothes, stinking to high heaven with my sons’ prepubescent stench! Check.

Thirdly, the location of the apartment needed to be easily accessible from LAX and be close to public transport, a general market and city sights. This Airbnb fit all criteria.

Lastly, we wanted to make sure we were able to communicate, FaceTime, call or Skype our families while we were away. High speed Wifi access was a definite requirement, so that all of our devices could comfortably be connected. Check.

The end cost was fairly reasonable for a five day stint in Hollywood, and when compared to the cost of staying in any half way decent Hollywood hotel, was pretty cheap:

Airbnb does charge a service fee (as listed above) per reservation, but even when taking this fee into account, booking via the Airbnb app is still at least 35% cheaper than the hotels that I compared against. For example, in New York to stay in a half way decent boutique hotel with a shared bathroom, I was looking at budgeting $2,500-$3,000 NZD for an 8 day stay in Lower Manhattan.

We were lucky enough to find a Yoga Studio in Williamsburg on Airbnb, with a pretty cheap price tag of $1,524 NZD. When compared with the prices being charged by some of the hotels on Booking.com that looked as if they hadn’t been refurbished since Nancy Spungen was murdered (insert NY reference), this is a really great deal.

The amenities included in the studio are the same as those listed in the WeHo apartment, but this studio also has a huge roof deck overlooking Williamsburg in Brooklyn, a mini mall downstairs that includes a coffee shop, art gallery, clothing store as well as being right across the street from two of the biggest vintage clothing stores in Brooklyn.

The studio is located quite centrally, 2 blocks from the L train which will get us into Central Williamsburg in under five minutes. Lower Manhattan is 15 minutes away by train.

Some Airbnb hosts offer immediate booking options, which removes the uncertainty of reservations. I booked all of our stays using these types of listings and all were accepted without too much drama.

I did initially have some issues with a booking in LA, where the app flipped out on me and booked a stay during the same time we were scheduled to be in New Orleans. When trying to make multiple bookings based on wish lists, be vigilant that you are indeed booking the right dates!

I got lucky in this instance because Airbnb could see that the in-app conversations between the host and myself intimated that she would adjust my booking to suit the dates we were in LA. Unfortunately she didn’t uphold her end of our verbal agreement which resulted in someone else booking that period, potentially leaving me with a cancellation fee of $400 NZD (she had a very strict policy).

Once I contacted Airbnb to explain the situation, the customer service rep that I spoke to agreed that it would be unreasonable for the host to recoup a fee of that magnitude based on our initial agreement, and escalated my dispute to management who were kind enough to refund 100% of my $1,000+ NZD booking fees. Phew is all I can say.

Cancellation policies vary from host to host, and it’s at the hosts discretion as to whether they have a relaxed or strict policy. In this instance I got very lucky that the host had agreed to adjust the booking in-app, as all communication between us could be seen by the reps themselves.

Do not agree to exchange funds outside of Airbnb.

I’ve read nightmare stories of travellers being duped out of tonnes of cash because they attempted to circumvent Airbnb and transact privately to avoid paying the aforementioned taxes and platform fees. The risk outweighs the benefit here, because you’re relying on the honesty of a complete stranger, potentially on the other side of the world. Whilst I don’t believe that people are inherently bad and would go out of their way to scam another person, when dealing with sums of money this large, there needs to be an element of recourse that you can take in the event things go south.

And for me, that element is definitely Airbnb…oh, and travel insurance!

Charli x

Clever is Cool.

I recently purchased an iPhone 7+ which has twice the memory capacity of my old iPhone 5S.

Since purchasing the device I have spent a lot more time researching useful apps, with specific interest in travel; this considering that my family and I are travelling to the United States for nearly a month and I am heading into unfamiliar territory.

TripIt

One of the best apps I’ve come across whilst browsing the store is the TripIt app. The app allows you to create an online itinerary keeping note of all of your reservations, flight details, addresses, important information like passport details and emergency contacts organising all of your itineraries and confirmations in one incredibly easy to use dashboard. I initially purchased the app to create a basic itinerary that could be shared with our families, so that they would know where we were at any given time considering the sometimes astronomical expense to make international calls back home from abroad.

To be completely fair, I don’t think our mums are so concerned with our whereabouts but moreso our 11 year old son.

One of the coolest things about the app, is that you can forward all of your confirmation emails from your registered email address to the email plans@tripit.com were all of the data will be collated, aggregated, and a master itinerary will be created within the application itself.

TripIt is free, however you can choose pay for advanced features in the Pro version of the app.

SeatGuru

Although I didn’t find this app until after we’d booked all of our flights, the SeatGuru app gives you insights into the layout of an aircraft, allowing you to be make a more conscientious decision when selecting your seats.

Although most economy seats are created equal, there are usually a dozen or so seats on an aircraft that have misaligned windows, are wayyyy too close to the bathrooms for comfort or don’t have access to power for charging small handheld devices making them even less desirable than other standard cattle class seats.

Use SeatGuru to help you choose the best seat so that you can travel in a little more comfort than you might without the insider knowledge!

Rome2Rio

Rome2Rio is an app that allows you to plan your travel from a to b, in over 158 countries worldwide. You can enter any town, address or landmark as your destination and Rome2Rio will instantly display flight, train, bus, ferry and driving options with estimated travel times and fares based on aggregated and ranked information sourced from multiple APIs and published within its platform . The travel search engine contains route information from over 4,800 transport operators, however has been criticised by travellers in European locations as omitting a lot of the low cost aircraft operators from their flight results.

Users of the app have commented on their appreciation of it’s simplistic format making it incredibly user friendly, with others advising that the financial results provided by Rome2Rio should be used as a guide only.

LoungeBuddy

Unfortunately for my husband, son and I, I’m not fancy enough to have a lounge membership with any airliner, nor do I have a frequent flyer pass that allows me to travel in style. I traverse the stark, tiled floors of airports just like any other schlep! The good news is however, Auckland International Airport allows limited lounge access to its Emperor Lounge for travellers at a small price of $49 NZD for 3 hours. You can pay a fraction more if you’re a long haul traveller in need of a nice, hot shower as towels are provided and if necessary staff can arrange hotel reservations for you.

The lounge has an assortment of local and international food on offer to its visitors, as well as non-alcoholic beverages and a stocked bar. The website indicates that there are desk spaces setup for you to connect and charge your hand held devices and laptop equipment, and children chaperoned have access to a small play area.

For 2 adults and a child under the age of 12, I paid $122.50 for 3 hours of access. We plan to arrive to complete our bag drops via the Air New Zealand kiosks early and head into the lounge after customs for some well needed R&R.

Lounge Buddy isn’t partnered with the Auckland International Airport, however did display results for Honolulu and JFK airports.

There are two lounges located in Honolulu Airport, both very reasonable priced. User reviews indicated that the IASS lounge didn’t offer much aside from tea, coffee and soft drinks and much of the commentary maligned the dated cheap motelesque decor.
On this basis, we elected to opt for the much more extravagant Lufthansa Business Lounge in New York’s JFK Airport. With our flight back to the island being a non-stop 11 hours, I figure we will need the preparatory relaxation.

The Lufthansa Business Lounge offers a tonne of amenities, including premium buffet, beer & wine, spirits & liquor, snacks, TVs, high speed wifi and supplied internet terminals. Prices at $84 NZD per person, you get full access to all of these amenities.

These are only some of the clever apps I found to make your travel much less anxiety ridden. As a person who can be highly strung in stressful or unknown situations, I feel like any support system your smartphone can offer is a godsend.

Better living everyone!

Charli x

Hey…where should we stay?

Booking a month long trip in a country you’ve never set foot in and only ever seen on television is seriously daunting. Luckily, I was fortunate to have enough time in the lead up to the trip to do a tonne of research on how to stretch my dollars as far as they would go…and for anyone who knows me well, they know I love a bargain and setting myself up for the challenge of getting the most out of my hard earned cash.

Trying to keep costs at a minimum when vacationing in resort laden towns like Waikiki is pretty difficult – but booking accomodation at a reasonable price in a resort town can be done.

There are a multitude of website proffering discounted rooms, chalets and suites on the internet, but more often than not, these rates are unlikely to be much cheaper than booking the same room via the hotel directly.

For example, HotWire has been heralded by many as one of the most cost effective ways to book accomodation abroad, however the company currently has a one star rating on Yelp. The website offers unsold ‘travel inventory’ at discounted prices.

When hotel rooms, airline seats, or rental cars go unsold, they are filled by travel companies through companies like Hotwire. Hotwire does not identify the participating companies until after the purchaser has paid so as not to directly compete with regular retail sales of the travel partners. This sales model is known as an “opaque”. According to the Hotwire website, they deal with brand-name travel companies exclusively. This strategy allows Hotwire partners to clear out their supply and sell inventory that would otherwise go unsold.

I myself used HotWire locally to book accomodation in Paihia and was definitely disappointed in what I got for around $240NZD a night. The hotel was dated, dusty and the service non-existent. I had to call for towels on more than one occasion as those that were supplied were insufficient for the number of guests booked in to stay and the locks on the doors were flimsy at best. However, HotWire does have a star rating system which means you can elect to purchase a slightly more expensive room with a higher rating if you wish to do so. But if you’re going to spend more money, you may as well use an agent that lets you know who you’re actually booking! I would suggest if you are going to use HotWire to base your choice on user feedback in conjunction with the star rating.

Booking.com offers it’s registered participants ‘hidden offers’, which are only displayed once you have created a user profile and logged in. It pays to create an account when using Booking.com, as dynamically priced destinations mean they can drop significantly during a given day. They also offer daily specials and allow you to setup price drop alerts in locations you are interested in renting, meaning you’ll receive email alerts any time a price drop occurs in your saved destination list. In the US, the site is operated as PriceLine. Again, user reviews on the Consumer Affairs website rate this engine with one star, with some customers citing underhanded cancellation policies that are not in line with actual hotel chain policy, reservations being confirmed by the company but not booked with hotels and very poor customer service. I have used the Booking.com app myself for making reservations in Rarotonga, and at the given time Booking.com offered the best listed price for a room at the resort our wedding party was staying in. I found both the site and mobile app easy to use and based on my experience with the company, I would recommend them to others cautionarily.

With that being said, most of these engines charge a percentage fee to the hotel, for acting as a conduit between customer and service provider. Think of it as a marketing platform that gives smaller businesses access to audiences that it would not usually be able to reach, with its own social media presence. Because of this, it’s highly likely that if you call the hotel directly and quote the listed price on Booking.com, Expedia or sites like Trivago, the hotel will honour the quoted price directly as they’ll receive 100% of the revenue and it won’t be liable for service fees.

When looking for listings, browse incognito! I use Google Chrome to do this.

To open an incognito window, start Chrome and click the wrench icon in the top right corner of the screen. Click New Incognito Window and start browsing. Alternatively, you can press Ctrl+ Shift + N to bring up a new incognito window without entering the Chrome settings menu.

Most hotel chains are now performing analytics to understand where their demand for supply is coming from. This means that when cookies are enabled on a browser, websites are able to collect small pieces of arbitrary data, like a users activity. With this data, they can they can instate dynamic pricing, hiking rates for suites that are in demand based on their users on site activity.

An easy solution is to designate one browser for your accomodation searches set for use in incognito mode, and then to do everything else that you enjoy the use of cookies for, in another browser.

In the end, I booked accomodation in Waikiki at the Aqua Palms, based on a number of aggregated searches I performed over a week. The location was recommended to me by a work colleague, a former resident of the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

This hotel charge resort fees. A resort fee is usually collected separately from the advertised room rate. Despite these charges, my booking which was made directly through the hotels website, was cheaper than any of the advertised rates on Expedia or Booking.com.

The hotels website also offered reduced rates on suites without oceans views, as well as an additional discount for bookings made more than a month in advance, and free car rental on some suites.

I booked a suite with a City View at the Aqua Palms for the three of us, because I can’t imagine we will spend much time in our room while we have Waikiki Beach on our doorstep so the rooms view was inconsequential.

For 2 adults and 1 child including all resort fees and taxes over 2 days, I paid just over $532 NZD ($382 USD), paying in US currency and allowing my own bank to complete the conversion.

When making payments using a New Zealand credit card, you should always elect to make payments in local currency. In most cases, your banks’ foreign currency conversion rate will give you a better return than an international retailer.

I’m looking forward to being able to post a review of the Aqua Palms resort and am hoping it will be a positive one. I guess we’ll find out in T-Minus 13 days from now!

Charli x