We built Rakuen Sol because we kept walking into vacation rentals and knowing, within the first sixty seconds, whether anyone actually cared about the place. My wife Reiko is from Japan. I was born and raised in Miami, with Latin roots. Between us we have spent years traveling between the United States and Japan with two young children and seven or eight suitcases, staying in more short-term rentals than we can count. Some were wonderful. Many were listings nobody had ever slept in, managed by a company three time zones away.
Rakuen Sol is our answer to that. Two homes, two markets, one standard, and the family that owns every property answering your questions directly. No middle layer between your question and the person who can answer it.
What the name means
Rakuen is the Japanese word for paradise. Sol is the Spanish word for sun. Put together, the name is our family in two words, Reiko's Japan and my Latin roots, and it describes what we want to hand you at check-in: a place in the sun that somebody built with care.
Our test for every property we run is the same one we used for years as guests: you should know within sixty seconds of walking in that someone cared.
What booking direct changes for you
When you book directly, you talk to the owner. You get the real cancellation policy, straight from the people who wrote it, disclosed before you pay rather than discovered after. Every cost is itemized before you enter a card number, so the total on the checkout page is the total, not the opening bid.
Booking through a marketplace adds a layer of fees and a layer of distance, and both compound exactly when you least want them to, on peak weeks and on the rare stay where something goes wrong. We wrote out the full math, on both the guest side and the host side, in Direct Booking vs. Airbnb: What You Actually Pay in Fees. The short version is that a direct booking removes the toll booth, and it also removes the call center, because the person answering your message is the person who owns the home.
The 47-point Rakuen Standard
I work as a licensed healthcare professional, and the habits transfer. Precision in care extends to every stay. Before any guest checks in, each property is held to the Rakuen Standard, a 47-point checklist we publish in full: 14 safety checks, 21 essentials, and 12 cleanliness standards. It covers the things you notice, like linens and coffee supplies, and the things you should never have to think about, like smoke detectors and first-aid kits.
Publishing the checklist keeps us honest. If a stay ever misses a point on that list, you know exactly what was promised, and so do we.
Two markets, one standard
Our two markets could not be more different, and that is the point. We host in the two places our family knows best.
In Honolulu, BTS 1904 is a nineteenth-floor ocean-view condo in the Aston Waikiki Beach Tower, steps from the most famous beach in the world, with a wraparound view that runs from Diamond Head to the open Pacific. Waikiki is where our Japan trips and our American lives overlap, and our Honolulu market guide carries everything we tell first-time visitors.
In Daytona Beach, Palm HAUS is a boutique four-unit building on South Ridgewood Avenue, near the track, the beach, and the kind of Daytona that locals actually know. It was built for groups: a crew can take the whole building as a single reservation while each unit keeps its own keys, kitchen, and bathroom. Palm HAUS units are not bookable through the site yet, and our Daytona Beach market guide is the best place to watch the calendar in the meantime.
What to expect when you stay
Before you arrive, we send a welcome message with the short lists we actually use ourselves: where to get coffee, what to do on a first morning, who to text when you have a question. That last one is us. During your stay you are messaging the owners, not a ticket queue.
The same knowledge lives on the site for everyone. Our Local Guide keeps our picks by category for both cities, and The Journal is where we write the longer answers to the questions guests ask us most.
If any of this sounds like the way you prefer to travel, you can browse our current properties across Waikiki Beach and Daytona Beach, with itemized pricing shown before you ever enter a card number. We hope to host you soon.
