The Westin Nanea Ocean Villas, Ka'anapali — Hotel in Maui

The good: Beautiful resort with lots to do. Pool, hot tubs, soaking pools, barbeques, other activities, direct beach access... all really great. The room was very spacious and modern and included everything we needed (fridge, stove, appliances, comfortable couch, super comfortable bed, washer, dryer, private toilet, etc etc etc.

The bad: Disappointed with the hotel staff. They were all friendly, but left us frustrated to say the least. We only stayed there 1 night (the last night of our 10 day vacation) and there were a surprising amount of "incidents". I hate complaining, and I didn't complain to them in person, but it's been bothering me so this is my way of venting...

1. Upon arrival the Valet greeted us and said, "I see you have groceries. Don't worry Mr. Popson, we will take your groceries and luggage up to your room for you. We will bring everything!" He handed me a Luggage verification number, I handed him the keys and a tip, and off we went to check in. We checked in, went to our room and waited for our luggage. And waited. And waited. Almost 1 hour later, still no luggage. So we went back to the front desk and asked where our luggage was. "You need to dial 0 from the phone in your room and tell them to bring your luggage to your room." How were we supposed to know that without anyone (or any paper) saying that? Maybe this is something everyone knows, but my wife and I sure didn't. So we walked back to our room and called it in, and waited another 15 minutes for the luggage. Quite annoying first impression.

2. There was a lizard in our room right when we walked in. We called it in and about 20 minutes later someone came and took it out for us. It wasn't a big deal at all, it was a nice lizard. Just not ideal...

3. We went to the on-site restaurant. We were seated, ordered drinks, and then were instructed on where to get our buffet food. I completely didn't realize this was a buffet restaurant. We went and dished our food, and it was okay. Then we realized there was another section of the restaurant for plated fresh meals. Frustrating that they never asked us if we wanted plated or buffet, and in hindsight we should have asked if they did plated meals. Left me annoyed and frustrated with myself and the staff... We were not very hungry and the 2 meals and 2 drinks cost around $120.

4. Upon check-out we accidentally left our bathing suits in the dryer. We realized this at about 4:45 PM. I called them and the first person on the phone told me, "Housekeeping has already been through the room, and someone has already checked in. Let me transfer you to security and maybe they can help." That person accidentally hung up the call instead of transferring me. So I called again and a different person answered and said, "It looks like housekeeping is in the room right now. I will get in touch with housekeeping and security and call you back." About 25 minutes later they called back and said "We had security go to the room and check and there is nothing in the dryer, and nothing from security." We asked, "Are you sure? We are certain we accidentally left the bathing suits in the dryer." He was positive. We were in the area already so I drove back to the hotel anyway and asked the same question again at the front desk. The lady at the front desk called security and said something along the lines, "Are there any bathing suits from 5106 at the lost in found? They were left in the dryer" She got off the call and said, "No, I am sorry but they went to the room and could not find anything." I asked, "Well are there any bathing suits in the lost and found at all? Maybe they are not listed with our room number?" She said, "Let me check." She picks up the phone, calls security, and literally repeats the exact same thing she asked security the first time, "Were there any bathing suits in room 5106?"...."I am sorry sir but there was nothing in room 5106". Facepalm. We left, defeated and...

Having stayed at many resorts from 3-5 stars in several places in Hawaii and elsewhere around the world, I evaluate properties with an eye for detail. I compare what I get vs what I paid. I would say the price/value point at this resort should make you look elsewhere for a better value.

Cons

Some things at the Westin Nanea will remind you that this is a timeshare property. The owners of timeshares are essentially locked in to a given resort with little ability to complain or change issues. As a guest, I felt like customer service was lacking.

For instance, there are not enough lounge chairs on the beach. Some are left stacked up, never put out, despite the shortage. Then the young attendant comes by at 4:00pm, hours before sunset, telling you he needs to collect your chairs. That’s silly. Why not have more chairs or more attendants, so that guests can enjoy the beach sunrise to sunset?

Housekeeping is unreliable. Upon check in, our room appeared clean, but the first glass I picked up had a visible lipstick stain on it. Yikes! You can try to make excuses for how it could have happened, but it tends to make me think corners are cut elsewhere. One day we were gone all day and at 4pm, our room still had not been cleaned. Check out is 10am, check in is 4pm. That is at the outer end of the spectrum, giving a property a maximum amount of time to clean rooms, yet they still don’t have enough staff to clean the rooms in a timely manner? Why not hire a sufficient number of staff and provide better customer service?

The base resort view rooms, include a huge number of rooms that face a drainage pond. It’s a big pit with a fence around it. We never went out on our porch because the view was not that nice. That is one reason “resort view” is so vague on the website. Other resorts give better descriptions so you can make informed decisions about upgrades.

And to cap it off, the manager of this property is a real piece of work. I tried calling the front desk to inquire about a late check out. Apparently you cannot reach the front desk during “peak check out hours.” He did not respond when I asked when it was that guests should expect to be unable to reach the front desk. But apparently, there is only one person available to take your calls, despite there being 350 units. I messaged the manager and got a pretty terse reply that apparently I should not expect to be able to reach the front desk from day 8am-10:30am every morning and that I should be thankful to be granted a late check out at noon, which, if you think about it, is just a typical check out time at most resorts. Status with Marriot/Starwood is irrelevent BTW. It’s the whole feel that you are being demanding to expect things that are typical at most resorts that left me with a bad taste for this resort.

$15 per night, plus tax, to self park.

$8 potato chips in the convenience store. FYI, there is a grocery store just north a couple of miles or less. There is also a Safeway to the south, about 15 min drive.

Pros

The grounds are very nice, emmaculate gardening, beautiful ponds. The pool is also quite nice and I never had to look far for a chair. The beach is decent. It’s white sand and you can walk into the water. Bring water shoes because there are rocks. The internet worked well. The rooms are spacious and modern. Keep in mind this resort is only a year old, so it’s not hard to keep things looking nice.

Thanks, but no thanks. There are so many good options on Maui and many at better prices. I think this resort is overpriced and misses the mark on providing the type of customer service you should expect at...

The staff and pool are very good. Ocean front, can't beat the location. Very nice place. Rating is because we were sold a vacation package by Westin ended up at a "hotel" not impressed. The hotel started off the stay by telling me we didn't have a reservation. Hotel staff: "We don't have you booked here" Me: "Really they called me every month after I paid and booked it in May, and I called the day before arrival to make sure everything was set." Hotel staff: "You're not here, maybe down the road we have 3 more locations on the strand." We left thinking we had made a mistake with GPS. Not where they sell time shares 3 more locations down the strand. Okay my bad. Half a block down the road looking up email confirmation and verifying address, we were at the right location. Return to the desk, show them the reservation, Hotel staff: "really did you book that through a third party?" Me: "No Westin emailed us" Hotel staff: "I need to go talk to my manager" returns again. "Can I see that reservation again" returns "we don't have you in the system, need to take you down to the timeshare desk" Meanwhile family sitting in the car in Valet circle. Time share desk: "We don't have you in the system. Can I see your reservation? Oh yeah that's from us. We don't have you as an arrival, however, We'll get you setup" Front desk staff: "Okay we'll take him down and get him a room" Timeshare: "No I need to get him setup. I'll send him down when I'm done." Me: "My family is sitting in the car" Timeshare: "We'll get it fixed" Front desk staff: Walks out gets my wife and kids, apologizes for issues, very nice. Timeshare: Finishes booking her end nothing to do with to do with actual stay. Back end stuff so hotel gets paid."When can we schedule the timeshare meeting" Hotel staff: Goes out to the car, invites my wife and daughters in, gets luggage. Gets family a room. Gets credit card for incidentals $300 hold. Wake up next morning $2041 charge on card. Hotel staff: "That's not right, we'll fix that, I'll go talk to the manager" "Need the card? Will call the issuer and fix the issue". They did Return to the Timeshare desk. Same staff member. "That's odd, they'll fix it, they always do" Me: "I'm sure they will fix it, that's not the issue it appears that one thing after another has to be fixed not very impressed". Hotel manager calls: "apologizes for issues, comps us valet parking and resort fees. Hotel cares. Impressed. Hotel staff very good" Timeshare meeting. Tell our salesmen: "oh man that's horrible" Nothing I can do about it" Tell the closer: "Oh man that's horrible, I'll tell them tomorrow in the team meeting" Tell the "survey taker" actual second closer: "You got what you paid for, we didn't tell you you were staying in the timeshare location. Me: "We've been to 2 timeshare locations with Marriott. One on Kauai we bought, one on Oahu we didn't buy. Both times we stayed at the timeshare location. Both times they upgraded our reservation on site without any prompting from us. Odd you'd stick us in a hotel and bus us down to the nice location" Survey taker/actual second closer: "By the way, we didn't sell you, would you like to come back and stay in the actual time share location? Much nicer accommodations. We'll give you a great deal? We sell millions of dollars of time shares per day here. 100's of families per day come through." My .02 if you want me to buy a timeshare set me up at the time share not a hotel. Normally when someone wants to sell you something they wine and dine you not take you over to the "nice" location and tell me if you pay me you could have this. Not...