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Hotel overview
Location
WaikoloaProperty information
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Hotel details
Hotel advisories
General policies & fine print
Check-in Policy: Hotel requires a credit/debit card authorization or cash deposit upon check-in for incidentals; this will place a hold on your funds.
Convention Policy: Individuals attending a convention cannot book this property for their stay. If found attending a convention, guests may be subject to higher room rates upon arrival.
Hotel Spring Break Policy: This hotel cannot guarantee a spring-break-free environment.
General Information:
Room taxes are included in vacation price.
Minimum night stay restrictions may apply.
Reservation changes may not be permitted unless authorized by the hotel.
Ratings & reviews
TripAdvisor traveler rating
11022 reviews
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Oct 12, 2024Expansive resort
Very nice expansive resort. We did get off to a rocky start at the hotel. We arrived around 3:15 pm and were informed our room wasn't ready yet and that it should be ready by 4:00 (the normal check-in time). OK, so we went and hung out in the lobby of the building our room was to be in. They gave us the key card to the room & said they would text us when the room was ready. 4:00 rolls around and no text yet. Husband tries to call front desk multiple times to check on status. Front desk transfers us and no one ever picked up. I tried calling as well and asked for manager and still was put on hold for a long time with no one ever picking up. Husband was on hold for 30 minutes (it's now 4:30) and still holding, so we walk the 10 minutes back to front desk. It's now 4:40...we're at the front desk and they say the cleaners just finished the room and it is now ready. Wasted a good hour of our time that we could have been enjoying the amenities of the resort, had our room been ready on time. Customer service is lacking at this resort. Someone should be answering the front desk phone calls. Was disappointing, but the front desk did comp us some appetizer and breakfast buffet tickets, so that helped a little bit. There are beautifully appointed rooms, various pools, nice lagoon area, & nice dolphin watching area. Restaurants are top notch...expensive, but wonderful. Kamuela Provision Company's food was great and you can watch the sunset while you dine. They gave us a free special dessert since we were celebrating our anniversary. Breakfast buffet was expansive and great as well....you could easily do brunch here as there is so much food, much more than your normal breakfast foods. Biggest breakfast buffet I've ever seen. As I've said this place is expansive. They have trams to take you from one end of the resort to the other, but it is very slow. You can walk faster than the tram. We only used the tram once, since it was so slow and didn't come by very often. Our walk from our room to lobby took 10 minutes and another 5 minutes to get to our car in the parking lot. Lots of walking is involved to go from your room to any of the pools, lagoons, restaurants, etc. too. They are constantly running our of pool towels in the towel kiosks, so you pretty much have to hang onto the pool towels you have, dry them on the balcony & use them again. We checked the kiosk multiple times during our 3 night stay and only once was the kiosk refilled with towels...all the other times the kiosk was empty. We had a suite on the top floor of the resort that was amazing. Construction was on-going in the other half of the building, & we only noticed the noise when walking in the middle entrance hallway of the building or if we were out on the balcony. One lady got stuck in one of the elevators in our building, yikes! They were able to crack open the door a bit and put a fan up to it, so she could get some air movement until they could get the doors to fully open. Overall, we felt we wasted a lot of time just walking to get from Point A to Point B at this resort. I'd pick a smaller, easier to navigate resort the next time. Overall, a great resort, just a little too big to navigate.
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Oct 11, 2024Great staff - fix the basics for starters
As a guest who has been many times over the past decade, here is my detailed review that I am trying to keep as objective and helpful as possible The positive: The staff (many have been there for years) are outstanding, caring, helpful and routinely go above and beyond. Pre - arrival - I emailed three front office managers in advance of stay asking about the possibility of a paid upgrade in advance or upon check. No much as a single response from some of them. Overall, it feels like the property is in crisis mode - sparing any expense and grasping for any revenue. Many many changes (mostly cutbacks of some time), not just from pre pandemic but since our last trip. I will talk about specifics but think reductions wherever possible without regard for guests. It may have been occupancy related but we were told the property was sold out. Only one tram running, boats sporadic if at all. Tap room lobby bar closed. kPC closed Monday, Tuesday. Breakfast buffet decent but a shadow of what it used to in terms of variety and quality. Beach towels - was able to get once during our stay. Asked their service line, promised towels in room. It happened once with some extra bath towels. There is apparently a huge shortage of towels and no real plan to address. Cleanliness - seems like pest control has been cut back, way more cockroaches in room etc. than I’ve ever seen - even when staying in hostels in Central America. Garbage cans in public areas often overflowing - public facilities lacking basics like soap, toilet paper and paper towels. Mentioned each time but was rarely rectified and one manager basically argued with me so I took photos to provide evidence of the lack of basics, never mind it’s a resort. Was told by multiple people that there is a new cleaning company and they are not doing a good job (to state the obvious) F&B - Nui is decent, new chef, food mediocre, cold one day (rectified), very expensive, excellent staff and view. As it’s the only dining option in the entire resort some days when everything else is closed, make sure you have a reservation, or go early/late. KPC - great service, great view, one night fish was so off I could smell the fish long before it got to our table, despite being covered in prosciutto etc. steak was very good. Replacement other fish dish overcooked and dry. Very expensive, good wine list (also with Nui). Luau - always been one of the best I’ve been to. Food is good, show is great, paid the upgrade fee which gets you closer to stage, first up for Buffett, and served drinks instead of self serve. Again, very pricey at just under $600 for two and gave our server extra cash tip on top of that. In summary, the basics need fixing, the staff seem overwhelmed and frustrated but despite that, do an amazing job. Management seems to have given up, stopped caring or aren’t being given support to fix things. The F&B is somewhat hit and miss, certainly a departure from previous visits. Sadly, despite doing successful large events there in the past and many personal trips, I don’t want to argue about toilet paper and beach towels while at a resort property and have to make sure I have some snacks in case the food is inedible - notwithstanding the price points. Unfortunately, many guests we chatted with had similar experiences. The only reason it gets three stars is for all the amazing staff. The final (somewhat comical) piece was that we asked about options for a late checkout (and received our room at 8 pm, albeit it was a paid upgrade) and were told nothing later than noon. A day and a half plus after checking out, I receive a text on their app asking about our checkout details. The lack of communication is staggering.
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Oct 06, 2024
Amazing location - needs updating
Compliments first: Staff is fantastic. Hope the property management is compensating them for how hard they work (and not making customers compensate salary by tips. Am beyond done with companies being cheap. Just pay your employees how they should be paid). We loved the view we had, comfortable bed, and the mini frig and Keurig (paid for the upgrade to Makai). Beautiful sunsets, lush grounds, etc like others have posted. And now for the not so good stuff: Desperately needs updating. Hilton clearly capitalizing on amazing location. Hilton Honors member so try to stay at Hilton’s but it’s time for Hilton to make an investment and bring this property to 2024 standards. Visited 10+ years ago and it’s obvious not much has been done since. Feels very, very worn, tired and dated. Also, resort pricing with food and drink we get … but food/drink pricing here is just stupidly insane for mediocre product. Next time … think we’ll try a different property.
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Oct 05, 2024
Nice Hotel But Could Use Improvement
Very nice accommodations with some nice amenities. But the worst part of staying there was easily getting from our room to the pool, restaurants, etc. Because of the trams, there's only one set of elevators that take you where you really need to go. Signage is not clear. We ate at two of the restaurants, the Lagoon Grill and Kamuela Provision Company (KPC). Lunch was okay at the Lagoon Grill but the birds were annoying, and nearly every chair had bird droppings in it. We ate at KPC for dinner and watched the sunset. We ordered light - a couple of appetizers with drinks which was very good. I was able to use points for my stay which made the price reasonable. Otherwise I think it's pricey for what you get. Also, there's ample parking but then again, it's not very clear how to get to your room.
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Sep 29, 2024
Poor room, excellent activities and restaurants
We stayed in a Makai Ocean View room with a seven-year-old child during our summer vacation. We received no acknowledgement, upgrade or anything as a Hilton Honours Gold. We had to pay the regular fee for the room upgrade. The Makai Tower has an awkward strcuture and forced us to go around the building to walk a fairly long distance and take elevators every time we go to the beach, the pools, the restaurants and the parking. There is a gate for the Makai Tower toward the back of the parking so make sure you park deep down and use the Makai gate. We used the online check-in which was handy, but on a later day we found out that there were a few things we needed to receive physically at the front desk - such as wrist bands, map and a few more useful information pieces. I think they should advise their guests about this in advance. Apart from these hustles, we enjoyed the resort - all the restaurants were excellent and very-well served, pools were fantasitic and my child loved it, and the lagoon and the dolphin quest were something that we can't forget. The only regret was that the boat was not in service for the entire period of our stay. I felt many things were a bit overpriced and the rooms and buildings were dated and unfriendly to guests, but my child loved the pools, dolphins and restaurants and that concluded we had a great time here at this resort. We stayed in the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort after we checked out the Hilton Waikoloa, and the Oahu Hilton was nowhere closer to the Big Island Hilton in any aspect.