Mahalo Diamond Beach — Hotel in Wildwood Crest

Weekend at Wildwood for beach blast soccer and picked this hotel rather than a closer boardwalk-oriented hotel for the added luxury. The reviews and pictures online seemed to justify the $650/night price. I was so disappointed in the quality and facilities. The entire hotel takes up such a tiny footprint and there are touches in decor here and there that made some attempts at luxury, but it just didn’t feel high end or quality. I felt cramped and inconvenienced the entire weekend while dealing with any part of the hotel. I did like some things about my visit. My favorite part was the easy walk straight to a lovely part of the beach but my trip was too short to take the most advantage of that. The property has a lot going for it in location. It’s in a quieter area and surrounded by more high end condos as well as a short walk down to the larger sister property, Icona. It also has next-door access to a cute coffee shop at The Grand which was yummy for morning coffee and breakfast sandwiches. I will also shout out the great benefit of the shuttle for Mahalo and Icona properties that brings you back and forth to the convention center, we enjoyed the lovely driver we had both evenings who talked Phillies baseball with us. It’s inside the property where we’ve got problems. The property seemed to be trying to keep up appearances with the lobby’s first impression. Lobby had clean and relaxing decor, crisp and sufficiently air conditioned with that fancy hotel smell. Unfortunately, huge water stain on ceiling above the reception desk gave away what’s going on above the lobby. It’s a very very slow elevator for all trips up and down, unless you want to try to figure out where to get the stairs from the lobby, only access outside i think, but stairwell is HOT and unpleasant. Elevator is also hot and SO small. This seemed to create some real stress for everyone moving out on Sunday morning with their luggage. It was very claustrophobic. Everyone exits tiny elevator into tiny vestibule that opens onto very very narrow balconies where you snake along the sides of the building to get to the rooms. I did think that ocean view rooms with patio was described in my booking but what you get is a maybe 2-3 foot space outside the door facing the condos and condo parking lot of the property next door, you can see the ocean but it’s not your view even a little bit. Meanwhile people have to squeeze by your feet to get around to their rooms if you are sitting out there. No privacy and no view on my floor at least. There was always trash outside of people’s rooms, not really a lot of housekeeping observed around the property until Sunday morning when we were all squeezing around one another trying to move out and use these tiny balcony hallways and one tiny elevator. That’s when housekeeping was vacuuming and standing around waiting for everyone to leave so they could get in and clean, but really just not enough room for them in the halls and elevator at that time. Room was cleaned well and no complaints about housekeeping at all, they were just hard pressed to do their jobs with the layout of everything. The room was so small and had a musty smell, kind of reminiscent of previously being smoked in, but also could have just been damp carpet smell. I did have a major issue with the air-conditioning and asked that it be addressed by maintenance but not sure if they tried or not- the problem was not fixed. Thermostat was set to 68 and wouldn’t go any lower but also the temp never could get below 72. Not the worst temp, it was bearable although I like it cooler than that at night. The air was blowing constantly but not dehumidified. Down in the lobby it was perfect, up in my room it just felt damp and slightly too warm and musty. Very dark inside rooms as well which was not my impression of the photos online. The safe didn’t work and the TV and the phone didn’t work. Asked front desk and TV and phone did get fixed the next day. Some front desk staff okay, night staff not very understanding on Friday night at 10pm when I was asking how to fix the thermostat, “sorry, I am about to leave and then there will just be a security guard so you’ll have to wait until morning.” I just wanted to stay out of the room as much as possible as it was just not comfortable or luxury, the furniture was ok but carpeting made it more dark and musty, everything cramped, and I am not kidding the bathroom was the size you get in an RV, could barely turn around, rather gross shower/tub situation, and nowhere to use as counter space. Towels were nice though. Mattress was a bummer. Everything just looked like cheap decor covering up very dated and old building. Pool was small but seemed nice otherwise, nothing really luxury about it. I have definitely been way more satisfied by the average Marriott Courtyard off the highway, and this hotel sells itself as a resort offering luxury. Photos are misleading, if you are going to make such small spaces work you have to do it right, this just seems like a cosmetic cover up of...

5 star reviews are simply unacceptable. I'm writing this on the eve of our checkout as those reviews are a disservice to everyone. They suggest no room for improvement of a refurbished resort. Especially, when the staff will tell you not all the rooms are completed. This resort reopened in July as Mahalo. Location to the beach is great and all the employees were very nice but frankly thats about where great ends. Currently, the Mahalo signature suite is marketed as the largest room and it simply way to small for a family of four. Most of the money spent appears to be in the front desk area and the removal of the former Jamaica me crazy restaurant. Once you move beyond the refreshed lobby the upper floors still feel dated and unfinished. Our room still has slabs of marble stacked next to the fridge and exposed cabling hanging in the same area. We also did not have a safe as stated in the room description. Our room also had cheap white plastic chairs out front while other rooms had a much nicer option. Id expect things like that to be uniform across all rooms. Lastly regarding the rooms we had a drawer full of hangers but no closet. From the hotel room to the concrete surface of the walkways on the upper floors they all have the feeling someone decided to just throw paint at the problem. There is also only one elevator that accommodates one hotel supplied luggage carrier and yourself or one family. Despite the downsides if you're looking for a reasonably priced option close to the beach it...

Location is GREAT! Literally on the beach, can walk onto the beach from this hotel. They offer beach chairs to take which is great, you can also take out bikes another great amenity. They have a really cool WATERFALL feature in their pool, which will be TURNED OFF in windy weather conditions if you have children looking forward to it and there's alot of wind while you're there be prepared for that conversation. The let down was really the rooms, we checked in and our room had condensation from floor to ceiling first walking in. Felt as though it was because the cleaning crew put the AC on blast at a low temperature at 65 degrees and outside was 90ish degrees but later once we were settled for bed realized our bed was sopping wet in the center. Through blanket, sheets, and mattress, needed to ask for a completely different room a little after midnight. Was told to come down in the morning to speak to manager so I did go downstairs first thing in the morning and was told manager credited us $250 and was sorry about the inconvenience. Which in my opinion isn't professional by any means, and if a manager is supposed to speak directly to a paying customer about a situation they should. Not sure why it went the way it did but seems like Mahalo handles things how they want and thats just how it is. For nearly $500/night hotel a simple conversation should've been easy in my opinion that's why I've rated 1 star to rooms and service based on how the situation was handled specifically...