Originally Posted by
jpdx
Just completed two nights here. We were pleasantly surprised.
At check-in, we were told that we'd been upgraded to a "suite," but it wasn't quite ready. We had an early arrival with Your24 approved, and they gave us the option of taking a standard room right away or waiting ~half an hour for the suite. We were given a voucher for an appetizer and a couple drink chits for the bar, and very soon our room was ready.
The "suite" is a single large room (the size of two standard rooms), and is recently remodeled and looks pretty nice for a Sheraton. Given this hotel's bad reputation, we were pretty shocked how nice it was. Our room was located on one of the highest floors of the hotel and had a large lanai with sweeping views over Waikiki. For some reason, the bathroom was not included in the remodel, and it looked like it came straight from the 1970s. We caught a glimpse of a standard room on our (remodeled) floor -- these are very tight.
We received coupons for daily full buffet breakfast, in addition to the 500 points. The buffet was pretty good by US standards, with an omelet station, sausage/bacon/etc, Japanese options, fruit, a salad bar, and continental stuff. The restaurant area isn't super appealing, but as far as food is concerned, I'd put this buffet on par with Hapuna Bay and SR Princeville.
I had an insanely low BRG of $110+/nt (plus 2k points BRG reward), so certainly good value (no need to PM me, this claim was Trivago.de to TUI; if that doesn't work for your dates, I can't help). As has been pointed out above, the resort junk fee and pricey parking increases such a low rate by more than 50%.
We have been to Honolulu dozens of times, and have tried basically all chains, with most stays at the Hyatt and Sheraton Waikiki. These had rates of >$350 for our stay dates, and the fallback options of Centric/HHV/etc were still twice as much as the Kaiulani. I was certainly worried about staying at the Kaiulani, based on the poor reviews here, but given the price and suite upgrade, we were very satisfied. The Kaiulani won't ever become our go-to hotel in Waikiki, but if the price is right, it's well worth considering. We will occasionally be back, but probably not without an approved suite upgrade.
I just checked in here last night (am posting from the couch in the room) to begin a five night stay on cash and points. We're traveling with some friends and so I booked one king room and one two-doubles room, both C&P. I secured these reservations back in February and applied SNUs to the king room.
The hotel reached out to me a few days ago with their customary aloha message. I've stayed at this property perhaps five times and I like it, but I do definitely prefer the more modern renovated tower to the sections that are held in the 1970s, so I replied to that email with a couple of notes: a wish to be in the tower if possible and a note that the friends we're traveling with are celebrating an anniversary on this trip. The reply back assured me that they would do everything they could to accommodate my request and thanked me for pointing out the anniversary - they would provide my friends with a nice welcome gift.
My SNU request was denied and the SNUs returned to my account (I found that out while on the plane out here), so I expected to get a king room come check-in. Check-in was exceptionally painless and were put in the tower for both rooms (same floor but a nice distance away from each other - perfect in other words). There were nice fruit/beverage plates in both rooms and my friends were provided a bottle of bubbly and some glasses as a happy anniversary gift, which I thought was a very nice gesture. More interestingly, my room was upgraded to a suite even though the SNU request was denied.
I presume I'm in the room (or clone of) that jpdx describes above. It's a single open area about the size of two deluxe king rooms, has a balcony that spans two of the normal SPK balconies (with two tables and four chairs). The living area has a couch and a table in addition to the desk and tv stand. There is a jet tub in the bath. But there is also a little entrance nook with a fridge and a sink and some cabinets, which adds a good amount of space to the overall suite.
I have to say that I'm delighted so far.