Just came back from a 5 night stay booked with points at Ka Lai'i. Overall it was a great experience.

The room

We were upgraded to a partial ocean view 1 bedroom suite on the 16th floor, which was a rather nice upgrade for HH Diamond within the US. The room was on the south facing side of the building and we still had a decent view of the ocean towards the Hilton Hawaiian Village. We even had a really good view of the fireworks from the balcony at night.

The room is nice (but parts of it, like the TVs, feel a bit dated) but I believe everything will be remodeled next year, so this is all going to change soon. There was a free re-usable bottle and cookie as check-in amenity, and there was twice a day room service with evening turndown (basically another around of cleaning up and some bottles of water by the bed). Having in unit laundry was great too, we were able to cut down on what we had to pack and travel light. I think every room here also has a full in-unit kitchen, but we didn't use it much.

The bathroom is very spacious, though the lack of glass walls around the showers means that the floor can easily get wet.

The hotel

By Waikiki standards, this property is more of a hotel than a resort, which may be good for some and not so great for others. It means that there isn't an awful lot of amenities here, but things feel quiet and thinner crowds. The elevators were efficient. There are only 2 restaurants, one for dining and one for breakfast. The ground-level restaurant was closed permanently, and I assume it will stay that way until the remodel is done.

There is a rather small pool and hot tub, but it was more than suitable given that the hotel never really felt crowded. And there was a library (a couple computers), a gym, and a spa (which we didn't end up using).

Location

No direct beach front access, but close to everything we wanted to Waikiki. The beach is one block away towards the Outrigger resort across the street. Beach bag and beach towels available on the first floor too. Parking is a bit of a pain if you don't use the valet parking service.

Dining

We only ate breakfast at the restaurant (as well as ordering room service a couple times). My diamond dining credit works towards it. Breakfast was fine, nothing too special. We ordered a la carte and didn't opt for the breakfast buffet option.