I was part of the group with 30 college kids, and although the experience was amazing, I did have a few issues with the lodge. Firstly, the pictures do not show fully what the apartments look like. All rooms at Arnott's are made up of a living room and two bedrooms, but the living room also has two beds in it. I slept in the living room, given no privacy or space to store my clothes. It also will only be air-conditioned if the doors to the bedrooms are open. I became close with my roommates, so my initial issues became less of a problem. I bought drawers and a hanging rack to store my clothes, but I ended up losing money because I could not transport them back home, it would have been nice for Arnott's to provide more amenities for people who stay in the common room. The kitchenette had no oven, which is disclosed, but the fridges are very poor quality and are only meant to hold a very small amount of food. It is not meant to be used to hold food for four people for three months, and it did cause us several issues throughout our time there. We actually bought a separate mini-fridge, because the Arnott's amenities were not adequate. If you were traveling by yourself or in a smaller group, you would have to rent the entire space that can hold 5 people in order to truly have privacy. The walls are very thin throughout the entire lodge, but especially in apartments as well. The staff at the front desk was great, but many of my peers had issues with the owners, Doug and Glory. It mostly stemmed from them inviting college students to stay there for 3 months and expecting them to not act like college students. We took the Mauna Kea Summit tour with Arnott's which was very enjoyable, but was priced a bit too high for what it is, in my opinion. Overall, most of the complaints I have are things I can deal with, but I think it is important for the Lodge to be more upfront about what they offer.

I have traveled all over the world and stayed at all different kinds of places. This was by far the worst experience I've ever had. They gave us the impression that we would all have either single rooms or a room with two twin beds. It was an unfortunate surprise when I walked in and saw that one of my room mates was having to sleep in the living room with no privacy what so ever. Only the bedrooms had ac units which they don't allow you to turn below 72 degrees. This was a huge issue because even when leaving the bedroom doors open for air circulation, the rest of the apartment would still be muggy and make you feel like you need to take shower. On my first day there I had to kill more flies than I had to in the past year. The bathroom doors have about a 5 inch gap between it and the floor giving you minimal privacy. The hot water wouldn't work unless you showered in the morning. Before we came, the owners, Doug and Glory gave us their word that the WIFI would be strong enough for all students to sufficiently attend their online zoom classes. Frankly, they knew it was not strong enough and just wanted our money. The first day I came, Glory was immediately being extremely hostile and rude. I didn't see this lady smile once over the course of three months. My friend left the door open one day by accident and you would not believe how cruel Glory was to him. He was a genuinely sweet kind hearted boy and kept apologizing and saying he wouldn't do it again. She continued to belittle him and went as far to say, "You're really stupid for someone who is in college!" Even after she had got her point across she continued to yell at him creating a scene.
Doug was sexist and would say many things that were not politically correct. When talking about the washing machines, he described them as "washing as well as an old indian woman." When giving instructions on the fire extinguishers he specifically said, " This is a fire extinguisher, most boys know how to use them and most girls don't." I thought he was being sarcastic at first but he continued on with these un-professional and disrespectful comments.
After spending thousands of dollars to stay there, we were treated as if we were a burden to them. In the rooms there was a scarcity of silverware and dishes which were extremely low quality. They then gave us a list of things at the end that needed to be in our apartments when we left, many of which weren't there to begin with. After the rough experience of staying there for three months, the rude owners made every person leave their room by 11 am. Many kids did not have flights till the night time and were forced to sit outside and wait even though Arnotts did not have any other guests coming that day. Two weeks after our small group of college students left, they sent out emails charging some rooms up to 1500$! Insanity. One of the rooms was charged 300$ because they had decorated their outside back wall with removable chalk. Something that can be easily washed away! Arnotts is a corrupt business with rude and unwelcoming hosts. The fines they gave out made it seem like we put holes in the walls and stained all the carpets. They saw the chance to upgrade their old run down facility and took it. The location is also too far from the town to walk so they would charge us 5$ a day to use their run down walmart bikes. The chains would constantly fall off. One time my friends chain fell off on his way back to the lodge and was still pretty far away. The bikes had to be back by 5 pm and even after my friend called and asked if Glory or someone could pick him up, she was the opposite of empathetic and snapped at him making him walk it back and still be back by 5 o'clock with no exceptions. Another friend of mine fell off her bike and her bike helmet broke, but to no surprise Glory made her pay for a brand knew bike helmet even tho It served no protection to my friend. If you are looking for a relaxing trip to Hawaii, you're looking in the wrong place and on the wrong side of the island. There is nothing at all to do at Arnotts lodge or anywhere near it. Homeless people walk by with their shopping carts and the entire area outside the lodge smells like sewer water. If you sat in any chair in the common areas, it would either be soaked in lysol or covered in fire ants. My girlfriend sat on one of the couches and got a huge rash on her leg which we later learned had happened to our other friend previously. Over all I am extremely disappointed with the way I was treated and disappointed that this business tries to get every dollar out of you that they can. DO NOT STAY HERE! I REPEAT, DO NOT STAY HERE!