Keep in mind that John's place is not walking distance to anything but more off the beaten path. If you want to experience what it is to live as a local stay here! It was very large, with two bedrooms, and he had lots of additional beds you can have more people sleep on in the living room. He has a pretty big yard, and we saw lots of local wild animals (pigs, chickens, etc).
He left a lot of drinking water for us which was very thoughtful. We enjoyed the peace here! It's about 35-40 minutes to the volcanoes, and 15-20 minutes to downtown Hilo.