Originally Posted by
tjbrooks
I got bumped from my Grand Wailea bookings in Feb because SAP bought out the hotel (and the Four Seasons, Marriott and Andaz too). We had two rooms, so they put us in a unit of Ho'olei across the street. Sounded like a nice upgrade, but it was weird and unpleasant. Garden view, which meant some trees in between you and the road about 12ft away. Unit was privately owned. The owners had terrible taste, dark rattan faux-asian furniture, and it was poorly maintained. The internet was a $20 crappy router that didn't reach the any of the bedrooms. The pots/pans/dishes were pretty trashed and pretty disgusting. Kitchen was pretty amazing though, albeit useless for one night at the end of a trip. The sink had a cool instant hot water dispenser, but it was clogged with limescale, so it actually burned me when I first turned it on. All showers/faucets had a big problem with clogs from limescale. And even though it was huge, we actually had one less bed, as our 2 x 2 Queen rooms were replaced by just 3 beds, two of them doubles. Kinda lame.
Only thing that was nice was we did have use of the Grand Wailea pools, and it was only the international SAP folks who had arrived, so it was near empty. We often had the rope swing/slides to ourselves. 80% of pool chairs empty, all but a couple cabanas unused. Almost surreal. They were setting up for a Katy Perry concert on the lawn between the Grand Wailea pools and the Four Seasons. The pool at the Ho'olei was pretty nice, with a neat waterfall, but fairly small.
We've stayed at Ho'Olei twice now and you're right, because they are privately owned they can vary quite a bit in quality. Our first stay was much better than the second - first was luxury and quality all the way, second time not so much. Both times garden view, first time was above the pool (which, btw, I do NOT think is "small" - as an anecdote, I was there with my daughter one day, and I said something like "if you booked a hotel, and found this to be the pool, how would you feel?" - "I'd be thrilled" she answered. Now, the grandkids spent 90% of their time over at, what they called "the big pool" (GW), and they did call the H'o pool the "little pool" - but only for informational purposes - "we're going to the little pool", or "we're going to the big pool". The "little pool" was very convenient for a swim after dinner.
Anyway, first stay above the pool afforded a great view. Second time we had a unit like you described - VERY close to the noisy road. But we did not have any of the plumbing/maintenance issues that you experienced. It was more the first owners had nicer taste than the second. And as far as kitchen supplies, we found them to be almost identical - same white dishes, same appliances, same cutlery, etc. It almost seemed that those things were standard issue from Hilton. I'm wondering if perhaps you got a unit that was not usually under Hilton's umbrella, but they let you use it and the GW pools because of the circumstances?
I still would recommend anyone who needs 2-3 rooms at the GW to compare the prices over at H'O before deciding. We found it to be a great savings over 3 rooms, or even 2 if we wanted to cram our kids and 2 teen grandkids into one room. Really loved the space.