Originally Posted by
Hyperacusis
Great report Chris. Got a few more questions, but that's what lunch tomorrow is for.
Ha yeah you get the benefit of an in person trip report :P
Originally Posted by
clover
Just a note on Chris' excellent report: The spa suites are great, but there are only 6 or 8 of them I think (all in a row on ground floor of the Tower) and you shouldn't count on an upgrade, even if Platinum. We've been repeat guests there and while my wife and daughter were upgraded last year to that suite (after considerable cajoling on my part) that was when the hotel was half full in the summer of 2009. I tried to be equally persuasive this year and was unsuccessful. The hotel was sold out for our week. I suspect Chris' short stay improved his chances considerably.
As I said above, we loved our room and the hotel, but most of the hotel's rooms are completely different from Chris' pictures. Aloha!
Originally Posted by
Hyperacusis
Yeah, I was pretty surprised by the upgrade in Chris' report, given that their policy is apparently not to upgrade anybody beyond the regular garden view suites..
Originally Posted by
clover
Sounded like Chris told them it was their "engagement" vacation so that probably helped. They do upgrade to ocean view suites sometimes, but I think there are many more garden jr. and full suites.
Agreed and apologize for not making a note of this. There are only a handful of these spa suites and when I booked the trip my Ambassador let me know that suite upgrades are tough here but she'd try to work some magic for us, especially given it was partly a trip to celebrate our engagement. Additionally we were told at check-in that a large group of people from a cruise that weren't supposed to check-in until Saturday had to come a day early (assuming it had a "Waikiki Stay" as part of the cruise package?) so that might have had something to do with it as well.
Originally Posted by
Hyperacusis
Do non-suite ocean view rooms at the RH have balconies, like the Westin does? We stayed at the Westin earlier this year, and didn't get a suite, but got a pretty great ocean view room with a balcony.
Originally Posted by
clover
I don't think there are many, if any, rooms in the Historic building that have balconies. All the rooms in the Tower have balconies. I like the Westin as well, but imo, the property, food, and overall ambience of the RH is far superior. I agree that Plats have much better chance of suite u/g in the Westin.
IIRC the oceanview rooms in the historic building had little "Juliet" balconies but nothing large enough to have a table and chairs on. All of the rooms (at least the oceanview ones we could see [are there others?]) in the Tower had balconies with chairs on them.