Hotel Moloka'i — Hotel in Molokai

My grandson and I stayed at Hotel Molokai 4 nights June 20-June 24. We wanted to look into the historical and cultural legacy of Molokai and how it relates to the rest of the Hawaiian Islands as a whole. My grandson is 21 and has Aspergers and it is his love and passion for Hawaii that inspired the trip. As it turned out Molokai is an excellent place for this to occur.

We arrived at Hotel Molokai the afternoon of the 20th and checked into our room. Afterwards we drove around to a few spots recommended by the front desk and returned to dinner reservations at the lounge that night. All was good. However later that night after we were ready to go to bed I noticed a big spot of water under the paint on the ceiling over my grandsons bed. I've been in building maintenance for 40 years 17 of them here in Hawaii. I recognized this was a leak coming from the condo above. I contacted the front desk and we were moved to a smaller room on a different part of the property.

When I made a complaint to the front desk manager in the morning I was told that this would be reported to management, we still had 3 nights left on our stay at that point. Being in maintenance and being in the hospitality industry for many years I know that unforeseeable problems like this do occur on rare occasions. I felt confident that my complaint about having to move after we were settled into our room not to mention after we were ready for bed would be given a fair and just hearing by management.

I checked back with the front desk manager the day before we left and was informed that there would be no compensation for my inconvenience. That they were able to move us to another room was all that they were obligated to offer in my situation. I've been in the hospitality industry here in Hawaii for several years and this would not have occurred at any of the properties I have worked at. It is unprofessional and inconsistent with the Aloha Spirit of the Islands and the hospitality industry here.

I have worked in Kona a much more commercialized part of Hawaii and can vouch that every time a guest had to move thru no fault of their own that there would be compensation of some kind offered. That a business in a part of the Islands like Molokai which is much closer to the original way of life here in my opinion shows a lack of the Aloha Spirit.

My complaint had nothing to do with the front desk staff , the housekeeping staff or the lounge. The staff was courteous and friendly and the lounge was nice to come back to each evening. The day we left I contacted management with my complaint by email. That was 3 weeks ago, I have yet to hear from them. My rating of my experience was 3 stars at that time. I downgrade that to 2 stars after hearing nothing. My rating is 2 stars for service 4 stars for each of the other 2 categories. My bad experience with management is the reason and took away from my overall experience of Hotel Molokai.

If you stay at Hotel Molokai most likely your normal needs will be met. The rooms are clean and comfortable the staff is friendly and the lounge is nice mornings or evenings. If you have an issue outside of the norm like mine don't expect compensation. One last thing; my bad experience at Hotel Molokai did not diminish the experience of a wonderful place.The island of the island of Molokai is special and will live in our...

Lets start with the positive! The staff was very nice, especially Ashley at the front desk. The restaurant was amazing, we only dined there 1 night but it was perfect in every way. The grounds were well taken care of and the pool area looked clean and enjoyable (we didn't swim but others seemed to be enjoying it). The words that came to mind while sitting out on the lanai were "serene" and "tranquil"|When we travel to Hawaii I like to cook some of our meals and then enjoy them on the lanai watching sunset. With that in mind our original reservation was upgraded to an ocean view suite with a kitchen. When we first arrived and went to our room we were really surprised to find that the room had a loft for the bedroom area. The stairs were very steep and I have some arthritis plus a new hip. When you do venture up the stairs the room is not tall enough to stand up! You have to bend over the whole time you are up there and there is no bathroom. So (old like we are) that would have involved going down the stairs in the middle of the night to use the restroom. I went to the front desk to explain this wouldn't work for us and was shown a regular room that they would allow us to switch to. But that room had no kitchen and was right on a corner with absolutely no privacy (I like to get up early and enjoy sitting on the lanai in my PJs - it is vacation after all!). This room had a small patio and people would have walked by a couple of feet away! So although I appreciated that the staff tried to be accommodating to a change there was no mention of a refund if we switched and really that other room would have been so much worse than where we were. So we moved into the suite and stayed in the living room on the pull out couch (which was not too comfy -- expensive for not comfy, but that was our choice....). The loft stairs were right where you walked from the living area to the kitchen area and my husband bopped his head a couple of times so we hung towels off of them so we would be very careful. The bugs on tropical islands can be an issue so we were expecting it but I was eaten alive! I had 40 to 50 bug bites on my legs by the time we left (we went to the local store and bought some repellent - I don't know what the hotel could really do to keep them away - just saying next time I would buy the repellent upon arrival rather than 2 days later) My best guess was that I got the bites from sitting on the lanai in the early mornings from some birds that seemed to live above the room - I love birds and they were nice to have around but not as fond of their bug buddies...|On other islands we have rented condos where they have a fully stocked kitchen. We had hoped this would be the same but it was missing some basic items (paper towels, salt/pepper and missing a few very basic pots/pans) but we made it work. The room itself was fine but a little dark. The view was nice from our lanai. Molokai overall has only a few places to choose from for accommodations. We picked this one based on it having the best reviews that I could find. But honestly, if we would not have been out a pile of money we would have switched to somewhere else even if it meant giving up a kitchen and a view just to be able to sleep in a regular bed. |Overall, the hotel was nice - it just wasn't...

Hotel Molokai is an absolute joke. Most of the reviews here are probably fake and done by locals. Here’s some of the facts of my stay:

The lead receptionist at the front desk will have a terrible attitude upon your arrival as well as for your entire stay. She will treat you like a tourist, and if I had to guess, is probably racist (against Caucasian people) as a handful of Hawaiians are (especially a handful on the island of Molokai). Some seem to think that because I am white I had something to do with the overthrow of their kingdom before I was born. This same receptionist has a job in service sector.

If you’re reading this, do yourself a favor, don’t work as a hotel receptionist if you’re going to treat tourists as outsiders and have a bad attitude.

The rooms are not even close to as nice as the absurd price they are charging. Some of them are not air conditioned, there’s bugs and roaches in the rooms, there’s no black out curtains, and the rooms are extremely small. Some of our rooms had lofts where you could not even stand in your bedroom.

A lot of their ocean front rooms are on the second floor. That is not ocean front. The ocean view from this hotel is a dirty brown at all times. Literally 24/7.

The manager is never available. Good luck getting in touch with him. I asked for a late check out 2 FULL days before we were supposed to check out (asked for a simple 12PM instead of 10AM). The “manager” calls me at 09:15AM on check-out day and says no citing “operations”. I finally got in touch with him at check out and frankly he basically could care less about his guests (catering to his cleaning staff over his guests).

He will do whatever he can to take your money and then do whatever to get you out of the rooms as soon as possible. He had his staff start to call my room at 10:15AM on the day of check out to get us pushed out the door on a Sunday (when he admitted there was no occupancy in the rooms for Monday). This is after leasing 3 rooms from him, paying him over $5000, dining in his restaurant 3 times with 9 people (with average food at best), and staying for 5 nights.

Every morning at 5AM, the sun will blare in your room from the east and if that doesn’t wake up early, the hundreds of ROOSTERS on the property will be sure to wake you up.

Beware: Unfortunately, Molokai has very few hotel options so Hotel Molokai basically has a monopoly on the island and they take full advantage of it.

Bottom Line: They want your money. They know they are the only act in town. Once they get your money, you’ll feel like you were ripped off and in a rotating door. They talk down to you. ...