Hilton Vacation Club The Modern Honolulu — Hotel in Honolulu

PLEASE READ my detailed honest review. I will start with, I am a loyal Hilton honors member and I always select a hotel from the Hilton chain when available. I went with the Hilton Modern for a few reasons. I knew the hotel was older based on other reviews. I care more about a clean room than some of the amenities that this hotel lack. I'll list based on pros and cons: Pros: Location Location Location. Easy to access and a short walk to the beach. If you have mobility issues, there is a sidewalk all the way to the ocean/beach and it leads around to other hotel locations next door. It's okay to visit the other hotels, none of them can stop you from entering the beach connected to the hotel based on law. Con: The Modern, doesn't have as many food options and shops in it as all the other hotels within walking distance. The Ilikia is right next door and they have a fabulous coffee shop. Just don't order the Truffle waffel (Yuck). But the coffee is great along with other breakfast on the go options. Pro: There is a steak house across the street on the corner from the hotel. It's so close, that even if you have a car, it makes no sense to get in the car; leave it parked in the Modern hotel garage. Another pro: The parking garage is very convenient. I did rent a car against everyone's advice due to the cost and parking cost. Here's a tip. Sign up for hilton honnors program. It's free. That way you get 3 more dollars per day off the $35 per day cost to park your car. While that may be a con for some, The Modern is actually the cheaper of all the others who charge $40-$55 per night. It was worth for me when visiting other parts of the island like the north shore. Here's a con for the room: Why in the heck did they design this room with 12-18 in wide wood shutters on each side of the bathroom mirror that go all the way from the counter to the ceiling. Let me be clear, their are two openings in the wall between the bedroom and the bathroom. Why is this a big deal...even with the shutters closed (AND WHY WOULD THEY EVER BE OPEN)...you have to mask the sound of farts and running liquids of all kinds while sharing the space. Just weird. I've stayed in hiltons all over the country and I've never seen anything like it. You can see this in the images on their website and I'll try to upload it. The beds were platform beds. So if you have trouble getting up from low profile sofas or beds, get ready for the double room low profile with no balcony. Balconies are for king rooms only I was told. When it says "partial view of the ocean" believe them. It's just partial, while you're standing in the window peeping out for a few secs. It's not like you'll stand or sit their glaring for long. So save yourself the extra few bucks if you can. Pro: The views are amazing from the shared pool patio decks and any rooms that have a view. You'll be wowed by the many boats in the marina with a backdrop of the most amazing sunset! Pro: This hotel was on the lower cost end. Con: It's REALLY dark in the hallway when exiting the elevator. Pro: There is a ton of parking available in the garage (at least it was during my week there in the last week of January 24). Easy to get in and out. Pro: The hotel is in walking distance of lots of fun hotels that cost a lot more. Why pay to stay there, when you can just walk over daily. Pro: The most beautiful indoor/outdoor shopping mall is on the same street less than 5 minutes away. Which is great if it's a rainy day and you can't go to the beach. The mall has every high end designer store and moderate and Low budget like a Marshalls and Ross attached to it. Imagine Fendi to Ross...unheard of. There are 2 large food courts with fabulous options including Hawaiian and Asian selections. Pro: The staff was friendly and helpful. You get two bottles per room free per day with a coupon voucher. Overall, I would stay there again based on location and cost. Not because it's a "modern" building. The shutters in the bathroom, have me confused still. Also, all pictures on their site around the property is exactly...

Based on our experience I will not recommend The Modern hotel to anyone, if I could give it 0 stars, I would. It Here are the reasons why: Extra charges not advertised on website: Upon first arrival, (flying in from Australia) we were told we were going to be charged an additional US$35per day. Over a 14 day period that's an additional US$490 out of pocket (approx. AU$750). The booking was made through a third party (Trivago) and there were no additional costs advertised, and our receipt mentioned all taxes and charges were paid. We ended up having to speak to a manager and there was literally nothing they could do, our options were that we can cancel the booking free of charge or you pay the amount - there was no way to waive this fee. Now put yourself in our shoes, we had just been on a long flight, barely any sleep and we just wanted to go to our room, have a shower and get rest. Also keep in mind the timing, this is summer holidays in the US, so trying to find accommodation (without blowing the budget) for 14 days was not possible, believe me, we tried. We ended up deciding to stay and paying the extra charge - mind you this was the biggest regret of the trip. Early morning protests: We did not know there were protests happening at the time, so 6am-7am almost every day we were awoken with chanting and protests, also not a good look for the Hilton - just saying. We were so very annoyed with this and this was one of the reasons why we could not get a restful sleep Dirty and outdated rooms: We stayed in a Standard King Bed Room (partial Sea View). Yes it had a nice view, but that did not make up for how poor the room was. We stayed in 3 separate rooms over our stay, and each room had stains everywhere including the curtains, the lamps, the carpet - it was disgusting. The bed mattress was hard and very uncomfortable, we had to ask for a mattress topper and that made it the slightest bit better but still uncomfortable. The air-conditioning ducts were very dusty, looked like they haven't been cleaned in months. The rooms were very out dated and not great, the shower was ok at least it was a good size. No daily housekeeping: There is no housekeeping, we had to move rooms a couple of times to "refresh the room". Over a 14 day stay this was very annoying, having to pack up everything and move rooms. Almost felt like moving hotels, we couldn't get settled. Also, we were told we needed to give 2 days' notice to refresh the room, we tried to do this at the start and the person behind the desk, was rude and did not want to help us out and handballed us to their colleague who luckily was very helpful. We had also requested the refreshed rooms to contain the mattress topper, however this did not happen so we had to re-request for it, which meant we had to strip the bed and make it ourselves, again not a great customer experience. Dirty pool: The pool looked nice on first glance, but after jumping in we noticed how grotty it was. The chairs inside the pool had grime all along the bottom, it looked like they haven't been cleaned in over a week - gross. The water also seemed murky, we weren't in there long and only used it once. I do not recommend it. Timeshare presentation advertised as level 1 tour with US$150 gift card, however it's not until we arrived there that we realised it was a Timeshare presentation. We were already there so we decided to stay for the presentation, which wasn't very convincing as rendered images were used and there were holes in their pitch. The worst part was the gift card was only for US$100. No guaranteed parking space, were advised to be back at the hotel before 8pm to increase our chances of finding a parking space. This meant we could not enjoy our time and had a time limit on the day, which again is not great customer experience.

Overall, our stay was a huge disappointment, and will avoid using Hilton for any future bookings. The Modern Honolulu was advertised as a 4 star hotel, I would mark it as a 2 star, 3 stars is pushing it but...

I wouldn't be going back and would really hesitate to recommend it to anyone else. Choose accommodation that will support the locals and actually at least look like they care about their customers. A lot of corners cut at this hotel.

Negatives: Booking through Agoda was a mistake. On the final payment page it states that all taxes and fees, including resort fees are included in the booking. On arrival, the resort fee was also taken by the hotel so I essentially paid twice for resort fees. After a lot of back and forth, and time wasted between the hotel and Agoda, Agoda have agreed to refund it back. 'Welcome Pack' that you receive on arrival is a pitch to their timeshare and a lousy lei. That's so deceving. They pretend to give you a few recommendations of places to visit (despite us saying we've done it all already and here to relax) then sell the timeshare. Got a call at 8am the next morning asking if we received our 'welcome pack'. I would have liked a sleep-in considering I was still jetlagged and yes already received our 'welcome pack' on arrival. Room looks a lot better in photos than in person. Most things just painted white. Carpet still very dirty, bit of orange mould in shower. Water stains on the lamp shades. Cupboards don't close properly. Definitely not worth the room rates. I've stayed in hostels in better condition. Daily housekeeping non existent. This was only notified to us in an email AFTER I made a non-cancellation booking. They say it's a Covid safe practice to not offer daily housekeeping - but if they were that worried about protecting their staff, why aren't they wearing masks. For an 11 day stay, we had to vacuum our own room twice. The vacuum didn't vacuum properly. I feel so terrible for the staff to have to use such poor equipment. Explains why the carpet was still so dirty when we arrived. When asking for more towels, we got some towels with stains still. Bedsheets also stained. So we had to re-make our own beds, like strip out the mattress protector and all. When walking down the hall, you will see peoples rubbish and towels on the floor There is a microwave but no plates or cutlery. I called staff to ask for a plate to heat my kids food up and he said to use a napkin. Strangest thing ever. Why have a microwave. No pen and paper, no toothbrush and toothpaste, but you get a shoe polisher Also would have been nice to be notified prior to booking that there will be union protests TWICE on our stay at 6am in the morning. We got notified with a letter for one of the protests just a day prior to it, but not the other. Not a good look on the hotel - please look after the locals. There was also going to be an airconditioning 'upgrade' from 8am - 4pm, so it was going to be turned off. Again, just a letter to notify us the day before. Luckily we were leaving. They were offering some slushies to make up for this, what a joke. I would definitely not be paying for a room rate like that without any airconditioning and expect massive discount. No ramp. There was a disabled lift in the corner, which wasn't used. We had to lift our pram up and down the stairs everyday. Wouldn't suggest to single parents to stay here Nothing in the mini fridge Elevators were always packed, people waiting and not getting on. Pretty sure one was not working/turned off, but there was no signage

Positives: Most staff are friendly and approachable. Internet was fine but you had to reconnect and log in again every few hours. Beds mostly comfortable and clean. Location is quieter than inner Waikiki and still close enough to it all Pool and deck area is pretty nice, wasn't too busy when we went once. We thought we would be using it more so were happy to choose it for the pool, but we spent more time enjoying the real beach Lounge area and foyer was comfortable and modern. Didn't mind hanging out there, as long as you avoid the the timeshare people. Public bathroom was really...