Looking for any couples that have booked Oahu Wedding Villa formerly Hale Koa Estate

I didn't book there but would've LOVED to get that place. It looks super awesome and would be great for a big weekend wedding + guest room amenities.

Good luck with your search!

I am currently booked with this venue! We were supposed to get married last year but postponed to October of this year. It’s looking like because of my fiancé’s job we will need to postpone to 2022 now. Have you booked with them? I’m starting to get nervous. I am an over thinker but I worry that we’ve been screwed out of money with them. We don’t live locally so I’ve never met with them in person but I’ve recently seen some bad reviews from girls who have worked with these new owners. What are your experiences thus far?

Don't book with them! They have been a pain to deal with prior to Covid-19 and now they are pretty much going out of business and unable to pay customers back. The Hale Koa Estate property (now Oahu Wedding Villas) has been listed up for sale since February 2021: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/53-012-Halai-St-Hauula-HI-96717/2073659987_zpid/. They have been actively getting their negative reviews removed. There is a reason they do not have an actual legitimate company website, company email account, or business license.

View Quoted Comment Rachel, are you currently booked with them? Do you know anyone who has successfully had a wedding at the location recently? We were originally supposed to get married there September of 2020, rescheduled to this year and will unfortunately have to reschedule again to next year due to a new career for my fiancé. Just hoping that this is all legitimate enough for us to be able to have our wedding there next year. Either that or we need to look at getting our money back…but it sounds like that isn’t happening for many people.

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I was booked with them and postponed once already. They have never initiated any communication or given updates when staff has changed or to explain how they were handling bookings during this time. After the second date was no longer going to work due to continued travel restrictions I requested a refund. They never sent anything including the damage deposit back after verbally saying they would fully refund people on some sort of payment plan. The new manager, Barbara has stated they are still paying couples from last summer back. They refuse to put anything in writing, they mix-up couples they have spoken to, and have overly been non-responsive. I did not know anyone who had personally had a wedding with this venue prior and they had very limited reviews positive or negative when I originally booked them. We are now seeking other avenues for reimbursement including potential legal action.

View Quoted Comment I’m sorry to hear that you guys have had such a hard time with them. That’s unfortunate. We have so much money in the booking that we felt we should just postpone to next year and have our wedding there. I’m really hoping it all works out. It’ll be the icing on the covid/postponement cake to not have a wedding venue when we show up to hawaii 😟😬


I hope you guys are able to receive your refund back!

View Quoted Comment Well, it looks like they are officially selling the house. We got a phone call the other day from them (because we’ve been trying to postpone and change our date) when they told us the house was for sale and we have the option to get a refund. That’s what I’ve asked for. Has anyone gotten their refund? Anyone know anyone who has? I’m nervous about getting our money back.

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Hi Wynter, I paid electronically due to my concerns with booking with the venue from the start. I did finally end up getting my money back after doing a chargeback due to never having received the paid service and winning the case after providing tons of supporting documentation. It took several months to finalize and the venue never responded or provided anything let alone the damage deposit back. If you paid cash, cashiers check, etc. I would recommend filing a police report online with Hawaii or reaching out to them at least if the venue does not respond or give you a signed payment contract in writing.

View Quoted Comment Hey Rachel,


We are on the same boat, still have not gotten our money back. We booked this through VRBO who have been no help. We will also look into filing a police report and call our credit card company. Let me know if you have any tips about what documents you provided

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I would highly recommend contacting your credit card company as soon as possible. They do have a time limit on chargebacks. Depending on the credit card company or bank they may start the time limit from the date of when the payment was originally sent or from the date of when the service was supposed to take place. Hopefully it is from the date the service was supposed to take place. Provide as much documentation as you have: original contract, any revised contracts, screenshots of all messages with the owner, employees, etc., emails requesting a refund if you have them, screenshot of the venue being listed for sale on the housing websites, etc. The wedding venue owner has recently opened his first LLC on April 1, 2021: https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_hi/253139C5 so I am not sure if they are going to try to continue not refunding people by starting a new business under a new name again. I wish you the best! Planning a wedding is stressful enough and adding in issues with a vendor that puts people out thousands of dollars is never fun.

I have a wedding booked here in a few months and am not having a good experience thus far. What was your experience with this venue?

View Quoted Comment What has your experience been like? My fiancée and I are looking to book with the place. Should we not?

View Quoted Comment I know someone who is booked here this summer… how was your experience??

Any update on this? Looking at the venue this Oct. Have my suspicions but if somebody that has used the venue in the last few months could chime in would be amazing. Thanks

View Quoted Comment We are looking to book in February of next year, I have my suspicions looking at their old yelp account, seems like they were in business in the early 2000s and then shut down and now offering there services again. The photos look amazing, almost to good to be true, I would really like to here of some recent experience with this property.