Courtesy of Island House
- Michael and Timmy Maxwell run Island House on Lord Howe Island, Australia.
- They live on the 400-person island and rent out two guest houses they built.
- Chris Hemsworth was the first visitor in 2020, and rates now are $3,250 to $6,200 a night.
In 1999, the financier Michael Maxwell was flipping through a newspaper when he spotted an advertisement for a 1930s lodge on Lord Howe Island, Australia, an island he'd visited as a child. He called the number, and within six months he owned a patch of land complete with a café and four holiday huts. He became one of the island's 400 residents.
"Even before I got to the shore, I was completely in love with the island," Maxwell told Insider.