Stayed here for most of a month after I moved to Hilo, while I was looking for a real place to rent. Definitely not luxury--in fact Banyan Drive in general is pretty run-down; it looks like it was probably a nice tourist area 30-40 years ago, and hasn't been updated since. This place is laughable as a "country club," and I certainly wouldn't feel very "vacation-y" staying there. Still, my room was pretty clean and reasonably comfortable, if small, and it served my needs. The public areas are old and pretty dirty. There's a bar/club on the ground floor, so sometimes there are random drunk people wandering around; I'm a single female and my dad (who stayed with me for a few days) was concerned about my safety, but I was never hassled. They're serious about the parking--when I forgot to put my parking permit on my dashboard they stuck a "parking violation" sticker to my window that I still haven't been able to get totally off. The wireless worked (most of the time) from the "lobby"--a few chairs and a couple of tables on a covered slab of concrete.

Overall, I'd look elsewhere. If you're wanting a cheap place to stay, I haven't tried the hostels in Hilo, but look into those. If you're wanting a nice place to stay, there are many lovely bed and breakfasts on this side of the island. There are also plenty of vacation rental options. This place isn't that bad, but it's certainly not good, either.

My family and I were staying in a Kona resort but needed a hotel room on Hilo side for one evening so we could visit the volcano at night and not drive all the way back to Kona. We were given the name of this hotel by an employee at our resort. Upon arriving at the "Country Club" Condo hotel, we noted people hanging outside the office (which is actually just a desk) smoking and drinking. The hallways and grounds were filthy. The room they showed us smelled musty and had not been updated since the 1960's. The bed had a huge sag in it. I did not even venture into the bathroom to see what that looked like. The odors in the hallway were so vile that I ran out of the building wretching. This place looks and smells like a tenement. Stay away!

I am a solo traveling 25 year old female and love Hilo. Decided to come here alone after renting out a condo on Craigslist for $98 for 2 nights, cleaning fee, and taxes. The motels here seem to be dumps, and renting a house was out of my price range for being within a few miles to Richardson Beach. Gave this place a try since I didn't want to stay at a hostel.

Now I am fine with places as long as they are clean, quiet, and where the place itself appears safe. This wasn't exactly the case here.

This is super ugly and looks like how a Russian orphanage or halfway house would have looked in the 1980's.

The room itself appeared to just have Goodwill's finest. I kept banging my legs against the metal bed legs each day. In my room on the 6th floor, I was not able to get a WIFI signal on my laptop which sucked because I like going online at night. I was able though to get the hotel’s signal on the lanai….

Many of the people here seem to live here. Half are the sort of people who dig through peoples' recycling bins late at night to then sell things if you catch my drift. Lots of young girls with babies hanging out in the parking lot with tattoos between their breasts. The other half appear to be mainlanders who were looking for a change in their lives. Most of them were friendly though.

I was really nervous leaving my car in the parking lot as well as leaving my room during the day after reading a lot of the reviews here. Didn’t have any break ins!

Oh the bottom of the place next to the lobby is a bar and restaurant. I could hear music really late at night. Annoying, but at least I have a bar right next to me I suppose.

Pros-
1. Cheap
2.You can view all the gorgeous Banyan trees from some rooms and in the lobby
3.Friendly residents
4. Location

Cons-
1. Sketchy people that live here and hang out around it (saw crackheads)
2. Ugly needing a ton of $ for repairs and renovation
3. Can't get the WIFI signal in many rooms
4. 2 out of 3 workers are unfriendly
5. Loud bar music can be heard late at night

Bottom line, unless you have a long stay in Hilo, I would look into another hotel. Thing is, all are pretty much on Banyan Drive and run down.

I hated this place the first day I got there, but then I warmed up to the place.

It is NOT a nightmare here! The name is deceiving because it sounds upscale, but come on, look at the pictures, it's obviously not. We just needed a cheap place to shower and lodge for the night and this place was great! Very friendly, great price, and yeah the building was really old and not so pretty, but we weren't there for 1st class either. There were plenty of other places very close by to blow your money at if you want that sort of thing. The way we see it, is when we're on vacation, we are there to spend our time and money exploring the area, not staying at the hotel. The hotel is just a place to clean up and lay your head down to rest up for the next day's adventures! We'd stay there again and again.