We REALLY wanted to like this house. The location is convenient to all the amenities of Hilo with grocery stores, downtown Hilo, the farmers market and a number of restaurants just 10-15 minutes away. The location is also just a short walk across a VERY BUSY road to the beach. The beach itself has great swimming areas for little ones as well as snorkelers, and there are places for you to set up a tent and hang for the better part of the day. The house is also close to other attractions, like 45-50 minutes to Mauna Kea and Volcanoes National Park.
The house itself is quaint and sparkling clean. The kitchen is well supplied for cooking, in terms of basic staples, spices, pots and pans, and even basics for the fridge.
However, there were some things about the house that made it very challenging.
1) ROAD NOISE. The road is quite noisy throughout the day and really does not quiet down until after 8-9 pm. If you live in the city or the suburbs, or a city, this will likely not be a big deal to you. We live out in the country and the road noise was very loud and disruptive to us. We did not use the front Lanai because there was so much noise from cars, people shouting or playing music from the beach.
2) POND IS NOT SWIMMABLE. We picked this house because we loved the idea of having a pond to swim in as pictured in the listing. However, when we arrived, we were told that the pond is very cold (it is!) and there are either minerals or wash out that could really irritate the skin for several hours. My son tried it out and it was very cold in mid-Feb, and he got a gross rash on his legs that we used hydrocortisone cream and tea tree oil to clear it up. His skin stung for the better part of two hours. The back pond is also stagnant water, which fostered a ton of mosquitoes. We had a similar pond on our farm and an aeration filter (or two) to keep the water circulating would really address this issue.
3) THERE ARE NO BEACH ACCESSORIES IN THIS HOUSE. This was the most surprising. I have stayed in a number of vacation property AirBNB's, and have never seen a house so ill equipped for its location. THERE ARE NOT EVEN BEACH TOWELS! While I did contact the manager, he said this is not an item they normally stock (!!!). He brought three towels for our party of three, but we had already purchased three towels that morning. You should plan to spend money to outfit yourselfs, or pack another suitcase. Anyone staying after us will get the benefit of the two boogie boards and camp chair we had to purchase and then leave behind. We also purchased beach towels, a cooler and snorkel equipment. A guide from an excursion we went on loaned us additional camp chairs, an umbrella, sand toys. I was really disappointed and frustrated that I had to buy these items.
4) The two additional bedrooms. You should be aware that the house itself has only one master bedroom. The other two bedrooms are suites that are outside of the house, as separate entrances with their own locking doors. We travel as a family because we like to be together as a family. The family room only has a couch and a chair and did not have as much space for us to be there as a family. It rained this week so we could not spend as much time out back (again, front too noisy for us). I was disappointed to see this and even the day we arrived, I checked the listing and there is NOWHERE this is mentioned in the listing or we could have discerned this from the pictures.
If you are a couples or group of couples traveling, this house could be a great fit for you. I would not recommend this to a single family, especially anyone with little ones.