I’ll preface this by saying that had situations outside of Mike’s (the host) control been different, this would have been a glowing 5 star review. Mike is a wonderful host who is communicative and accommodating to guests. He answered all questions promptly and goes out of his way to make you feel welcome and comfortable during your stay while also giving you the privacy and space you need.
Mikes home is a lovely loft style one bedroom with a cozy, well supplied kitchen dining, and living space for up to three people. Mike provided cold breakfast (fruit, cereal, oatmeal, milk, and fresh pineapple juice). The WiFi signal is adequate for streaming movies on a laptop/iPad. The deck is large with comfortable seating and a high top table that would be lovely for meals outside. On clear nights, I imagine that the stars would be beautiful. The home is also just a short 10 min drive to the entrance of Volcanoes National Park.
Our trip unfortunately coincided with an unusually powerful storm that knocked out power to Volcano for over three days. Mike has backup solar batteries but they really only have enough juice to run the electric water pump so you can flush toilets and have some lights at night. The stove and refrigerator are all electric so we were unable to most cook food that we had purchased. Mike did provide a portable campfire stove on our last night which was very kind of him but wish we had something earlier in our trip when power was first shut off. There were also several leaks that let a good amount of water into the home.
As I said at the top, Mike is a wonderful host and his home ideal space for a couple to enjoy some quality R&R together. We would absolutely rent again, hopefully with more cooperative weather.