MarkRichmond

Hello,
I was going to search for this information but search is disabled.

We are going to Maui tomorrow morning and staying at the Westin Maui for 3 nights and then off to the Princeville on Kauai.

Here are a few questions I had about the Westin:

1. I seem to rember people saying that one tower had better rooms than the other. Which one?
2. How are the restaurants? Do you like any other restaurants near by?
3. Do they upgrade Plats on award stays? Is polite begging necessary?
4. What is the scoop on parking?
5. This is our 20th anniversary, are we going to get swarmed by kids?
6. I seem to remeber talk about beach erosion. Still an issue?
7. Do they offer any good instant rewards?
8. What is the typical ammenity?

Any other tips would be appreciated! Thanks!

sfcaFLYER

We were at the Westin Maui for a week in August 2004. Here's what we found. Of course its just our opinion! We would stay there again.

1. You want the Beach Tower, its newer and has larger rooms.
2. When we were there, there was the poolside cafe (where you get your breakfast if that's in your package) and also the waterfront fine dining restaurant at the end of the Beach Tower. I think I've read that the fine dining restaurant has closed, not sure though.
3. I'm only Gold, and booked a Mtn View Room (old bldg, facing the hills) and got an upgrade to the Beach Tower, pool/partial ocean view. Had amazing sunsets every night, and even though we were on the 5th floor, it was really quiet. Music and pool activiites stopped promptly at 10 PM.
4. Self parking in their lot for us was free, though I overheard some people were charged.
5. In August it was swarming with kids. Definately use the "stay at one, play at three" option and visit the Sheraton right up the beach...its a little quieter and restrained.
6. No beach erosion issues in August.
7. Didn't ask.
8. Only gold here.

The property could be very nice, but is looking a little worn in some ways - and the staff seems to have a hard time keeping up with the guests. They all seemed pretty junior-level and not too professional.

Find a package that includes breakfast if you can...its the usual massive hotel buffet-type, but everything was really nice and it made it easy to just go downstairs for breakfast each day. You can also use the vouchers for breakfast at the Sheraton up the beach. We also took advangate of using them at the Kapalua Bay Hotel but I think that is no longer part of Starwood.

I'd recommend staying at the Sheraton if you want a more adult atmosphere.

Every morning you will ask each other, "should we drive to Hana today?" And you will usually decide you don't want to spend the day in the car - no matter how spectacular the drive. An alternative that we did that was nice was to drive to the Tedachi (sp?) winery. It's a nice drive with great views, and the winery is nice to visit. It's the only pineapple winery in the world I think.

We bought snorkeling, boat tour and other excursions from the AmEx stand at the hotel's beach and all were really good, and reasonably priced.

There's a Safeway that you will see about 1/2 mile before you hit the hotel...its a great stop to get a case of bottled water, or other things you will want in your room that you may not want to order from room service. Have fun!

svenskaflicka

You really want to stay up at the adult pool. At the front desk if a woman named Grace helps you be very nice to her. She has been there many years and always helped us out when we first started staying there. She is a very nice woman and loves a sense of humor.

If you eat at Ono's ask for either Mel or Loloa. Both of these men are great and will be of great help to you.

The Beach Tower towards the ocean end will be much quieter than towards all the waterfalls. They can be quite noisy.

The General Managers name is Craig Anderson and his assistant is Amy. (Just in case.)

The man in the colanade in the mornings who sells pinapple is a wealth of information. His name is Michael. He is also a great guy with a great sense of humor.

If you don't mind, could you tell these people that John and Laura from Boston Said hello?

Make sure that if you want your room made up at a certain time, that you call down to service express as soon as you get to your room and let them know what time you would like your room done by. Otherwise they might not come until the afternoon. This also goes for your turndown service.

These are just some extra tips I thought might be of help to you. Have a wonderful time.

subdawg

We went on our honeymoon last summer, which they knew about. We didn't particularly ask for a certain type of room, but expected an ocean view room. When our room was finally ready, we were very surprised at how great of an upgrade we got. HUGE suite with a dining area, and 4 lanais. Very large bathroom and big master bedroom. Unfortunately we weren't at the hotel long enough (woke up early to see the sunrise at Haleakala), but it was definitely a very nice upgrade!

svenskaflicka

Wow! You certainly hit the motherload with that upgrade! ^

JulieAA

I remember reading about this a while back and I did a search but came up empty.

Has anyone received an invitation and attended the vacation services for Westin Maui for 6 days and 5 night accommodations?

I also noticed that rooms that will be available for this will be one hotel-type non-view terrace room. What exactly would my view be?

DeniseM

The promotion is for the Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas, which is Starwood's timeshare development on Maui. Guests are housed at either the Westin Hotel, the Sheraton Hotel, or the Villas. At the hotels, you would get a non-view standard hotel room, at the Villas you would get a studio w/kitchen.

An upgrade may be possible. When we did the promotional pkg. in 2003, we stayed at the Westin Hotel and were upgraded from a parking lot view to a 7th floor golf course view, because we were spg members.

We thought the pkg. was a great deal and had a wonderful trip. If you price it out, you will find that the pkg. is about 30 - 50% of the cost of booking the individual components at the best advertised rates. After you get there, they will offer you another $100 hotel GC, if you will attend a sales presentation for the new resort. Feel free to email me if you have any questions about it.

adamak

I did that package past Aug. Stayed in Westin Maui. It's really a great deal. We were given $100 upon checkin, another $100 for doing the sales presentation, and 30%off food & spa. The resort itself is just OK, very hectic. The timeshare presentation is pretty relax, no pressure, and I actually enjoyed it a lot. We were upgraded to a partial ocean view (facing the waterfall, but you could see the ocean beyond that).

DeniseM

I think this is the thread you were looking for - (it talks about Starwood offers for Kauai as well.) http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...9&page=1&pp=15

On of the more helpful posts discusses how to get accomodations at the villas instead of the hotel - according to the poster, it's based on what income you claim to have.

JulieAA

Thanks DeniseM and adamak. You provided me exactly what I was looking for. ^

DCF

Don't tell me to do a search, I just did, and now I'm more confused than ever.....

The following properties have limited participation with Starwood Preferred Guest. Members will earn Starpoints for all qualifying stays; however as this is a vacation villa property, upgrades, late check out, and other in-hotel benefits are not available. There are no Starpoint or airline mile redemption options for any free night or discounted awards.

Participating Properties:
1406 Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort & Villas, Lahina Maui, HI

So here are my questions...

1) "Members will earn Starpoints for all qualifying stays"
Is that the 1000 Starpoints of other SVO properties, or is it points per dollar spent like at any other Starwood property?

2) Do you accrue night and stay credits towards Gold or Platinum requalification?

If the answer to either of these is no, it is pretty obviously better just to reserve a good room at the Westin Maui for any stay longer than one night, in terms of earning points and stay / night credits.

I also have a timeshare question, given that they are trying to sell Ka'anapali North units and will obviously soon be selling St Regis Wailea timeshares....

If you buy an Ocean Front week at $50,000 (for example) and decide to convert one year to Starpoints, how many Starpoints do those seven nights convert to? The Westin Maui down the road is Category Five now, so it should be 72,000 to 96,000 Starpoints for a week in a 1 bed unit at the Westin Ka'anapali, even though that makes no allowance for having bought an ocean view or fitting multiple people in a unit, which might better correspond to two hotel rooms.

Any light people may be able to shed on this would be gratefully received!

sfbenning

I'll answer the ones I know, since I own at WKORV. If you own a 2 bedroom lock off, you can trade that unit in for 80,000 starpoints EVERY OTHER YEAR. If you are an Elite owner, you can trade your unit in every year. ( Elite is based on how many SVO units you own, and they units have varying values in the system based on location, season owned, size of unit, frequentcy of interval, etc)

I have always gotten points for the stuff I buy at WKORV, like food. But no stay credit. This has been covered by lurker in other posts.

DCF

Thanks for answering the timeshare part of the question.

Let me put forwrd a scenario to illustrate my other questions.

1) As an SPG Plat, I book a seven night stay at $500 per night at the Westin Maui.

Quite obviously, this earns 10,500 Starpoints (three per dollar), 1 Stay credit and 7 Nights credits.

2) As an SPG Plat, I book a seven night stay at $500 per night at the Westin Ka'anapali, which is an SVO timeshare property.

Does the Ka'anapali stay......

a) Earn 1000 Starpoints as an SVO property, or 10,500 Starpoints at three per dollar spent?

b) Count towards Platinum requalification as zero stays or one stay?

c) Count towards Platinum requalification as seven nights or zero nights?

I would appreciate clarification before making my vacation decisions!

mbreuer

AFAIK, it's a vacation propoerty. You get points per $$ spent charged to the room. I believe you get 1000 flat if you're staying as a hotel guest. As an owner you only get points for charges put on the room... but if you own enough you get gold or plat regardless of stays.

So to sum up:

a) 1000 + points/$$ spent (as at any property - but note: this is not true for all SVO properties)
b) no stay credit (please correct me if I'm wrong)
c) none.

DCF

So for paid stays booked via the Starwood website, as a non-owner:

Westin Maui 7 nts @$500/night = 10,500 Starpoints, 1 Stay, 7 Nights.

Westin Ka'anapali 7 nts @$500/night = 1,000 Starpoints, 0 Stays, 0 Nights.

That is a very, very strong incentive to stay at the hotel instead of the SVO property.

Is this correct?