Marriott Vacation Club, Waikiki — Hotel in Honolulu

We stayed in Room 302 for 10 Days Over Thanksgiving

Pros: Great Location: Situated at the quieter end of Waikiki, opposite Fort Derussy Park. Just a 5-minute walk to the beach, and close to restaurants, bus stops, an ABC store, and a coffee shop. New Hotel with Good Amenities: For a 10-night stay, it was very convenient to have a full-size refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave, toaster, kettle, coffee maker, and ample cutlery and crockery, plus there were washing machines and dryers on level 4 and 6. Exceptional Concierge Service: Richard, the concierge, truly made our stay memorable. His friendly demeanor, professionalism, and attentiveness were outstanding. He welcomed every guest with a smile and went above and beyond to make us feel at home. Whatever he’s paid, it isn’t enough! Quiet Rooms: The double-paned windows work a treat, blocking out most of the noise from busy Kalakaua Ave, which made for peaceful nights. Rooftop Cabanas: A nice escape from the sun, complete with lockers and bar fridges. Friday Night Fireworks View: The rooftop provided an excellent vantage point for the Friday night fireworks — a highlight of the stay.

Cons: Extremely Uncomfortable Sofa: The sofa/couch in our room was extremely uncomfortable — unusually stiff, and maybe the most uncomfortable piece of furniture we have ever sat on. We asked house keeping and reception for a chair to sit in due to the level of discomfort. After four days of requesting a chair and no response, we were told by housekeeping that the General Manager had said there were no chairs available anywhere in the hotel. This was quite frustrating, especially given the length of our stay. We requested to speak with the General Manager numerous times about this, but our request was ignored. Short Room Darkening Curtains: The bedroom curtains were several inches too short in width, which let in a significant amount of light, making it hard to sleep in past sunrise. Infrequent Sheet Changes: After 6 days, we asked for our sheets to be changed, but were told they only changed sheets every 10 days. After some persistence, and asking around, someone finally agreed to change them. TV Issues: The TV randomly turned on at 1 a.m., 2 a.m., and 3 a.m. It was also programmed to East Coast time, making the TV guide useless. We were told by maintenance they would make a phone call to Mediacom and it may take several days to get resolve, unfortunately the issue was never fixed during our stay. Air Conditioning Problems: The air conditioning was problematic. We set it to 72°F, but it would consistently rise to between 76 to 79°F after an hour or two. Despite four separate visits by four different maintenance staff, the issue was never resolved, and we woke up sweating each night which created a restless night for both of us. Unresponsive Front Desk: the biggest flaw of this hotel is the front desk, our experience with them was disappointing. We reported several issues and requested to speak to the General Manager, but no one followed up. The front desk staff seemed primarily focused on check-ins and saying ‘Aloha’, rather than addressing concerns or offering solutions
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Final Thoughts: While this hotel is new and located in a prime area, it still has some teething issues to work out. The location, amenities, and concierge service are great, but the lack of response to guest concerns, combined with ongoing issues like the uncomfortable couch, air conditioning problems, unaddressed maintenance requests and more significantly the avoidance by the General Manager significantly impacted our stay. If these issues are addressed, it could become a great hotel, but as of now, it’s still a work...

Great hotel in a great location. Rooms are comfortable and spacious, very well planned and equipped with everything you want and need, toiletries, dishwasher, toilet with heated seat and bidet, gigant shower and tub, robes and slippers, free laundry on floors 4 and 6(can get busy and unavailable depending on time you use so come early or during the day). Two attendants outside, Richard and a young lady, I think Melissa(but not sure, my apologies)were very helpful, attentive and knowledgeable. Greeted us with a smile every time, helped us with luggage when checking in and checking out, and took great care of it while we had extra free time after check out. My only service comment is about the manager or whoever was in charge that day. Not going to name her but she was saying that she is trying to help us figure out the mistakingly booked second room reservation, but we felt like all she cared about is making sure we get charged for it full price. Our original reservation was for a room that accommodate 5 people for 2 nights. One night we were supposed to pay for and the other one we had a free with Marriott bonvoy points. Three days before our arrival we noticed a second booking...strange but didn't think of it much as we were traveling and figured we can sort it out on the spot. We were told that out of no where we have 2 rooms. Manager was telling us to let her handle it but a day later she still told us she is trying her best but nothing much can be done and we will have to pay. My husband called Marriott bonvoy himself and while on the phone he was told that manager told them that we ourselves requested the second room. My husband in shock said that he is at the hotel right now and he's going to talk to manager to have a three way conversation and as soon as he saw the manager her story suddenly changed claiming that she thought we asked for it and that she doesn't really knows anything because she just walked in on a conversation. What kind of nonsense is that. Thanks to Marriott bonvoy it got sorted out. We didn't get charged for extra room we...

Pros: Most of the staff we encountered were fantastic. We had a good check in experience.

Good location. About a ten minute walk to the beach.

Room is clean.

Balcony door does open; there is standing room to peek out and see downtown.

Cons: No hot tub and no shade at the pool. They stated it’s because of wind on the roof, but a small permanent shade structure could help. The shade is off to the side, down stairs so it is difficult if you have children swimming.

No oven or stove (or hot plate). Our room had a microwave, dishwasher, and rice cooker. The kitchen is why we chose a vacation club, but we had to eat most meals out.

The toilet is in a small closet in the bathroom but doesn’t have a door.

The hotel didn’t have any chairs or umbrellas you could borrow for the beach, like the other Marriott down the road, which is a nice perk when you aren’t “beachfront.”

Lastly, we booked through the Bonvoy app which stated all taxes and fees were included. The hotel charged us 300$ in taxes and fees upon check out. I’ve included a screenshot of the booking page below in case it can save others from getting stuck with a bigger bill than they expected upon check out. When we raised it with management, they just kept sending us a folio bill. It didn’t seem transparent and the response lacked...