Overall, I thought the place was great. The kitchen had all we needed for making our breakfast and lunches. They give you a complimentary bag of Kona coffee. The beds were comfy (though pillows were a little thick for my taste). There was not a lot of breeze from the ocean surprisingly, so my husband was a bit warm. There were plenty of fans to place throughout the house so, I never thought it was unbearable. My husband would say he was too warm. The noise from the waves drowned out the noise from the restaurants or homeless walking by the main road in front, and the waves were too loud for him so he shut the sliders at night!
It's run by a commercial entity, so not any of the little things you might expect from a VRBO - no cleaning wipes or disinfectant spray, or condiments left from previous stays (no mustard, PAM, ketchup etc). There are tiny ants by the kitchen sink non-stop (which is expected in Hawaii), so you have to wipe up your crumbs constantly. And bring your own chip clips (or buy them), as there arent any there.
Location was great as you could walk to all the shops and restaurants in Kona, and the farmers market was a block away (though really small probably due to COVID era). A lot of the shops looked like they had been shuttered, likely due to COVID, which is sad. The cruise ships just started back up, and a big one was there for 2 days during our stay, but we didnt really notice it being too busy. The sunday night we were there, all the restaurants had 1 hour wait (no cruise ship), so not sure what was going on then, but be prepared and make reservations on the weekend if you really want to go to a specific place to eat.
You can walk to 2 small sand beaches, both about 0.5 miles - one in front of the Marriott, the other to the south. But the Big Island does not have very many "sandy" beaches like the other islands.
We went in December, and it was warm and humid and not too crowded. Water temp was 79, which is cold for me
We arrived late at night to the apt, so it was a bit confusing on how to get in the place since we didnt know where to park. The gate at the bottom closes at 10pm, so you have to get the key at the lockbox and take any items up the elevator. Walk back to where you park on the second level of parking (we assumed it was the parking spot with the unit #), unlock the door to the stairs and walk up the half flight to the third floor. It was a bit too confusing as we were tired and had a long flight!