Jasper2009

If no suites are available at all, contacting either will likely get you nowhere.

If only the lowest suite category (often the "designated suite category") isn´t available, but the next suite category is, then contacting the hotel directly may be the best option.

Vhflyer

Stayed at the Fairmont recently for my honeymoon. It was a part of a 12 day trip that included the Hyatt Regency Maui, Four Seasons Wailea and the Fairmont Orchid.

Just a few remarks about the Fairmont. Overall, I'd say that I was slightly disappointed in my experience with the Fairmont. We arrived early so our room wasn't ready but we hung out at the pool until it was. The room we received was great! It was one of their oceanfront rooms and had an amazing view. It doesn't seem like there are too many oceanfront rooms so we were glad we booked it. The grounds were beautiful and well maintained. And as a poster mentioned above, never felt busy. In contrast to the four seasons or the Hyatt, getting a pool chair was never difficult.

However by the second night we realized the AC in our room wasn't working correctly. I think the week we were there was particularly humid so it was particularly noticeable. For three days they tried to fix it but were unable to. Best they could do was add a fan into the room.

Also the building we were in was under renovation so the nearest elevator was out of order. We had to walk quite a ways to get to the lobby or pool (the room was at the very end of the hallway)

On the second night we asked for a plate and some silverware as we had picked up some fresh fruit and wanted to enjoy it on the balcony. We were told it would take 45 minutes because they only had one server (this was around 4 in the afternoon). Three hours later it still hadn't arrived and we come to find out they delivered it to the wrong room. They apologized and delivered it immediately afterwards.

The last night we had dinner at Brown's Beach House and my wife's fish came well undercooked. Although they apologized profusely, no offer for compensation.

The one thing they did do for us was allow us a late checkout -6pm as our flight was at 9pm, in response to our AC issues.

Although mostly small issues, they added up to some frustration. I think it was particularly noticeable as we had such a favorable experience at the four seasons (they even had a bottle of champagne at check in for us). I got the impression that 4S was much better staffed. The Fairmont had only one person at check in several times when I needed to talk to someone. Valet took a while to flag someone down. And they were not consistent in offering water bottles in comparison to the 4S when getting our car in the morning.

It's a great property and beautiful grounds. I just wish they could have made our experience more pleasant.

azepine00

Bumping this post as we are heading there soon and I too would like to see if i should try to request a specific suite/location/floor.
We are traveling with two small kids so ground floor with some open lawn space in front may not be a bad idea if oceanview is hard to get.
Obviously facing parking lot or high traffic area is not desirable. Any suggestions?

NHAnimator

Just returned from the FO. We were using a room upgrade certificate and had been told on the phone twice that there were no suites available. However, when we arrived shortly after 2pm, we were told they could get us into a 'newly renovated' suite at 3:30 due to a late checkout.

The suite was large, but was plagued by tiny things that added up: no internet (wired or wireless) the first day, spotting/unreliable for the rest of the stay; hot water which took a full minute to actually get hot; television stations with no volume; inability to access account details through online system; unavailable nearest elevator; distinctive 'smell' in the room; and more.

Some of these things were noticed right away, others we noticed after a day or so. We were offered to a different room on the first day (when we called about the internet), but decided to wait for them to fix it as we had traveled all day.

Midway through our stay, when the problems started adding up, I spoke with management, requesting our suite upgrade certificate be reinstated as we wouldn't have used it if we had known about all the problems. They reinstated it (after speaking with 'Global') immediately.

Overall, we were mostly pleased with the hotel, staff and grounds, and were happy to see them step up and meet our request when the room did not meet expectations.

MLM JET

Just confirmed a Oceanfront suite for next July. Is it that much better than a Oceanview suite? Any reviews?

spivtravel

I am planning on booking 4 free nights (2 from my chase sign up and 2 from my fiance's chase sign up) in the next month or so. Does anyone have experience doing this at this property? Is it likely that we'll have to change rooms? I was waiting to book both free stays at one time in hopes that I would avoid having the change rooms.

Also, do they have the BMW program at Orchid Hawaii? What does that entail exactly? We are planning on doing all of our Big Island exploring the three days before staying here, and just relaxing at the resort-- but I would like to be able to leave for dinner off site or to check out other beaches, do we need to rent a car?

Jasper2009

You should be able to keep your room without any issues. Just have your two reservations linked after making the booking and confirm again at check-in that everything is fine.

Not sure whether the Orchid offers the complimentary BMW limousine service, but in any case it´s typically intended for short rides of maybe 1-2miles and wouldn´t a suitable replacement for renting a car to explore the island.

azepine00

I think they have bike program but not cars - i didn't see a single bmw anywhere near.

It's hard to walk from it to anywhere - even a small shopping plaza with foodland is probably 15-20 min walk. BTW three days is nowhere near enough for big island exploring.

azepine00

Oceanfront should be significantly better - teh property is U shaped and only the ends face the ocean/lagoon, oceanview ones are a fair bit inside "U" facing the pools/courtyard/restaurants and each other. Ask for higher floor.

pancakex

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azepine00

You are not suposed to be able to combine upgrade certs - if you book a base room you upgrade to either higher category room or a base suite (as defined by hotel for upgrade purpose) but not to high category suite.
If you got one before you were lucky.

IME Fairmont was very responsive combining paid nights with free stay certs into a single reservation and applying upgrade to the whole thing.

jgoodm

Yes, big difference in view. The room will be at one of the four corners of the hotel facing the water. Best rooms they've got short of Presidential, etc. Higher the better unless you are a ground floor type person.

curl

The Oceanfront suites are huge and beautiful... I HIGHLY recommend. The only rooms directly facing the water, I believe, except Presidential.

Ask for a higher floor, even better.

Ancien Maestro

The ocean front rooms face directly on the water as well. Floors 1 to 5 both towers have the ocean front suite - ocean front room - ocean front suite combination. All ocean front rooms are sandwiched between the two ocean front suites, and all ocean front suites corners the building. The presidential suite on each tower spans the entire 6th floor, the size of 2 ocean front suites, and 1 ocean front room together.

Note the gold floor presidential suite is north tower, and the regular presidential suite is south tower.

bobdevens

Stayed last October using free nights from Chase Card. Did 2 free nights at the Fairmont hotel from my account, drove to Volcano National Park and stayed a night, and came back to Fairmont and used 2 free nights using wife's night from her Chase Card. Both instances we were able to use the room upgrade and suite upgrade together and ended up with Ocean View Suites on both occasions. I was very surprised as this was the Iron Man weekend when everything was pretty heavily booked. While we were originally only able to confirm partial Ocean View rooms over the phone, when we got to the Hotel the staff at the desk were very accommodating to get us the suites using the remaining upgrades in our accounts. The Ocean View suites were very nice with the two balconies. On one of the stays we had the view of the pool and Ocean, and the next stay the Golf Course and Ocean. Both were very nice. The breakfast buffets were also great. All in all, we really enjoyed our stay at this property and would definitely go back.