Hockey, your pics have reminded me how likeable this hotel is but as much as I like the Beach Resort, we have given it a miss the last four or so times in Maui, and again this upcoming two-week trip where I have Grand Wailea reservations in lieu of the Marriott because of a couple of odd occurrences the last stay that left a bad impression on my wife.
The first issue I thought was funny: Mrs. Jailer called up the tennis center and the person on the other end enthused that there was a free clinic taught by the pro, and that they are happy to demo a racquet. Too good to be true, my wife bought some tennis shoes only to learn that this was crazy talk, no free pro-clinic (duh)…my guess is that some joker picked up the phone as they walked by and pranked her. Hey, that’s something I would have done given the opportunity. Lacking sympathy, I howled.
The second was a bit egregious: I gave the bartender our welcome drink chits and said that we wanted to order dinner. Got the drinks, pointed out to the barkeep where we were sitting outside not far from where the band sets up, but no waitstaff came to take an order, despite circling like a shark. (And, yes, I know that sometimes/often there is a hostess to seat you, but this time there was none. As a semi-regular that why I alerted the bartender our location/intent).
No biggie, back to the drink-slinger, who said without setups the waitress might be confused so he kindly came over and set us up and then we watched the server navigate around us, over and over and over. Yes, I could have tackled a waitress, but it became as if a game of chicken. We blinked, with my Asian-American wife uncharacteristically muttering, “what are they racist?” we walked over to Botero’s, where the service was characteristically AbFab, with even a better band. Maui: it’s all good.
I did gently complain to the front desk the next day, styling my concern that we aren’t overly sensitive, but this occurrence was darn strange and was still perplexing even after a day passed (I mean, Marriott is in the hospitality business and they gave us free drinks to be hospitable, right?). I recall mentioning that, “well, now I know what it was like to be African-American in the South in the 1950’s and being unable to get served at a diner, and so I accept this as a lesson on white privilege and that it’s good for my soul and my evolution as a human being.” I really wasn’t trying to be snarky, and wasn’t taken that way AFAIK. I don’t think that the desk clerk feigned horror and when the same person checked us out a day later she inquired if the GM contacted us. No, and I wish she/he had so that I could put this hotel back into rotation as we have had some very nice Plat Elite upgrades.
I know that this was a random one-off, so I’d like to rehabilitate the Beach Resort as I’ll run out of Hilton points before I do Marriott’s. Wife correctly points out that there are plenty of places to stay in Maui and, after all, it’s her job to spend points, mine to earn ‘em: a first world problem to be sure.