I read the last review and I do not think it treats Ken or Antonio fairly. We stayed at the Emeralview last October for two delightful nights. It is a beautiful setting. The deck attached to your room overlooks a river. At night it is a delight to listen to the rushing river and the frogs chirping (that's right, those are frogs, not birds as most reviewers assume). But be aware that these sounds of nature are loud. We came in one evening and turned on the TV and found it nearly impossible to hear over the nature sounds outside unless you turned the volume up to such a degree that you would have disturbed the neighbors or the other guests. No problem, we just turned off the TV and read. The difference between us and the last reviewer is that they failed to have any consideration for anyone else in the house. I don't care if you stay up until 1:00, but you must be aware that the rest of the world does not live exactly as you do. Have some consideration of others and they will do the same for you.

There are always two sides to every story and we have not heard Ken and Antonios. I don't know if they phrased their request exactly as you have said or if your anger has caused you to misinterpret it. However, if I had been trying to sleep in the suite next to you and you had inconsiderately blasted your TV at 1:00am, I don't know that I would have put a sweet face on and politely knocked on your door requesting you to turn it down. Somehow boors always believe they are in the right. Could it be your lack of consideration for anyone but yourselves?

That said, I again want to reiterate what a wonderful place this was. The rooms, view, hosts and food were spectacular. Just remember that this is a home and be respectful of others.

...followed by an ultimatum for us to leave.

Now, to elicit this kind of reaction, you'd have expected us to have been doing something pretty extreme. Perhaps staggering in drunk at 3AM and playing loud music. Or causing irreparable damage to what without doubt is a stunning property.

Not however, while watching television and laughing at just after 1am! This was not after any slightly more polite warnings, at which we would have absolutely “kept it down” and was genuinely aggressive and confrontational (we heard the thumping footsteps leaving their room above us and an unnecessarily loud banging on our door). So much so, that for that and the following night, my girlfriend was uncomfortable sleeping, and that it meant our stay was a negative rather than a positive one. (*)

The above incident alone may have passed by a little more easier, were it not for two more “tellings off”. Both occurring the following morning. Firstly when I apologized again, to an extremely gruff “well it was 1:15am” and additionally as we were about to leave, when he patronizingly said to my girlfriend, “[paraphrased] can you try and keep it down tonight, as I go to bed 10pm and would like to get some sleep”. It was as if we were kids (we are 30) and getting a scolding from our uncle.

If it is was possible to make us feel more uncomfortable and unwelcome, he achieved it. Just to reiterate, by our standards, living in New York and London respectively, we were not up very late, we were on vacation, we were paying $200 a night! And to stress again, had we received a polite / jovial “can you keep it down guys), we absolutely would have.

Before closing, to give a little bit of background. My girlfriend and I were on a two week vacation between Japan and the Hawaiian islands, staying at a combination of B&B's, guesthouses and hotels, with this being the penultimate location and one we were very much looking forward to given the glowing reviews on Tripadvisor (which we are both fans of, and use for a lot of our travel planning).

I don't expect this review to put everyone coming to visit Emeraldview, and for many it shouldn't (as it is in many ways undeniably stunning), but be warned, our stay was genuinely spoiled by a less than welcoming and friendly host.

(*) Note that some of our ratings (such as location) may be disproportionately low, compared with other reviews. This is because after the incident on the first night, they became irrelevant as we not comfortable, relaxed and could not enjoy the location, breakfast, etc.

We enjoyed lots of things at there, excellent room, delicious breakfast, nice riverside landscape and good hospitality. Especially we loved many historical Japanese furniture, paintings etc. It looks like museum. When we visit to Hilo next time, we will definitely stay at there again.

I don't think there's a whole lot more we can say about this place that hasn't been said already, so we'll try to be brief and just give our 2 cents here.

- SERVICE: the absolute #1 reason why I would stay here again! Ken and Antonio always go above and beyond to be sure that our stay was comfortable. When I unfortunately had to do work on my laptop there (I know, such a crime) and need to use a land line (due to my laptop's setting, the WiFi in our room works perfectly), Ken did not hesitate to share his work desk's land line with me (even set it all up so I can use it by myself the next day). Also lent us towels so we can use them on our snorkeling trip.

- KNOWLEDGE & RECOMMENDATIONS: Spot on! We had the "Big Island Revealed" book with us, and this being our second time there, we thought we knew what we were doing. But Ken provided us with such fantastic recommendations, e.g. sushi at Ocean's on Keawe (freshest sushi and HUGE portions), snorkeling and volcanic pool dipping in Puna, that we just got into a habit of getting up in the morning and asking, "Ken, we wanna do/eat xyz today, where should we go?" We're pretty spoiled :)

- LANGUAGE: This one doesn't really apply to us, but Ken speaks fluent Japanese having taught comparative literature (I think) in a college in Japan for years. While we were there, the other room was occupied by travelers from Japan who don't speak much English, so I bet that's a huge plus for them. Antonio speaks Portugese, and I think they both also speak Spanish. Talk about being multi-lingual!

- AMBIANCE: And that brings me back to my title- home away from home. We booked the room with the one king bed (forgot the name), and you can see from our photos that we had the most romantic and comfortable setting, tastefully decorated and impeccably maintained, complete with our "private" lanai overlooking the river. Well, "private" is in quotations since you're really just separated by a shoji screen from the visitors next door, so if you're having breakfast at the same time, you can overhear each other's conversation. Also, after it rained heavily one day, the river really roared under us that night, I was worried at first, but it didn't affect us, it actually sounds kinda like a sound machine, but very light sleepers may want to consider something farther away from the river (not the fault of Emeraldview, of course).

- BREAKFAST: It really was yummy, but if I were to be super nit-picky, it's the same thing every day. I know, I know, I'm only saying this because I've stayed at a different B&B just down the street from them, that serves the same standard fare PLUS one special item every day (which was SUPER yummy). Emeraldview really spoiled us in all other ways, and I know Ken would want to know how to make things even better for future visitors.

- AMENITIES: Like I said before, most everything we needed or asked for, we got it- except... hair conditioner. I know, kinda curious for such a fancy place, eh? They have almost every other toiletry item stocked. They did search the entire house up and down and found me something similar, and I know the next day, they were looking to purchase conditioner and thanked me for reminding them (maybe something that 2 guy owners just wouldn't think of?)

Despite of the extremely minor things I nit-picked about, I'd say that if you're looking for a nice, beautiful, clean, friendly B&B with a river view in Hilo and a kind and worldly owner to chat with, you can't go wrong with Emeraldview!