Royal Grove Waikiki — Hotel in Honolulu

I’m giving five stars because I’ve been in worse but here’s my experience. Like I said it’s workable…I was dressed like a bum. My shirt and tie would’ve possibly made me a target and Oahu is a no tie zone. Lol. We left our luggage at the Ilikai. More about that below…

When we arrived here….

The front desk lady has me so mad I can’t see straight. I’m old so I don’t always hear so good. Or maybe it’s the water in my ears from scuba. I’ll go with the latter even though it’s been a week since I dove and we just got to Oahu. Lol.

I asked the front desk lady what she said and she yelled it back at me at me. Then spoke normally. That was rude.

Hawaiian Airlines called us and told us our flight had to be the day after we booked it. I asked if we could leave a day early. They approved. We had no where to stay for one night and ended up here. Not too bad. I actually feel safer in Waikiki than say downtown Dallas. Lol.

No roaches!!! Carpet is clean. Bed looks ok. They put a wood pole to lock the patio door. Makes me not feel so safe. Room never got dark enough to sleep good. Security light outside our room on the 4th floor.

Air conditioning works. If the windows closed correctly the room would cool off. But it’s hot in here now. It got good and cold at night. They have hot water. This is comparable to Motel 6. It’s livable and 2 (or less) blocks from Dukes Statue Waikiki.

Bums outside. Thats normal for Waikiki.

The balcony connects to other balconies.

You can hear the traffic outside, people walking through the hallway like there’s no wall or windows. But there is walls and windows. Well painted walls.

The refrigerator, which is a surprise, is in the bathroom. There is a hair dryer and tv. We never turned on the tv.

No cooking allowed in the rooms but there is a microwave.

So we’re stuck here for the night. The desk lady said there were no refunds and I would be charged regardless if I stayed here or not. Then accused me of trying to bypass a quarantine. It took a while, since my phone died but I did find proof of my wife and my negative tests.

It’s only about $150~ per night with a $100 deposit I hope I get back. I’ll hold off posting this review until we check out. Maybe it’s just me…

We’ll be back at the Ilikai tomorrow where they know how to show respect even if they don’t feel it. Seems to be an attitude against tourists here. Ha that hilarious since that’s their income after the unemployment runs out.

People are in the hall joking about this Hotel being a sad Hilton. It is not a Hilton. Don’t know how we’ll sleep with the drunks coming in all night. We can hear them like there’s no door at all. It got real quiet after around 2 am. 👍

The desk lady did call to tell us the blanket was in the dresser along with an extra pillow. The bed was great!

Look for my review on Yelp and maybe the BBB. Since the no refund policy and the crud still going around here might be of interest.

All this said we would stay here again if we had to. I’ve been in worse hotels. If they would let us after this review.

We’ve been to Oahu over ten times. This is the first time I didn’t enjoy our first day. Poor poor me. Lol. Crying in paradise. That should be a hashtag.

When I wrote this we had just arrived on Oahu after an 8 hour non-stop from Austin, Tx. We drove to Austin from Dallas. We walked from the Ilikai 2 miles to this hotel. I was tired, hungry and constipated. (Bet that made you grin. I can be entertaining if nothing else)

To summarize …. Pack more patients than 11 grandkids takes and be prepared to be treated badly. Maybe we’ll consider taking my money to another USA territory location. I don’t like to go where tourists aren’t wanted. The room is livable. It’s not that bad so come stay here but be ready. The stress of the current situation has everyone on edge and I’m a nervous, tired, inpatient, constipated old man that’s in love with Oahu....

First impression: It’s cute, close to the beach, and yes, it is severely outdated; but that is not the problem. The staff is friendly and we checked in around 10pm on a Sunday. They did not give us any directions to our room so we were kinda lost, but found it tucked away in a corner. The windows are not windows, they’re like these flaps you can open and close so you can hear literally everything outside 24/7. Goodbye sleep. The air conditioner in our room sounded like a plane taking off. The shower was made for midgets, I am 5’4 and had to take the shower head and manually hold it to wash myself. The whole room just felt dirty. The bed was very hard and small, we paid for a queen and got a full size. The worst part for us was that 2 nights in, we began noticing what looked like pee stains on the bed. We requested housekeeping (as it’s by request only) and they said they’d get to it that day. That evening, we caught the housekeeping lady next door thinking she was knocking on our door and she said she’s too busy and can’t get to it. We asked for sheets and we’d change it ourselves, that ours are stained. She brings sheets and towels for us and I began stripping the bed and noticed that the top blanket (which is very rough, nothing was comfy about this bed), had pee stains on it as well as the mattress protector underneath. SO many pee stains, that it was literally soaking through our sheets the more we slept on it. We tried to be nice and just get through our stay; but we were disgusted. We changed the sheets ourselves and went about our honeymoon. The next day we went swimming at the beach and unfortunately brought sand back with us, too bad housekeeping still didn’t come ‘cause we had to deal with sand for 3 days. We did pick up before we left and stripped the bed and linens as we always do to make it easier on staff and felt bad about the sand, but the fact that they never came to clean up and we had to change the sheets ourselves was pretty annoying considering the amount you pay to stay there. We were awoken several times at night to the sound of people arguing outside, high police presence, literally anything you can imagine. Our first night we had people banging on our door and we were also called by the front desk at 4:45AM saying someone thinks they left their clothes in our room, are you kidding??? First of all, not even the courtesy to wait until 8, but you also don’t check your rooms between??? That was made apparent when we kept smelling something gross under our bed and while picking up before check-out, we found a moldy takeout container left by previous guests. I understand outdated, but the cleanliness is not something you can skimp out on. ALSO - our room had no outlets except what the TV and AC was plugged into. Literally had to unplug something to charge our phones, and the hairdryer was on the wall but no outlet, so we had to use it sitting on the bed instead of in the bathroom or by the mirror. Absolutely ridiculous. Also editing to add that there is a sign in the room saying not to leave valuables in the room because there is a risk of items being stolen. So we had to bring a bag of our valuables with us everywhere and were constantly nervous of our luggage being stolen from our room. I wish we could get a refund of some sort, but we did sleep...

I was only in Hawaii for one night and I really wanted to milk my time for all it was worth. I had visions of a classic low-budget island romp, wandering the streets with sand in my shoes and a wad of soaking wet one dollar bills in my swimsuit pocket ready to be laid upon the bar at whatever dive I first came across. Arriving at the Royal Grove after a rather slow paced bus journey from the airport it became clear that this establishment was indeed going to help me actualize this goal. The front desk remained peacefully unstaffed for several minutes while I paced the lobby admiring the decor, listening to the snores of a vacationing retiree who sat like a puddle on the sofa, head fully reclined, a victim of the tropical lifestyle. When an employee eventually surfaced from the back room he brought with him a genuinely pleasant demeanor and a willingness to assist me — I welcomed both. It was too early to check in so I entrusted him with my bags and returned a few hours later. On the way up to my room I passed by the outdoor pool area. A family basked in the lounge chairs applying sunscreen and reading books, appearing to get settled in for the day. This struck me as odd not just because of the hotel’s extremely convenient one block distance from Waikiki Beach, but because the pool had been closed due to contamination and was taped off like a crime scene, a murky mysterious green. I’d read the reviews before booking here and my room was more or less as I expected it to be, basic and without frills, but totally fine. One complaint that was often mentioned was the noise and yes, it was loud. This would be due to the windows being glass slats that can open or close as you wish but never really lock shut and certainly not seal out any sound from the street. Despite this I had one of the best night’s sleeps I’d had in days. The air conditioner (an older window unit variety) had been on full blast when I came in and so I’d just left it that way, rumbling away throughout the night, a wall of static to drown out whatever mayhem was occurring outside. Getting my things together to leave the next morning however, I decided to shut it off and as a result found a bit of a surprise hiding on top of it: a hypodermic needle with a bit of blood in the end of it and a neat droplet dangling off the tip. I was happy I hadn’t seen it until the end of my stay. When I mentioned this to the concierge he let loose a strange giggle and contorted his face in a way that managed to mask his emotion. I couldn’t tell if he thought I was joking, if it happens so frequently that it’s funny, if he was embarrassed, or if he’d planted it there as a gag and was getting off on the whole thing. I glanced back at him as I exited the building and he seemed unfazed, poking lethargically at the computer keyboard. This was no cause for concern and I liked that. Considering what I wanted to get out of my trip and based on the experience I had, I would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone with similar intentions. I think it’s unlikely I will ever return to the state of Hawaii (due to its geographical isolation and the costs associated with that) but if I did I probably would stay here again seeing as it appears to be the most affordable hotel...