First of all, the Beach House is very easy to find, is in a very pleasant district a few minutes from central Tauranga and Mount Maunganui and the routes out of town, and has a secluded location just up from the water.
My room was superb, exceptionally comfortable bed, beautifully furnished and the bathroom was equally excellent. The accommodation would put many highly rated hotels to shame. Reading other reviews, there seems to be some confusion over how "self-contained" the accommodation is. There are two guestrooms on one side of the house and, at times, it may be necessary to share the bathroom if there is someone in the other guestroom. Having said that, there was someone else there on my last day and Phil and Liz made their bathroom available to the other guest.
Phil and Liz are both enthusiastic about hosting guests and also love to cook for you in the evenings if required. That is an option I took up on my first and third nights and it is an even better way to get to know each other. The more I use airbnb, the more I look upon it as a way of making friends and becoming part of the airbnb community. Phil and Liz certainly fit that description and, once again, I come away with my hosts now being friends.
Dinner on the first night was a delicious seafood chowder with more seafood than I have ever seen in a chowder before, and all extremely fresh and certainly a dish to be justly proud of, as Liz obviously was. The priceless moment, which i have experienced so may times, was when, five minutes into the chowder, the conversation came round to what I do for a living. I tried to skirt it until Liz asked "You're not a chef, are you ?". For some reason it always seems to melt the confidence of the cook ! I couldn't lie. I can assure all future guests of Phil and Liz that they will be fed handsomely with excellent food if they take the option, for which they charge very little.
I should mention the animals as Phil and Liz are both animal lovers and have two dogs and two cats. Some people are animal lovers and some are not. I am an animal liker and cat lover. I am wary of dogs as I was savaged twice in earlier years by two very vicious dogs. Liz's animals are no problem whatsoever and don't really take too much interest in guests unless invited to. The only advice I would give to those who are cautious is to be prepared for a noisy reception when you first go downstairs in the morning if the dogs are still locked away in their house-guarding role. They are basically no problem at all and a lot of fun.
Would I return ? Too right I would - lovely room, bed, bathroom. food, location, hosts and very reasonably priced.