The Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas North — Hotel in Maui

we stayed here in a timeshare promotion sales that was paid for prior to Covid. We were just now able to rebook it. We stayed in the wailea area for 2 days prior to coming to this resort. The 90 min presentation turned into 2 hours, although Nora was fantastic and I highly recommend her for her personable skills. I cannot believe Westin puts their name on this resort honestly. There was no pool service, lines were sometimes extremely long at the pool bar/restaurant because there are only 2 open. There is no actual dining restaurant on site at 3 of their adjoining properties. The elevators are also used by staff so they take forever not to mention they aren’t conveniently located. The resort refused to have people come in to change sheets, they brought bedding up for us to do it instead. The beds are not your standard westin heavenly beds although the pillows were great. The toaster and coffee pot were both broken. They replaced the toaster but the coffee pot we had to rig up just to make a decent pot. The lines for checkout and check in are extremely long with only 1-2 people max working the front and sometimes that’s waiting for them to get off the phone. The pool area is not monitored with bracelets (including slide) so people come right off the beach to use the facilities, etc. The beaches are amazing but chair and umbrella rental are overpriced. There aren’t enough seating at the pool areas and people literally were overflowing to the grass area and lying their towels out. The slide was fun for little ones but needed cleaned- platform wreaked of urine. There is no room service despite them telling us, instead it’s take out. There are no fresh water stations except the two we saw and one being in the hotel. Not near enough for such a spread out resort area. We liked that you could utilize the 3 pool areas but again with no service and having to watch children at the pool it was too inconvenient. You can’t take alcohol past the resort area onto the boardwalk, even if you’re walking to the other resort. You have to walk between the buildings. A major annoyance as it was much quicker and when you’re wet who wants to walk through the buildings. The rooms are run down, the shower leaked, we had to buy our own TP- it’s horrible, the view was nice for the studio villa partial ocean. A lot of complaining but if we would’ve paid for this place I would have been more than disappointed. Definitely the worst Westin we’ve stayed at and we’ve been to many. snorkeling is fantastic out front of these resorts. We brought the blow up snorkel vests for the kids and our own snorkel stuff. Highly...

We spent 5 days here and had a mixed time. The lobby is dramatic and very pretty, as is the courtyard with its koi pond and wide lanai. Beyond that, the facilities are feeling their age, with the bathrooms showing use, though clean. A one inch hole in the bathroom wall by the shower, glass shower enclosure clouded by mineral deposits all detracted from the experience.

But the worst part was the presence of small ants that come out and cover the kitchen counter if there is any food present. We had a banana bread loaf that was not tightly covered that was covered in the little pests in less than 12 hours. Keep your food in the fridge, or well wrapped and on top of the fridge.

Express Service handles all your needs while you stay, and will deliver towels, extra coffee or other necessities within about 45 minutes. One strange occurrence was that room service unexpectedly changed our linens on day 4 of our 5 day reservation. While it was nice to have fresh linens on the last day, it seemed a bit ill-timed given the overall length of the stay.

There is a restaurant on the bottom floor of the lobby that takes up the entire downstairs lanai that was not open the entire 5 days in early June I visited.

Grills are available and most work well. I experienced on pit with only one burner out of 2 that would light and another with burned out light bulb, but at least the bulb was replaced by the next day.

Pools are clean and warm. The beach is a short walk past the pools and over the lawn. The overall depth of the beach is pretty short and slopes pretty steeply to the water; a wider, more gentle beach is located downshore (towards Black Rock) by a few hundred yards. At least in June, there are no significant waves at this beach, and the underlying rocky reef that lies just below the surface of the water for the great majority of this beach explains why there are no real waves. Swim carefully as the reef can be sharp.

There are shuttles to take you to Whalers Village and the other Kaanapali beach but remember to bring your room card to show the driver to access the service.

This resort feels like a more relaxed location than the more popular Kaanapali counterpart; there's a different mix of guests up here that seems less interested in the hustle and activity south of Black Rock, so if your goal is low key relaxation, and you don't mind the slightly dated and aging facilities, this is a...

Summary: The Westin is unprofessional, inhospitable, and indifferent to its customers. It ruined the start of our honeymoon, but thankfully, the Fairmont saved us that evening. It is not the Hawaii experience you have saved up your precious money for.

Background: I booked a 2-night non-refundable stay for $1300 for the start of our honeymoon. My wife had a medical episode that delayed our trip by a day. We called the day we were supposed to check in to inform the Westin of our delay and asked to move our reservation out a day. The hotel was unwilling to adjust the reservation or offer a refund. We understood the terms and were prepared to stay for the remaining night. The hotel assured us our room would be ready upon arrival.

Issue #1: When we arrived on day 2, the front desk said they needed to check with their manager. After a 20-minute wait, the manager informed us that since we didn't check in on the original day, our reservation was canceled. We would need to rebook to stay, requiring another $650.

Issue #2: We informed the manager we had called the day before and were told our room would be held. The manager took our number, assured us they'd resolve the issue, and told us to enjoy the resort while waiting for their call. They never contacted us, not even to say there was nothing they could do. They simply ignored us, treating us as if we didn’t matter.

Rating: 0 stars for management; it was one of the worst experiences I've ever had. 3 stars for the hotel; we didn’t get a room and didn’t see the whole resort, but it was overcrowded and looked mediocre. It’s not the fairytale you envision for Hawaii. For a bit more per night, you can have a special experience at a hotel that truly practices hospitality.

Happy Ending: We traveled 50 minutes south to the Fairmont Kea Lani, where I had stayed many years ago. They saved the day. After hearing about our experience at the Westin, they upgraded our room, gave us complimentary drinks, and made my wife feel valued. She got emotional with happiness. Thank you, Fairmont Kea Lani!

Westin Ka’anapali: If your management reads this, know that people save up for years for their special celebrations to stay at your...