We stayed at all three Pineapple Park properties while on the Big Island. Doc and Annie were excellent hosts and they gave us a nice discount off of the "semi-private" rate as well as upgrading us to private rooms with private baths in the Hilo and Kona locations.

Note that the "Volcano" location is not in Volcano but in Mountain View, between Volcano and Hilo. It's located off the beaten track, and a bit hard to find at night, at least the first time.

The Volcano location has a variety of rooms, including Private, Semi-Private (a private room with a shared bath) and typical hostel-style dorm rooms. A confusing array of sliding walls allows them to re-configure the rooms to accommodate various group sizes and arrangements. The Volcano location also features a very nice shared "living room" area, nice outdoor seating areas, and a very functional shared kitchen (they even have a pizza oven!)

We had a semi-private room at this location. It had a king-sized bed, which was awesome, however the shared bath arrangement was a bit odd. The entry to our room was from the outside of the building, so we had to go outside around the building to get to the available bathrooms. Considering that Mountain View is on the rainy side of the island, this meant going out in the rain to get to the bathroom a lot of the time. There were awnings around most of the building, but not the side that our room door was on, so that was not the best arrangement. Doc did find me an umbrella since I often have to pee in the middle of the night when the rains tend to be heaviest. The other issue with being on the rainy side of the island was that the entire place had a pretty noticeable moldy/mildewy smell to it. If they were able to banish the mold and mildew, and provide a covered walkway to the restrooms, I'd upgrade my rating to 4 stars.

Overall, you can't beat the price, and that was a primary factor for us. The people were great -- both the owners and the other guests, and the shared facilities were nice. I'd recommend to a friend as long as they understood what they were signing up for.