Originally Posted by Weina Xiang

I was staying at Andaz Maui from 8/28-9/2 and like any other diamond member, booked the room with P&C option and applied a DSU. Room we got was a partial ocean view and there is NO view at all. AVOID room number 318!

Lobby is on 5th floor. There was one thread saying he was staying at 518 and overlooking the roof of villa in front of main building. So you may imagine the view was totally blocked by the villa in front of it. It would be a nice upgrade from regular room to a suite for non-elite member but for diamond member, I don't understand how Andaz has ever considered this as an 'upgrade'. That's the 1st shock I got once I arrived at the hotel.

Next morning, I was so looking forward to the breakfast experience as many famous bloggers have cited 'it blows them away'. That's the 2nd shock I got within 24 hours. Like others have mentioned they started to adopt a new policy towards diamond member complimentary breakfast that we are ONLY granted access to cold plates and need to pay extra $17 for hot dishes, which have never changed during our stay there. To be honest, you will get bored after two days because they NEVER changed their items for breakfast so it doesn't matter that much if you are only having the cold plates. What really let me down is that my favorite cold plate-smoked salmon disappeared after day3 and another selection of smoked fish just doesn't taste that good.

With the complimentary breakfast, diamond member are also allowed to have a side dish a coffee, a juice(not the fresh squeezed one) . My favorite one is slab bacon and I had it every day. The interesting part is it gets shrink everyday. Last day I got one only half size of the one I got on 1st morning. All side dish, coffee and juice are one-time serving ONLY. You will be charged for extra serving. I did mention that I wanna try some fish or fresh mango or even the gone smoked salmon. However, our waiter, Luke comes back every time saying we don't have them. But he does put in a 18% gratitude every day on my check. I don't know how other people feel but for me 18% is too much for a round of serving and breakfast.

I asked to talk to their General manager right after my 1st breakfast, which made me very disappointed that time, especially with the room we had. The general manager was very considerate and did emphasize that breakfast they were offering does comply with Hyatt diamond T&C. I replied that the breakfast is far from good enough for a hyatt place but not for Andaz which people may have higher expectation towards. She understood and got back to see what she was able to do. Then she came back with a satisfying solution: move our room to a better view suite next day+refund my DSU. I negotiate with her that I didn't need the DSU back and asked if she was able to waive my valet parking. She agreed on that and even offered full breakfast experience for us, which used to cost us extra $17 per person.

We ended staying at Room 737 which is the highest level and had full view of ocean, 5-day valet parking fee waived plus daily full breakfast and gratitude waived. I did get benefits from complaining to a manager. However, I would prefer to have Andaz Maui recognize our diamond elite from the very beginning. The only reason that I would stay at Andaz next time is that they have sea turtle in shallow water. I was able to watch every time I went to snorkeling even better than the snorkeling trip I paid for.

I read many reviews regarding this property prior to my departure so I had very high expectation for it. However, it has been downgrading from the opening. I can't imagine how it is gonna be like next time I visit Maui considering it has only been open for a year.