There is a lot to like about this house. The house itself is a lovely bit of architecture - we loved the high ceilings and the Scandinavian design. The location is also superb - quiet, private, and beautiful views.
Some minor annoyances:
- The doors need new locks - the existing ones require lots of fumbling to work.
- The house was FREEZING when we got there, and didn't warm up for ~24 hours.
- No microwave. Not a big deal.
- Laundry takes ~6 hours. As I understand it, this is quite normal in Iceland.
- The light switches made no sense at all, but they would eventually work through trial and error.
And the real reason for a lukewarm review of this property? To gain access to the house, one has to call the management company, and they will remotely trigger a gate that lets you in. If you can't get through the gate, it's about a quarter mile walk. The management company told us that the house would have a phone that we could use to call while we were staying there, so we didn't pick one up at the airport. When we arrived at the house, the phone there was broken. We spent a fare portion of our vacation trying various stores to find a phone that would work, but every store was sold out.
The management company was accommodating. A very nice gentleman came out to the place on the second evening to help with the heating issue. He also offered to let us through the gate for the night. Unfortunately, when we got to the top of the hill, the management company themselves were unable to remotely trigger the gate. The rest is a long story - to his credit, the gentleman from the company stuck with it for about 35 minutes, eventually getting a neighbor to let us in. I really appreciated that - I'm sure he wanted to get home too! - but by the time I got back to the VRBO, my wife was worried sick that something had happened to me. The hassle of getting through that gate everyday was a real bummer. In the end, we had to haul our luggage, trash, and groceries about a quarter mile uphill on the day that we checked out. Had I been camping, that would have been fine, but we paid luxury prices to rent this particular VRBO.
So would I recommend it? For European travelers. whose phones will work in Iceland, yes. For travelers from the United States, no (unless you are certain that you will have a working phone in Iceland).