Kauai Palms Hotel — Hotel in Kauai

I will caveat that we were staying at a resort in Princeville all week, and stayed here only 1 night to be close to the airport for our morning flight. It may not be a fair comparison going from a very nice resort to this motel. That said, we weren't checking in until after dinner and we're checking out at 8 am, so we were looking for a simple, cheap, clean safe place near the airport for 8 hrs of sleep, not anything fancy since we didn't have time to use any hotel amenities. We thought we had found it here. The front desk was incredibly nice and helpful. 5 stars for the front desk! Pricing seemed reasonable compared to everything else on Kauai, at $180 for a king bed on a Saturday night, and the online photos looked decent enough so we booked it. Pros were the close proximity to the airport, free parking, free coffee, mini fridge in room, nice quick dry beach towels to use during your stay, and friendly helpful front desk receptionist.

The hotel is from the '60s I think, which adds charm as long as you know to expect it and aren't expecting contemporary. As other reviewers mentioned, the rooms are NOT spacious, and the bathroom shower looked like it had the original 50 year old tile, but that I could get past for one night. We didn't even shower as the shower was not inviting and other reviews said the water didn't get too hot.

What did me in was when I tried to sleep, I felt nauseous laying my head on the pillow. I couldn't figure it out at first, but it was the smell / fragrance of the laundry detergent. It was so potent! Smelled like the Mexican Fabuloso or Zote super cheap detergent or something. It literally made me want to gag, and my nose isn't that sensitive! I had to sleep with my airplane neck pillow and keep the sheets at least a foot away from my face. Then, I woke up to use the restroom in the middle of the night, and their were 3 roaches on the bathroom floor, which made me freak out, get all my belongings off the floor of the hotel room, start crying, and panic wishing to be home! We seriously discussed going to sleep in the car, but the bed sheets - though they were suffocating with the chemical smell - were at least clean so we stayed after my husband calmed me down.

I get that roaches are abundant, especially on tropical islands. We have them everywhere in San Diego too, but you HAVE to have an exterminator come and keep them at bay because they are ridden with diseases and bacteria from the sewer lines. Needless to say, had we paid $40-60 for the night, maybe I could say "you get what you pay for" but at nearly $200 for the night, I felt scammed, mislead, and horrified. I would not stay here again unless management shared their extermination schedule, and updated to a fragrance free detergent (even hurt Clorox would be fine!)

Lastly, yes there was some noise, the hotel is from the 60s after all, but once we turned the fan and A/C on, it drowned that out. So that wasn't a big...

I had booked a package deal that included this hotel. Let me start by saying the front desk worker was incredibly sweet and really apologized for their mistake. Big mahalos to her. The female manager, however, was extremely rude and condescending and never even apologized. We had booked a queen bed and got a double. We complained because we paid for a queen bed and this bed was clearly not that. This was our anniversary trip. I was told by the manager on the phone that it WAS in fact a double bed and she was there when it was purchased. Had she offered any kind of apology or a solution, I would've understood that it was a mistake and that we couldn't be moved because they were sold out. However, she insisted we were wrong, and that it was a double bed, so I had to literally go to ACE hardware down the street, buy a tape measure and prove her wrong (this whole process ate over 2 hours of our trip btw). She then sent down her front desk worker to take a video because we weren't believed. When she realized she was wrong, she didn't apologize but continued to be condescending saying things like "my dear" and "as I've already explained". I've worked half my life in the service industry and this was disgusting behavior from a "manager". Also VERY embarrassing that she was there when it was purchased and couldn't tell the difference between a double bed and a queen bed. So, she was either lying to us or isn't exactly an expert in her field....||Bottom line: we did not get the bed we paid for, had to deal with an extremely unprofessional and moody manager, and was told by said manager that we either stay in the room and pay full price or go find somewhere else and we had 15 minutes to decide. Being that it was 7:00 on a Friday night, we didn't have many options that wouldn't have been a huge price increase for last minute. She had no shame and no compassion. We are also kama'aina and two teachers from Oahu on an anniversary trip which I tried to explain. No aloha, no empathy, no interest, nothing. Save your money and go somewhere else. The hotel itself is cute and convenient, but it's not worth it to be lied to and then spoken to in the way...

I had booked a package deal that included this hotel. Let me start by saying the front desk worker was incredibly sweet and really apologized for their mistake. Big mahalos to her. The female manager, however, was extremely rude and condescending and never even apologized. We had booked a queen bed and got a double. We complained because we paid for a queen bed and this bed was clearly not that. This was our anniversary trip. I was told by the manager on the phone that it WAS in fact a double bed and she was there when it was purchased. Had she offered any kind of apology or a solution, I would've understood that it was a mistake and that we couldn't be moved because they were sold out. However, she insisted we were wrong, and that it was a double bed, so I had to literally go to ACE hardware down the street, buy a tape measure and prove her wrong (this whole process ate over 2 hours of our trip btw). She then sent down her front desk worker to take a video because we weren't believed. When she realized she was wrong, she didn't apologize but continued to be condescending saying things like "my dear" and "as I've already explained". I've worked half my life in the service industry and this was disgusting behavior from a "manager". Also VERY embarrassing that she was there when it was purchased and couldn't tell the difference between a double bed and a queen bed. So, she was either lying to us or isn't exactly an expert in her field....

Bottom line: we did not get the bed we paid for, had to deal with an extremely unprofessional and moody manager, and was told by said manager that we either stay in the room and pay full price or go find somewhere else and we had 15 minutes to decide. Being that it was 7:00 on a Friday night, we didn't have many options that wouldn't have been a huge price increase for last minute. She had no shame and no compassion. We are also kama'aina and two teachers from Oahu on an anniversary trip which I tried to explain. No aloha, no empathy, no interest, nothing. Save your money and go somewhere else. The hotel itself is cute and convenient, but it's not worth it to be lied to and then spoken to in the way...