Upside: Martin's place is a lovely studio, Equipped with modern amenities, stainless full kitchen, beautiful shower, and new windows. It's located in my favorite area to stay in of the North Shore, up in the Pupukea hills a 5-minute drive to the beaches. I did yoga on the lanai each morning to the sound of the leaves in the wind, view of the foliage around, geckos and wild chickens roaming around, a nice escape from my life in NYC. At night (with the windows all closed) its surprisingly quiet - Usually in the area you get woken up by the roosters crowing at 5am! Laundry right behind the studio is a great amenity as well.
Downside: Like Chad, i also dealt with quite a few cockroach encounters, 747s (the 3" flying ones) as well as smaller ones. Martin was sympathetic and responsive to the situation, but there wasnt much that could be done during my short stay, as it would take a day ahead to book them to come spray, and then i would have had to vacate for 12 hours, then cleraning crew would have to come back to clean and launder everything before i could return. Perhaps it's worse this time of year (spring), and more frequent spraying between guests would help, as i've stayed in the pupukea hills several times over the past few years, and never saw them indoors before. There was also some mold on the ceiling inside above the front door, which i also sent martin some detailed photos of so hopefully this can be fixed. Overall a beautiful place, which maybe could use a little more local maintenance to stay in it's tip-top shape.