Dolphin Bay Hotel — Hotel in Hawaii

pros-

family owned business and you will feel the warmth. I interacted mostly with Brandon who works there and he was super helpful nice hot coffee and banana bread starting 6am lasting way late in the morning. the banana bread was a savior as we had to head out early most days and didn't have time to grab breakfast. home grown bananas and pappayas are available 24 hours lush green surroundings in a rain forest setting. having hot coffee in the morning from your lanai/balcony while watching the rain is a serene feeling very competitive rates compared to other hotels. try booking with them direct to cut the middle man crowd was mostly family or peaceful retirees. NO shady people the owner was very accommodating in providing us with late checkout all openings are netted and keeps out the bugs we had an apartment room which came with full kitchen, utensils, dining table i loved the old style baths. they are more comfortable than bathtubs. I like the way they there is no excess waste like coffee cups (they ask you to get the mugs from the room), fancy toiletries, etc wifi was adequate very close to downtown and highway. ample parking onsite. walkable to shops, restaurants and farmers market

cons-

very dated building. the bedsheets are what you typically find in dated motel 6, but they were clean. the place can give a bit of a shock at first sight. but once you settle in the other positives overtake the few minuses they use a physical key system, not the card types. over the years we had gotten used to being lethargic with our room keys as they are easily replaceable. Here, you need to be careful with them. the owner has a cat that strolls around in the property, but mostly sits around near the office. it was fairly quiet and un-intrusive, but if you are scared/allergic, factor this in.

tips/notes-

there is a washer dryer opposite the property that's coin operated. make use of it to dry out your swim wear. lack of AC is not a problem. the rooms are very ventilated and Hilo has a rainy weather and doesnt get too hot or humid (this was in feb - not sure about summer). Fans are adequate if you are concern about the open ventilation and doors, ensure that you lock them EVERY night. The cleaning staff open them up to let air through. the frog sound is loud, but we didnt hear it in the bedroom. I was initially skeptical as I thought they would be croaking sounds, but its more like a birds squeak and...

Booked a superior deluxe room- was given room #12 right near the entrance to the parking lot and over the office- noisy and no nice lanai as nearly every other room had- and what we had booked. When I brought this up to the office manager he only said “that’s strange”- and confirmed their paperwork did indeed state we had booked a superior deluxe room (with lanai) but were given a standard room, and that we were only charged the standard room rate. No apology, no concession was made, and this was booked directly through THEIR site, not a 3rd party.

Garden walkway was nice, staff were otherwise friendly, and the coffee/banana bread/papaya were great in the AM….but the squelching hot rooms were unbearable with no AC. It was 81 degrees out and well over 85 in our room (mind you this was March). We only got about 2 hrs of sleep the first night, having to take a cool shower a few times overnight. The 2nd day we purposely closed the opaque shades to keep the beating sun out during the day in attempts to keep it as cool as possible, but sometime during our long, wonderful, day at the Volcano National Park, housekeeping opened the shades and the hot sun again baked our room so it was so much hotter than the outdoors when we returned our second evening.

Yes the rooms are old school- as expected, but everything was functional. However the queen bed was saggy, lumpy, and uncomfortable, pillows in the closet were musty, there’s no ventilation (maybe the rooms with the lanais have?), not sure how often vacuumed- as there was a small broken off rubber piece to something next to the bed that was still there the next day, carpet staples piercing through between the carpet and vinyl transition of the kitchen area which I caught my bare feet on more than once, and there were very few electrical plugs (bring a multi plug!)

The hotel was a close walk to downtown, however we did not feel safe walking there- you have to cross a bridge where many people congregate on a corner and heckled us.

We did not enjoy this area of Hilo- it seemed to be a very depressed area- old weathered storefronts, about half of which were empty, few restaurants, sketchy grocery store. We did not feel safe. We won’t visit this hotel, nor likely...

I wish I could have given them a better review, and I debated writing one but I feel it's best to let people know what my experience was. When I first entered the room it had an extremely musty smell, but I was exhausted from my 21hr flight into Hawaii. So instead of complaining I decided I could just tough it out, but when I woke up to bed bugs in my bed, I was completely freaked out. I called the front desk lady to notify her of what was going on. She tried to say maybe it was a flea, but it certainly was not, tried to say she thought you couldn't see bed bugs..and told me there was nothing they could do and to sleep in the other bed in the room. I couldn't sleep, nor could I find another hotel that was open and taking new guests at this time. I Waited for the manager to come in, when I spoke to him and showed him the squished bug, he didn't really seem to care. He looked at the bug and said he would have to look online to see what a bed bug looks like, so I showed him and he agreed that it could very well be a bed bug. I told him I didn't want to continue my stay, mind you I was suppose to stay here for over a month, now last minute I am forced to find new living in Hilo for work. I told him I would pay for the night if he wanted because I didn't want conflict and thought he would do the right thing and offer me my money back.  He didn't address this situation profressionally, nor did he go check out the room. He simply said we will have to look into it, and offered me coffee. I had to wait until 9 to leave because of my car rental. Then I had to bring all my things to a laundromat to clean them and pray that no bugs crawled in/on my luggage or get in my rental or worst yet in my new hotel room. This situation has caused me extreme stress and anxiety. Use caution when booking your stay at the...