About Us

Aloha - My name is Jan Hendrix, and I am the owner and your hostess for the accommodations at West Maui Lodging.

I moved to Maui in 2001. Before this, I lived in the Boulder, CO area for 20 years, and in the Seattle, WA area the previous 10 years. On the mainland, I worked in the Information Technology field. My family comes from New Mexico, where my sister, Connie, still lives. My husband, Steve Juarez, has lived on Maui since 1985 where he runs a dive shop, Hawaiian Rafting Adventures / Dive Maui - www.goscubadivemaui.com. I am a scuba diver so I explored all the dive shops on Maui, the Big Island and Kauai during the course of several visits to Hawaii in 1994 and 1995. I first met Steve during a visit to Maui in 1994, when I went on a day trip with his dive shop. Steve and I had a long distance romance, by email and phone, and went on several 'big' dive adventures (Palau, Turks and Caicos) together in the years following. I had to move to Maui - he wouldn't come to Colorado, too cold and no ocean. We married in 2006, on the beach in front of West Maui Cottages, Launiupoko Beach.

When I moved out here in 2001, I bought West Maui Cottages and we lived in the 2BR/2BA Palm House until 2007. I rented the Ocean Cottage and the 1BR Ohana as a vacation rental starting in 2002. My sister and mom sold some property in New Mexico and we bought our first apartment at the Papakea Resort in 2002. I managed it for the family since I lived here, 'on-island' as we say. There followed several years of buying properties (and making some mistakes with properties by buying in inferior resorts) and renting them as vacation rentals. It was a evolving business - what properties had the best customer satisfaction and for me, what was the best advertising media to get the word out. It slowly grew into what it is today: we own 4 apartments at the Papakea Oceanfront Resort, one at Lahaina Roads, and offer you 3 lodging options at West Maui Cottages. I am a 'high-touch', responsive and detailed-oriented hostess. Every one of our properties get high ratings in customer satisfaction and I work hard to keep them this way. I am grateful to my loyal repeat guests and I love meeting new clients. I enjoy the process of introducing people to Maui and to our distinctive accommodations, and being a part of their cherished memories and experiences.

My mom lives out here now, and my sister visits each year. I really can't imagine living any place else in the world! Maui really is 'No Ka Oi' as we say here, meaning the best, number one, unbeatable. No matter how you say it, it's true!