I had this happen to some friend and I for a race (not Kona) last Summer. Given the choice of price hike or cancel.
After a couple of rounds of arguing, we told them to go fook themselves, on principle. It was via Booking.com.
Booking.com were a total bunch of shameless unhelpful c###s.
The way to deal with them is to stop giving them money. Otherwise they bear no impact (in fact they'd gey a bigger % so is in their interest to shaft you). And go slag them off on every social meeejia site you can. Both the middle men and the actual vendor.

And yes. IM needs to move from Kona.

IM was and is fine in Kona until they decided to double it up without considering the consequences.

It sucks for people who want to go but can't afford it. But I get your point. It was never a true WC to begin with*. The small pool is just shrinking further.

*It's only a WC for the professionals. For others it's just a qualifying event like Boston.

Been to many countries of the world, booked dozens of AirBnb/Vrbo homestays, and never had problems with owners/listings until I tried to book places in Kona:

"You mentioned that you're gonna race Ironman? We had problems with the participants in the past, you're not welcome, sorry"
"Hi, I have not adjusted to pricing for Ironman. The rate will be different, would you agree to 350 per night?"
"Sorry, I'm selling my condo, so the booking will be canceled"
and a couple more excuses I don't remember.

I'm the same...

I've gone to hawaii at least once a year for the past 20 years. The prices are just absolutely absurd now to the point that it's not about being able to afford it. It's about going and it actually being worth it. Things were always expensive there but it's gone beyond what I'm willing to pay.

Just by coincidence. We skipped Hawaii the last 1.5 years and went to Saint George 3 different times. Cheap flights, nice reasonable housing, great weather.

Is it lounging on a beach? No. Is it so much more affordable that we can go 3 times instead of once? Yes.

Hello,
Just KQ in IM Austria.

And i found the nightmare of finding an accomodation.

Would it be posible to find alternatives even further tha Waikoloa, but still possible to go to kona (not every day), and to find an accomodation for just the night of the race in Kona (or sleep in the auto).

BR

I don’t know how many people you had planned to travel with, and you’ve probably already done this, but maybe put a note on Slowtwitch, and on the Kona facebook groups asking of anybody has lodgings to share? It’s a shame to miss out on the Kona race if you’ve never done it before. And with two races rather than one this year, it’s going to be a fantastic spectator event for the competitors as well as the friends/family.

---

Sharon McN
@IronCharo
#TeamZoot
Clif Bar Pace Team 2003-2018

I am up there too in a Hilton property I booked way back. Booked Mon-Sun, good rate; same with a car reservation. Something came up and I may to adjust my travel to something like Wed.-Mon. Perhaps that does not leave much time before I race Saturday, but it is what it is. More to the point, if I modify my reservation--even if I were to just try to drop Mon and Tue night--it triggers the current rates, which is over double at what I booked at. I would end up paying more just for shortening my stay by two nights. Maybe I keep the reservation and offer a free Mon and Tue hotel room to someone who wants it under my reservation. Need to finalize plans first.

What a mess the week is going to be for many.

I'll be curious how you like Puako. I was looking there (with family) but logistics getting in and out on the day looked like a bear. Curious if I am overthinking it.

For anybody wanting to stay in town, at the finish line, the Kona Seaside Hotel just had 10 rooms cancel. $350/night. You need to call them instead of reserving online.

Honestly, part of this is serious. Part of this is sarcastic...but the white remote tech worker has destroyed a lot of housing markets across the US and elsewhere. (Maybe they're not all white people but I digress) Hawai'i has been heavily impacted by this, with remote Tech workers purchasing housing inventory en masse. And now, even though they've been recalled that housing inventory hasn't returned to the market.

https://twitter.com/...XHOUy3uK_hw&s=19

Another place that this occurred was in Mexico City, LA Times did a huge expose on this. Where these people changed the character of entire neighborhoods and forced the cost of living for locals in those neighborhoods to skyrocket.

https://www.latimes.com/...want-them-to-go-home

So, I'd say the pandemic and the pandemic response by regressive government restrictions is destroying places that we didn't really think about.

---

Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Devalue? Bitter?

starting to look for 2024 lodging - how is the drive down from Puako/Waikoola race morning? able to find a place to park?

In 2022 I was staying in waikoloa beach.
The drive to Kailua pier was around 40 minutes and didn't seem to change much depending on the day, never got much faster, never got much slower.
Lots of people parked in the parking area between Palani road and Safeway. Some shops had signs saying not to park there and that they might remove cars if you're not a customer, I don't think they really enforced it on race day.

I am so sorry to hear that. This happened to me last year.... those prices would have been double that. I had used AirBnB and anything under $1,600 per night was not a real listing. They would write back and say they had a place out in Kawaihae available for that price. Ultimately we found a Facebook listing for an illegal rental that saved our bacon. No AC, no stove/oven, no supplies, no pool, no TV. I did still have a fun race. But no question it took a lot out of the whole trip to have spent a 6 day trip in 3 different places and 16 hours looking and moving in and out of places.

It was no big deal. They had parking available at the old KMart. Took maybe 30-40 minutes and a 5-10 minute walk to the pier. Getting “home” was easy too, but plan on having someone drive you.

I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.