This was my 5th time at the Wild Ginger Inn, and found it to be clean as a pin, no bugs in sight, not even an ant! New owners, this place has changed hands several times over the past few years,but they were very nice and found me a room even though I walked in without a reservation on a Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning as I was about to leave my rental car had a flat tire, and a young man who worked there had a compresser and filled up my tire for me and would not take a penny for his efforts. I am planning on taking my friend from Canada there for a night when she gets here from Canada. Nothing fancy, but it has a large lanai to sit and read, look out at the ocean or the banana trees in the garden. It has a microwave, a small refridgerator, It is laid back and more like old Hawaii. The only place I stay when I make that drive around the island.

I stayed here May 14, 2006
Accomodations initialy appear to be spartan, but VERY clean.
However, I woke up in middle of night to see a VERY LARGE
cockroach on the table next to my bed!

It was what are known as Palmetto bugs in Florida-i.e. at least 3 inches in size.
YUCK!
It appears the previous resident had left crumbs on the table.

The table had never been cleaned off. Thus, cockroach. I killed it on the floor(again YUCK)
It was 3am, so I went to bed.
In the morning I discovered a horde of ants devouring the cockroach. YUCK.

The hotel appears to be undergoing renovations so perhaps this wont happen again.
However I did not feel very safe walking to this location from downtown Hilo
at 10pm at night. It was deserted and kinda scary with homeless people about.

What I liked: Very tropical-its on a ravine filled with happy frogs
and GIANT 3 story high bamboo that were scraping the rooftop all night long.

The courtyard has bananna trees.
The room and the lounge area catches VERY nice breezes and there are hammocks
to hang out in.

It was cheap and conveniently located.(60$, 4 blocks from Cafe Pesto)
If I couldnt find anything else as cheap and I needed to stay downtown,
I might stay here again.

My husband & I have stayed at this inn several times over the past 10 years. Yes, it's gone through ownership changes and is constantly getting work done... the new owners & their family are working hard. We enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and good times "talking story" at the inn. We had no problems with dirt or bugs (altho we are from Hawaii so we know what to expect if something does show up!). My only disappointment was trying to get a hot shower in the middle of the day when (I guess?) laundry pulled the hot water away from the room... I had no problem getting a hot shower later. I would not give up the congeniality and affordability for a predictable,lonely and sterile hotel.

This "hotel" needs to be demolished. Whilst the location is good the entire place is run down, full of bugs, beat up and has a "mouldy" air to it. I booked the room based on the recommendation in "Lonely Planet" and as a result will view all Lonely Planet recommendations with a jaded eye from now on.

Do yourself a favour and pay more to stay in a decent establishment. Wild Ginger is at the lowest end of the budget scale and will depress even the most tollerant traveller.