The Imperial Hawaii Resort — Hotel in Honolulu

Overall the stay was okay. The staff overall was good, but there was an incident with a manager that soured our staff experience a bit (which I'll explain later).

The rooms are pretty spacious and comfortable. We were in the Banyan. There was, of course, a bed in the bedroom and murphy bed on the wall. I believe the sofa opened into a bed as well, but we didn't need it so I never verified that. We had a microwave, small refrigerator, toaster, coffee maker, dishes, glasses, silverware, etc. We were pretty well equipped. Others in our party had the Koa. That room had a full-sized refrigerator, dishwasher and stove/oven. It also had 2 bathrooms and one bedroom.

For security, your room key only gets you to your floor and the floors of any amenities. My party and I had three different rooms on three different floors. So that we could visit each others rooms, they gave us access to all three floors, which was nice.

Ok, here is where things were a little less than perfect. Almost every night the hotel had some kind of activity, i.e. ukulele lessons, fireworks, etc. I went to the cocktail hour where they were serving free Mai Tais with some live music. The drinks were great and they also served some strawberry pineapple juice for those who didn't want alcohol. Overall, this was a great time, but there really wasn't enough seating to hold everyone who wanted to attend. We ended up taking our drinks to go. There was also a Lei making activity that I was really excited about. I got there at the start only to find that the class was full and there was an 18-person wait list. Apparently, they didn't have enough flowers to accommodate every one who wanted to participate. I was pretty bummed about missing that. It would have been great if they'd anticipated the interest and had enough flowers to accommodate. I understand that they can't know exactly who wants to attend, but it seems like they have the same events each week so I think there should have been some awareness.

The pool is on the roof, but it was not what I was expecting AT ALL. It was pretty tiny and aesthetically, the area was not very nice. But we did stay and swim for a while.

We knew we would be driving around the island so we rented a car for the week. I believe it cost $135 to park there for the week, plus any gratuity you wanted to give the valet. My incident with the manager happened when we were returning to park. The driveway to the hotel looks pretty much like a sidewalk and pedestrians walk along it as though it's not a drive. In this instance, there were a few cars ahead of us and we couldn't properly approach the drive. The driver in my party decided to go around so that we weren't out in the street since the lead car had been moved and the other cars were not told to pull up. So we were parked a bit awkwardly and apparently in the way of the other, unmarked "lane." A manager, Lynette, came up to the car and not very politely said to the driver, "What are we doing?" He explained that we were trying to park under the difficult circumstances, which she pretty much ignored to tell him that next time he needed to park more to the side. He again explained that we were trying to do that bit there were cars in the way. She again ignored it and walked away. In the midst of us exiting the car, I think she realized that we were not happy and she tried to soften everything by saying, "He did a good job." By that point, we were a little too annoyed to hear her.

The final thing for us was that they advertised smart TVs. We were not able to connect in our rooms, which was a bit annoying. Finally, I called the front desk to let them know about it. They sent someone up to the room to fix the issue, which amounted in him connecting the television to some hidden network. Which I took to mean that they didn't want anyone to connect without first asking for a connection.

Overall, it was a good experience with some...

This was the second time we stayed at the hotel. First time a couple of years ago was a great experience. This time around I paid for a Palm Suite, I did the virtual walk around, looked at all the photos of the room and all had some sort of view. Since the previous stay had a view I was thinking this stay would be along the same sort of line. Check in was a long wait as only one person working the counter, once we got our room key we went to 9th floor. What a horrible floor it was, it had a smell to it and had stark white walls and ceiling with exposed pipes or something. No paintings on the walls at all which made it look a basement instead of a hotel floor.||Once we opened our room door we could smell an odour and went to open the balcony door to notice we had zero view, instead it was a giant cement wall. Every photo that was attached to the Palm suite had a view, I don't even care if we were looking at another hotel's balcony's rather than a cement wall. No where in the booking did it say that there was zero view, otherwise I would never have made the booking. It had nothing about a view but all the pictures showed the view. Very sneaky the way the did it. Our freezer also had a fishy smell, it was awful as the entire fridge smelled like fish so didn't use it at all, as opening it up would bring the smell into the room.||I rang reception and told them I wasn't happy with my room and could we be swapped to something else, they said to check with reservations the following morning.||We looked around the room some more and noticed the second bathroom was soooo tiny it was ridiculous. Almost no way you could open the shower door without leaving the bathroom door open to get in. And even though both bathrooms were clean they were sooo old that they have an odour coming out of them. Not pleasant at all. They really need a total gutting.||The murphy bed is a hazard with the worst design ever as I've noticed a few other people complained about it too. When the bed is down, the way it's designed you almost always hit your foot, stubb your toe on the wood at the bottom of the bed as instead of the wooden frame coming straight down from the mattress it goes out in a triangle shape and because of that I hit my toe so hard that it was bruised and throbbing for the entire 7 days and now I need to get an xray. My daughter also stubbed her toe and so we don't risk any more injuries we put the bed back up and shared the one double bed. Also an FYI that when the murphy bed is down there is zero room in the lounge, almost impossible to move around, nothing like in their photos.||Next morning we went to reservations on the 2nd floor and told the lady of our viewless room ordeal and she said you must ask for a room with a view otherwise you won't get one. I told her it was false advertising as all the photos of the Palm suite had a view and no mention that there was zero view on their webpage, she didn't care, said they had nothing else available. I told her we would be leaving the hotel, she said if we move out by 11am, we would only be charged up to that day. No apology or anything, or even care we were moving. Very disinterested to say the least. ||So we booked a pool view room at the Embassy Suites across the road and what a glorious stay we had there. We were checked in immediately, our room was ready at 1030am and our beautiful room not only had a view of the pool but also of the mountains AND the beach. I couldn't say enough good things about the Embassy so if you want a great stay in Waikiki then do yourself a favour and pick the Embassy Suites.||I will never stay at the Imperial again, it's so dingy and old, needs a complete re-gutting and is a 2 star...

So. You are looking for a hotel in Waikiki. There are 1,000s to choose from, I know. The Imperial is a great option if you aren't a looking for anything fancy.

Here's the breakdown: Location: Perfect. In Waikiki area without killing our wallets. Dennys and ABC share the foyer (almost). Shopping across the street with a few stores and restaurants. Larger Waikiki shopping 10 minute walk. Easy walk to a small beach (3 min) or 15 min walk to Waikiki Beach.

Room: Amazing value. A separate bedroom with a queen, a kitchenette, twin murphy bed in living room, and 2 seperate balconies. We had a higher floor so a good of the ocean and no noise, even with balcony open. A bit musty - need my allergy meds. Check the door - our wasn't latching fully. Older thermostat - remeber the gold boxes and dials? - but still worked fine.

Property: A bit older and simple. Mostly just rooms with one rooftop pool, 2 jacuzzis, laundry area, and parking garage. They have free activities during the week - lei making and such, unfortunately we were there on a weekend. But it was odd. Ex: the rooftop pool was amazing. But the elevator to it was broken so we got off one floor below, opened a plain wooden door, and walked up an enclosed narrow cement staircase to the top floor. The spas were actually balcony rooms - you go to room xyz, use your key card, go through the carpeted living area/lockers, to the balcony where the jacuzzi was. Overpowering room deodorizer-type scent. One ice machine was in the laundry area which was through the parking garage. The other was next to the pool - which was only open certain hours. It was (is?) a timeshare so some areas were not accessible to daily guests.

Staff: Nice, accommodating and friendly. If you arrive early (or leave late) they will hold your bags and give you use of the property including a large waiting area with TV, microwave, etc. (We were waiting in a different area and were asked politely to move. LOL). New towels were always available from the housekeeping desk if you needed new ones.

Price: Great value. Cheaper than I'd pay in NYC or a major mainland city like Chicago, Houston, or Philadelphia. No extra fees, or additions.

Would...