Four of us stayed in the Beach House for 2 weeks, everything there suited us, like one of the other reviews, don't expect 5 star accomodation but we found the entire place was clean & regularly serviced, whatever we asked for it was provided. The weather causes a lot of problems so consequently the washing machine in the house didn't work but we didn't mind using the laundry downstairs. The fridge was heating up & Brian fixed it immediately, they definitely are no-fuss people & nothing is a bother. One morning there was no water, the fault was some burst pipe at the road, certainly not Sunrise's cause, but Brian came to my rescue with a jug of water to rinse off my hair!! They go that extra distance for you, they are likeable & they made us feel welcome, we had a lot of laughs.
I jokingly called it Faulty Towers because everything that went wrong Caryn & Brian earnestly fixed, replaced or did their utter best to compensate.
I loved the sound of the waves breaking so close to Sunrise, especially at night, every night I fell asleep without my usual insomnia problem.
I would definitely go back again, maybe next year, loved the swimming pool swam in it every day.

I stayed at Sunrise years ago for 10 days. Having just read the reviews here, I am amazed this couple are still operating the business. Caryn was scary. She was moody, difficult and twice made open and racist slurs against the indigenous Islanders. She claimed she had 'priority' as a non-native because of her New Zealand heritage. It was bizarre and I quickly decided she was a powder keg. I kept my distance from her and instead endeavored to figure out the island on my own.
Her partner Brian was a bit better, but he was rather creepy with his 'wandering' eye. I suspected alcohol was involved in their behaviour. Now, reading these reviews I guess I wasn't far off.
She didn't play games with my credit card, but she did not put me in the bungalow I asked for (Beachfront) even though it stayed empty my entire stay. I asked twice to be moved to it and to pay extra for it. She twice declined, giving no reason. Just a sharp, short "no."
My last day I politely asked about my transport to the airport. She was hanging laundry. She ignored me. I asked again. She turned to me and yelled and swore for good minute about how demanding guests are be and can't I see how stressful and demanding (we) all are. Did I mention powder keg?
Brian intervened and said he would take me to the airport. I suggested to him in the car Caryn may not be the poster child for the tourism business. He shrugged and said "she has her days." If I wanted to pay to be this close to the Royal Tanenbaums, I could have stayed home and rented the movie.
Inexpensive accommodations are great, but these people should not be in the service industry. Seems she has been getting away with it for years now.
btw: the Cooks are lovely. Rarotongans are full of good cheer, smart and wise. Aitutaki is an amazing island. I have travelled extensively through out the Caribbean and Central America and I have never seem such a beautiful, peaceful place. I went for a day trip and stayed 2 days. If I went back to the Cooks, I would spend most of my time on Aitutaki.
But in Raro, give Sunrise a pass. There is NO poetry at that place.

We stay 2 weeks in the sunrise beach bungalows. It starts brillant with the pickup at the aisport from brian. He made a short island-trip with us and show us the important places to go and the nice beaches.
We stay in bungalow 4 and everything was nice clean, the sheets, towels etc.. The noise from the waves are amazing in this area. Good place for discover the island and the ocean.
You can see the bluefish in the waves from the bungalow.
The pool was nice and clean, good for swim after the saltwater. Amazing sunrise every morning in this area.
Caryn and Brian are very friendly. The help us everytime and there was 2 weeks no problem.

Our review is the same as everyone else's!!!! It's scary.
Did not turn up at airport
Rusty scrap heap did turn up with the doors tied closed with rope, and broken seats, so had to sit on the floor.
Finally got there at 1 am, 1 beach front bungalow was fair and the other was hideous, it was amazing that she took us into it. first chase the bugs out, I had to clean out the mouldy food from the fridge. my mate slept on someelse's sheets that night. I went there as part of a boy's trip to a mate wedding and even thought it was bad.

And the room was just hideous - I had to take photos to show people how bad it was!!!!!

NO CLEANING was done whilst we were there, no rubbished emptied for the whole week! I ended up leaving the bin (which I had to clean out when we arrived because the food waste had liquidfied) on the path behind our room with other rubbish stacked against it for the whole week.

The pool was green, we had no hot water in our room for our entire stay. There are soo many bad things to say, I've probably left some out!

The photos on the website were taken in 2003, and there has been no maintenaince since - the whole place is run down and delapidated. I had to look again at the website once I got back to see how we were suckered in!

The only other people who stayed there were locals (unemployed at a guess) who needed some place to live.

It's amazing how bad this place is. Caryn and Brian seemed friendly, but lazy as, - no service at all.

When you tell the locals where your staying, most of them laugh and ask if your hosts are drunk yet!!!!!!!!

Finally, there is no beach, the coast here is all rock and reef. You cann't swim as there is no laggon. it is ankle deep until you reach the edge of the reef 20m away then it's open ocean, and huge breaking waves to kill you against the rocks. during January it was good 2-3m swell for the enitre time it would of been suicide to atemp to swim.

Like I said, we were on a boy trip, and I'm a rough rooster at the best of times, and even I thought this place was bad!