Holiday Inn Express Waikiki by IHG — Hotel in Honolulu

We started our Honeymoon in Hawaii at the Holiday Inn Express Waikiki. We booked a 1 King Bed Suite Partial Ocean View room.

The view from our room was great! The bed was comfortable and the room was mostly quiet. The room was clean except the air conditioners. The room was quite musty when we arrived due to a fairly large amount of mold growing inside the AC vents. The room was large, and it did have a seating area, but it was not configured anything like what is shown in the photos. The room did not include the advertised Microwave. The bathroom was even smaller than what's depicted in the photos and you could barely get in and out of the shower as the toilet was just inches away from the shower opening. The room's furnishings were acceptable, but are starting to appear a bit worn. We did have an issue where the glass started to separate from the window frame during some high winds. The maintenance staff did come fairly quickly to look at it and they did some minor repairs.

The most disappointing part was the room they gave us was on the 25th floor which does not have elevator access. You have to take the elevator to the 26th floor, and then walk down a flight of steps to get to your room. This is not listed anywhere on the website and we were only alerted to it when we were checking in. But at least the front desk did offer to take the bags to our room for us.

The staff at the hotel were very accommodating. The breakfast was great with a nice selection of options each morning. They also rotated the menu so that you weren't stuck eating the same things each day. The dining room is large and the staff frequently clean the tables. Our only disappointment with breakfast was they didn't offer butter while we stayed there.

The elevators appeared to be undergoing some cosmetic changes while we stayed there as they had plastic sheeting covering the sides and ceiling of the elevator cars. The elevators were generally quick, but there are long wait times especially around check-in and dinner since there are only six elevators of which 3 are only for the higher sets of floors and 3 are only for the lower sets of floors.

The open air lobby was clean and had a nice breeze most of the time. It was an enjoyable place to spend some time. They do have a guest laundry room which was clean, but it was a bit small. They did offer a good amount of machines to use so we never had to wait for someone else's load to finish.

They do have the on-site parking garage, but be advised that they only offer 146 parking spaces and they have more than 590 rooms. The garage fills up quickly just before dinner each night. Also the spaces are quite small, often we had to have everyone but the driver get out of the car before parking it as there wasn't enough space to open doors on both sides of the car once it was in a space. Good news is that there is plenty of on-street parking on the streets around the hotel.

All in all, it's a decent hotel to stay at, and a good value for the Waikiki area. The hotel is a very short walk to the main shopping area of Waikiki and also a fairly short walk to the beach. It's not the fanciest hotel in the area and it does a good, but not great job at serving...

We had a fantastic stay at this hotel in April 2025. ||I want to start by commending the front desk team for their exceptional hospitality, attentiveness, and thoughtfulness. I called around 9 a.m. to ask if an early check-in might be possible, as we were transferring from another hotel. The lady (I believe her name is Gladys) at the front desk promptly checked availability and said she would call me back. Honestly, I didn’t expect a follow-up since it was a bit of an extra step, but to my surprise, she did. She explained that the hotel was quite full due to the April vacation, but she was able to offer me a room immediately. The only catch was that it required walking up a few stairs. As I was weighing my options, she noticed from my reservation that we were traveling with kids and thoughtfully suggested that, if I was comfortable leaving our luggage at the hotel for a bit, she could offer us a more suitable room as soon as one became available. I appreciated her thoughtfulness and agreed to wait. A few hours later, she called me back to let us know that our room was ready—and it was well worth the wait. The view from our room was absolutely stunning! The lady who checked us in kindly surprised my kids with pineapple drinks and pineapple gummies, which was such a thoughtful and fun touch.||The hotel was clean, and the housekeeping team did a fantastic job throughout our stay. One day, as we were returning from the pool, a housekeeper was just about to start cleaning our room. She immediately handed us extra towels and kindly offered to return later so as not to disturb us. Despite us having a lot of luggage, the housekeeping staff managed to keep our room spotless and well-organized throughout our stay. ||The pool deck was lovely and offered plenty of fun activities for everyone to enjoy. The jacuzzi was a pleasant surprise—perfect for unwinding after a busy day. Our family visited the pool area daily, and it was never crowded. Fresh beach towels were always readily available, which we really appreciated.||The breakfast offered a great selection and variety. Although I had read reviews mentioning that it can get crowded, we found the lines moved quickly, and the food was consistently well-stocked. The staff in the breakfast area were incredibly attentive, always ensuring the tables and surrounding areas were kept clean. My only suggestion would be to consider putting up a sign asking guests not to place their water bottles touching the water nozzle while filling them, and instead to use a cup. I noticed a few people doing this, and when I politely mentioned it, their response was, "You don’t work here."||The room and bathroom were a bit on the smaller side, but since we spent most of our time out and about, it really wasn’t an issue for us. The AC unit was a bit noisy, especially since it was positioned right next to one of the beds. ||Some reviews mentioned a lack of parking, so we were a bit concerned. However, we parked here for four days in a row, returning at different times of the day, and always found plenty of available spots. The main shopping street is just a 2-minute walk away, and the beach is only a 10-minute stroll.||Overall, this is a fantastic hotel with...

Came to this hotel with 2 adults, 2 children for a little over 2 weeks (medical trip for the other adult and we live on another island) and I’ll say overall this stay was more on the disappointing side. I was very optimistic being a Holiday Inn Express name- but there is much to be desired here.

I’ll start with the pros- this is more budget friendly, especially if staying longer than a week. The front desk staff is sweet, the housekeepers are extremely sweet and always go out of their way to say hi and make sure there is nothing you need if you see them in the hallway. My kids liked the oversized Chess game outside and mini golf course. Free breakfast was a huge selling point for us being there this long(although the watered down juices are disgusting). Two queen beds is nice as several other hotels are doubles. Appreciate the 24/7 laundry center. The ocean view was beautiful and offered view of the Friday fireworks which my kids liked. The breakfast is plentiful, and is repeated daily with a couple variants from day to day, and offers alternative meat choices, along with muffins, bagels, toast, cereal, pancakes, etc.

For the downsides- as mentioned several times, the rooms are very tiny and there is no room for two people to be walking around at the same time. The bathroom had me feeling claustrophobic where I couldn’t even shut the door, reminding me of RV bathrooms. Housekeeping should be more thorough and should occasionally clean under the beds (we had to get something we dropped and when we looked under the beds- we were mortified as there is rotten fruit and old soda bottles under our bed-absolutely disgusting). The blinds have what looks like blood smears on them, among a few sticky surfaces all over and a couple dark hairs in our towels and on the floor of the bathroom. The elevator situation is insane and had us waiting 10-15 mins on the worst days to get in an elevator. Each time it opens, it’s completely jam packed with people shoulder to shoulder and we have to wait another 5 mins for another (happened to us several times) and not much the hotel can do I’m sure, but it’s very irritating and a deterrent for us. The parking garage is not big enough so parking is limited and FCFS but after a long day of medical appointments, we came back to the room to find the garage is 100% full, with the only offered solution being to park in another garage for $45 with a 20 minute walk back to the hotel! Coming back late alone, as a single woman with 2 children, forced to park 20 mins away from my room is extremely upsetting. There is no indication that the garage is full either, so you drive up and around and then fight with other people to get back out with no where to turn around! This is very disappointing and had I known this happens, I would have spent a little more and went with a hotel that offers valet and has ample space. In all the hotels I’ve stayed at in Honolulu over the years as Kamaaina- this has never happened and is the reason I won’t return when I have to come back in August...