Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort — Hotel in Honolulu

My husband and I planned this trip via a travel agent. We’ve NEVER had a problem with any arrangements she has made.Our Hawaii vacation planned and confirmed in 10/23 for our 9/24 vacay. Almost 1 year in advance.Despite using a travel agent my husband called Sheraton to confirm details of our room, our trip dates, room, fridge, &some other small details.Our 1st stop in HI was at the Sheraton.On the day we arrived they had two lines. A “rewards” line for valued customers & a standard line. We were in the standard line behind less than 7 families. The rewards line had approx 3 people in line.Although there were two lines there wasn’t a separate check in desk for the rewards members so anytime a host opened up they took a rewards member. It was kinda cartoonish watching the rewards member line dwindle down, then more persons get in the rewards line &receive help while our line grew to easily over 20 people (no kidding).The line was beyond the cookie store. 45 min. later we received our insight into what Sheraton Waikiki is all about when Jackie S. checked us in for our reservation.Jackie S. is largely the reason for this review. After a long day of traveling, we were EXCITED to begin our honeymoon, birthday, & bucket list vacay. We were ready to check in,change into our swimwear, grab a drink, &explore! Jackie began to go over the details of our room& stated that we had a city view room.I kindly explained to Jackie that we had an ocean front room booked,she told us that we did not. I pulled up our confirmation receipt&email. She then said that our room wasn’t booked as an ocean front room although I had the booking info in front of both of us.The more Jackie talked the more I realized that she was really trying to stick us in a city view room. Jackie blamed it on our travel agent.After having to haggle with Jackie for several minutes I could see this was going down a slippery slope so we calmly asked to speak to a manager. In my own words, “Can I please speak to a manger or someone in higher authority than you?” Jackie said, “I am the manager!”Then she began to shift her attitude. She tells us that our travel agent made an error.We can either take a city view room, ocean view King, or an ocean front with double beds and that is it!I asked her would there be an opportunity to receive the room that we booked&paid for? She said we could come back down tomorrow and check.I could see we were not getting anywhere and Jackie was frustrated so my husband& I took the double bed ocean front room.I immediately emailed our travel agent.She emailed them&confirmed our booking was an ocean front king bed for our entire stay. Later we went downstairs. We saw the line dwindled down.I went to the desk and asked to speak with a manager. This is when we met Susan.Susan was very kind, calm, and a breath of fresh air. She represents hospitality &customer service. We went over our ordeal, showed her our email confirmation, our receipt, and our communication with our travel agent from just an hour prior. Susan offered an apology, worked on placing us in our correct room, called that evening but we missed it d/t sleep. The next morning we went downstairs and you would never guess who helped us?!?! Jackie!!!A never ending nightmare with this lady! I informed Jackie that we spoke to Susan. She called us to let us know that our correct room was ready. Jackie looks into the computer and tells us that she sees a note but she doesn’t have a room for us so we’ll have to come back later!I end the conversation with her. 30 minutes later we received a voicemail from Jackie apologizing and now saying that our “upgraded” room is available. Upgraded!! How dare you!!! All we want is the correct room that we paid for and expected upon our check in.We never wanted to speak to Jackie again so left breakfast&asked to speak to Susan. We finally received our room.We would never stay here again. I do not want to even imagine what would have happened had we not booked with a travel agent to intervene on our behalf. Wifi here sucks and there is no...

The short version - Beware: It didn’t matter that I have elite status, it took 5 hours to get screwed and not get the ocean front room we booked for a 7 night stay/special occasion, and to end up with a room staring at the dirty buildings, instead of the ocean. Neither your reservation, nor status, nor what they tell you actually means anything here. This is a place you want to stay far far away from for special occasions if you have any hope of getting what you paid for.

Details: Tried to stay here while we got married and honeymoon. Paid for the upgraded room, with early check in, to make it a special occasion and got totally hosed.

We called the hotel before we booked to confirm that we could book the hotel room using chase points and still apply my nightly upgrade awards for this 7 night stay. They said yes, no problem. They told us to just check in on the app in advance and apply the nightly upgrade awards. No problem. When I tried to do that, the app said it was an ineligible rate. When I messaged the front desk, they said there was nothing we could do, but they’d put our situation in the notes to try and give us priority. Fine. This is why we paid extra for an upgraded room to start with, so we’d be happy with the room we paid for and not have to rely on the upgrade to be happy. The upgrade would just be a bonus.

Arrived at our early check in time. There was a 20 minute wait even in the elite status line. Fine.

Finally got to the front and was told our room wasn’t ready yet. But we could drop off our bags and come back in 3 hours (normal check in time) and our room would be ready. Fine. We can explore for a couple hours before checking in.

Come back several hours and they closed the elite status line and it’s just a single, 45 minute line snaking through the lobby. Fine.

Finally got to the front and was told our room wasn’t ready and we’d have to come back at 6pm. Then the story changes to, they don’t have the room we booked available. Then the story changes again and she’s going to move us to the room we booked, but on a higher floor. Fine. We didn’t get an upgrade, but we paid for a room we’d be happy with and got it. But…

We get to the room, and there’s somebody else’s luggage already in there, so we go back downstairs and wait another 20 minutes while the person who helped us frees up so we don’t have to wait in the 45 minute line again. Fine.

Now the story is, they don’t have our room at all and no amount of waiting is actually going to do anything. So it’s either take the downgraded room or…take the downgraded room. It’s really not much of a choice, so we’ll at least check it out. Turns out - not getting the room you reserved for a week long special occasion is disappointing and staring at dirty buildings is less picturesque than staring at the ocean.

So we should probably get some kind of refund, right? All we got was “We’ll waive the resort fee’s”. That’s nice, but I want the difference in room rates too. Nope. Not a thing apparently. Yes - we’ll be working on this in the next couple days, we were just exhausted and wanted to get into air conditioning at this point.

Summary - Spent 5 hours not getting the room we booked and are now staring at dirty buildings instead of the ocean on our honeymoon.

I travel a lot for work and I’ve chosen Marriott as my loyalty program but it apparently means nothing. What a colossal waste of time. I’m just going to book the nicest hotels wherever I travel regardless of brand because for the life of me, I don’t see any tangible benefit of elite status through Marriott. We paid for the room we wanted so we didn’t have to rely on the upgrade and we still got screwed, but this was the one opportunity for my status to help out in any way and it failed miserably. I’m honestly a little baffled and a little sad - what was the point of...

I read a lot of reviews just like this one before selecting a hotel for our waikiki vacation. I am a Bonvoy member so I was particular to Marriott hotels but l looked at many. The Sheraton Waikiki is gorgeous and in a great location with many shops and restaurants in walking distance. The lobby has a lovely indoor outdoor setup with you passing many authentic shops on the way to the front desk check-in. I don't know about other comments on here but I had a wonderful check-in experience with a lovely young lady. I didn't have to wait and walked right up to the desk. We were there for our birthdays and she took extra care to give us some birthday gifts on the house and set us up with a nice room with a lovely view of both the ocean and Diamond Head. The room was standard, but lovely. I loved having a balcony and being able to soak in all the views day and night. The toilet had a bidet, which I will not understate, was a fabulous thing! We needed extra towels and blankets and were brought them immediately. The on-site food was very good, with some Hawaiian authentics, but also American fare for those who might be picky eaters. I couldn't get enough of the Honolulu coffee. I'm still trying to recreate it back at home. And again, you are in walking distance from an attached indoor-outdoor mall with a lovely food court. But also great restaurants all around the area, including Roy's Waikiki but other recognizable favorites for those from the states. One benefit of this hotel is that there are 3 other nearby hotels within walking distance that you can eat on their property and charge it back to your room. We rented a cabana by the pool, which was nice to have considering the limited seating situation by the pool. We weren't spending everyday by the pool, because, well, you're in Hawaii and you want to explore. So for the 1 day you make a resort day, the cabanas are cheap enough to splurge, and not have to worry about finding a seat. The family pool has a great water slide for the kids and a mini one for babies as well as a little waterfall and 2 hot tubs. The beach is easily accessible from the property. Though I will say it's a small beach and that water doesn't play so be careful with your little ones as it can be a little rough, but quite manageable. The one con I would say - and this is coming from somebody who lives in Miami Beach - is that you actually have to PAY for chairs on the beach. I find that to be BS. Even in Miami Beach, which is another beach destination of the world, when you rent at 1 of those hotels, a chair on the beach is included for hotel guests. I didn't care for that nickel and diming of paying extra to lay on the beach. Otherwise, the hotel also offers many activities, and best to book in advance, such as hula lessons, which I partook in, ukulele lessons and surflessons, which my husband did on the beach behind the hotel. I'm super happy with my choice in hotels. And while I was debating between that and the Royal Hawaiian right next door, I realized that I loved the high views that I got from the Sheraton versus what looked like a three story hotel from Royal Hawaiian. Lastly, if you're renting a car, it's very easy to park in the garage versus valet. The self parking is $55 night and the valet is...