Kona Coast Resort — Hotel in Hawaii

My star ratings are usually 4 and 5 stars, having worked in customer service my whole life. I'm just a tired mom who's too exhausted to be petty and try to assume the best of bad situations. I just want stuff to work. That said, this experience I feel obligated to warn others about... I tried, y'all. I really tried.

I selected a two-bedroom, two-bathroom suite, which I was assured would come with "an amazing view!" I asked to be by the basketball courts and playground on the South side of the property for my family, but the staff reported "the view is better, I PROMISE!" We were assigned a room at the opposite, North side.

As we exited the office, we were forced to interact with activities staff whom I literally had to say, "no, I will not be using these services. Please give me my keys and let me leave." I felt so uncomfortable with the man demanding my personal information and credit card to "secure a spot in the home showing to win a $100 gift card" that I genuinely felt unsafe.

My family arrived to the room, with all our bags and toddler in tow to find it's a one-bedroom, one-bathroom villa complete with cockroaches. We were moved after fighting insulting staff on the phone who told me that I "will just have to made do, we gave you the room you ordered." Except, they didn't and I had receipts to evidence it.

They forced us to email their boss the evidence "cuz he's not in the office right now. There's nobody to help you. You'll just have to wait." Once they saw the screenshots, they much more readily agreed to move us to room we paid for, but with no less attitude or disrespect. Apparently, receiving the room I paid for was an inconvenience to them.

To add insult to injury, we were made to return to the office and, again, to be harassed by the activities crew for our keys. Once at the second room, another one opposite the basketball courts at the North entrance, we were, AGAIN, greeted by cockroaches but they were joined by giant orb spiders and flies this time. There are two photos attached of the ones we found on two consecutive, different mornings, in the middle of the INSIDE hall.

When we called to inform the desk of the concerns we had, the direct quote was, "we don't have a bug problem. Perhaps it was your luggage." Which is interesting if you look at other reviews to see the exact same tile with the exact same types of bugs. Side note: our luggage is all hard-shell carry-on and a single, plastic waist bag. Literally not even possible for it to be ours.

The pool nearest us was closed the entire stay. The remaining hot tubs were green and in disrepair. The golf course costs $170 for a tee time and $70 for clubs. The other activity "offers" are more expensive than anywhere else on the island, or app stores, even with the "club discount."

There is no housekeeping during the stay. The water pressure in both bathrooms is abysmal. The flooring is sticky with bare feet - including the carpet (yes, yuck!) but HEY! They have a volleyball court you have to RENT a volleyball for and a broken basketball court. I'm honestly surprised the resort chain allows their club name to be used on such a property.

Do NOT do the ride along for the $100 gift card. You will end up wasting over half a day in Hawaii. My family did it and they forewarned me, which the activities guy did NOT like one bit. Don't let them hard sell you or pressure you. You paid for this place and service. You shouldn't have to give up more of your time and energy for their gain.

You'd think, "gosh! That view must be incredible!" Right? If you have a telescope, maybe. Other members of my family rented a larger space for less than we paid that was RIGHT on the water. If you stay here, you will NOT see or hear the ocean. Guaranteed. This spot is one to skip. No question. The stress of the rude staff alone is enough, let alone the bugs, room mix-ups, and non-functional property. Yikes! RUN!

UPDATE: They double charged me and are fighting that it was their error. BAHAHAHAHAHA! I can't even...

Bldg 20, specifically unit 20-203 Has a Cockroach infestation. What was supposed to be a relaxing trip to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary ended up being an exhausting week of sleepless nights and long days out to avoid being in that room. This was our second time in Hawaii. The first time we came to big Island we stayed at the Royal Kona..no bugs. This time we stayed at Kona Coast Resort. I can say that when we first entered the unit I was pleasantly surprised. The unit is like a small 1 bed room 2 bath apartment. The bed was extremely comfortable and the wifi worked just fine for running 3 devices at once. It appeared to be clean. The shower was not cleaned properly though. The shower had a overwhelming bleach smell and the shower floor was slimy. The dishwasher was running when we arrived....it had no dishes in it...kinda weird. The ice maker is obnoxiously loud and made 3 ice cubes all night despite all the noise it made. The front door has a large gap that you can see A LOT of daylight through. The laundry machine works but it probably needs to be cleaned. No Keurig coffee maker, just a standard coffee pot. I expected to at least get 100% Kona coffee...they only give out a 10% Kona blend...I can get that crap anywhere. The unit was fully equipped with all kitchen and dinning cookware and utensils. Too bad the coaches are on everything. We washed the items before use and only cooked once during our stay. We decided it was best to keep food out of the room as much as possible. We had some ready made ribs from the grocery store one night and put the bones in the trash...not even 5 minutes later there are 10 roaches in the can. I ended up buying a can on Raid on day 2 after I read reviews I hadn't previously seen on the roaches. They were all over the counter and coming out from under the cabinets in the kitchen. I saw a dead squished one on the wall in the bathroom that was missed by the cleaning crew. I had trouble sleeping the entire time. I couldn't help but think they are going to be crawling on me while I sleep. Fortunately I only actually had to kill one in the bedroom but I had already sprayed the perimeter of the entire unit inside and out including around the windows and doors with Raid. If we had any trash that couldn't go out right away it was bagged and stored on one side of the refrigerator so that the bugs had no reason to come out from wherever they were hiding. I can say the pools were nice, the bar/restaurant food wasn't bad (just expensiv) and my husband said the Mai Tai there was the best of everywhere else we tried them. The botanical walking path was nice. The walk-ability is not ideal for people who want to be able to explore shopping , beaches or restaurants on foot. This place is a time share and they will offer you the world just to go to an owners seminar and call you multiple times a day for weeks until you just give up and change your number. We did not attend nor do we ever want to own such a disappointment. I have notified the director of tourism that I'm definitely not coming back. I did not fuss about anything during my stay. According the other reviewer that did reach out to management they were either moved to another unit with bugs or told there isn't anything that they can do "it's Hawaii, we have bugs" ummm I live in Florida...we have bugs.. OUTSIDE. I'm disappointed that a state that depends on tourism to thrive is going downhill. I definitely didn't feel the Aloha spirit at the Kona Coast resort. I might as well have been at a cheap hotel in...

Unfortunately, I’m going to lead with the bad. Check itself was quick. We were directed to the activities desk to get wristbands. Of course, there was also a pitch to do the “owner’s update.” That was with Alex. I politely listened and declined. Alex tried a couple more times, but he was respectful and understood I was a no. He was also very helpful with general questions. All was fine at that point. Then, we got to the room and were immediately called by someone other than Alex (female). She told my wife we were “required” to attend the owner’s update. She told my wife we received correspondence saying it was required. After listening to her harass my wife for 5 minutes, my wife handed me the phone. Same false story: we were required to attend. I told her we were not interested. She repeated that we were required to attend per letters we received, and asked why we would not want to. Not that it is any of her business, but trying to be polite, I explained that we already had a full plate of activities and did not want to spend our time that way. She would not take no for an answer, repeating that we were required to attend. I asked her what the consequences were of not attending—expressly asking if we would have to leave the resort if we did not attend. She would not answer my question, making it seem like I had to keep listening to her or there would be consequences. I’ve owned a timeshare for 15 years and use it multiple times per year. This was, by far, the most bush-league, deceptive, and rude treatment I’ve received—and it was just to get me to an owner’s update! I can’t imagine what the actual presentation would have been like. Either there is a serious training problem (i.e. the teach predatory practices) or a massive quality control issue with this particular individual.||Aside from that, the room was spacious and clean. Big kitchen with everything you need. No problems with roaches like others mentioned (I didn’t see a bug the whole time). We purchased the air conditioning, but I’m not sure it was necessary. We had a great breeze the whole time. Perhaps it has something to do with positioning of the room. Beautiful, well maintained grounds. Nice pool. We called for a couple extra things from housekeeping, who was responsive and quick. The furniture was clean and up to date. It looked like the room was recently remodeled (within past 5 years or so), except the bath tub was in dire need of resurfacing. Lots of restaurants and services nearby. And it was a good launching pad to other parts of the island. Some of the water activities were very close by (near the Outrigger). We did the Manta night swim and the Captain Cook snorkel. Both were great.||One other warning, the seems to be a willingness to enter the room for maintenance without notice or warning. We came back one day and all of the cable boxes and remotes were replaced. We were super-confused at first, thinking we could not find the right remote. That also explained why we were awoken early that morning to loud maintenance outside of our cluster of rooms. Minor issue but a little notice before entering our room for a long period of time would have been nice.||Would I stay again? Probably not. Would I ever buy from Shell? Hard no. The resort itself is very nice, but I just can’t do business with people who do not treat customers with respect. You know you are going to get a little time share pressure, but they don’t have to be rude and...