Even at its peak, the Solomon Islands did not even reach 30,000 visitors per year (in 2019) so my guess is that hotel reviews anywhere in the country are few and far between on FT, if there are any at all.  We stayed in the capital Honiara which I would not recommend to tourists, I think the main attraction of the country for most people would be the more remote islands.  Anyway from what I could gather, Heritage Park Hotel is the best in the city and I was impressed by many features of the hotel and it was a peace haven when entering the hotel premises compared to the city which is in sorry state. 

Room

I booked the entry level room and received a room on the ground floor but directly facing the ocean so I am assuming I lucked out in getting one of the better standard rooms.  There was nothing luxury about it, but the website listed the room as 18 sqm so I expected something quite cramped.  Perhaps their accounting is more conservative than many hotel chains but it definitely felt more than 20 sqm to me and it was bearable even for a party of three.  The air conditioning worked well and the bed was comfortable so I could not complain. 

Common Areas

The common areas of the hotel looked great and in complete contrast to the dusty and sad looking roads from the airport to the hotel.  I would even dare to say that the hotel was somewhat charming with many local features rather than being a generic looking hotel. 

Dining

Many western hotels would have lessons to learn from such a hotel which does not get many tourists.  Instead of offering only the traditional eggs, bacon, and sausages, not only many dishes were more imaginative such as fish cutlets, Lyonnaise potatoes, and some Indian dishes, but in addition they had variety from one day to another to avoid boredom.  The restaurant had an outdoors section and an indoors section, both were attractive looking and stylish. 

Wifi

Wifi was slow with speed of 2-4 Mbps but thankfully it worked at all times without outages which is something not to be taken for granted in this country.

Overall

Overall I was fearing the worse given that there are no hotel chains in the country so with a complete lack of competition, I thought perhaps even the best hotel might be providing very little.  In the end I was impressed and while Honiara itself has very little to offer, at least the hotel provides comfort to visitors.  The one feature which reflects the absence of competition would be price: I paid between 200+ USD per night.  For that kind of money in more competitive markets which have hotel chains, we can have a suite upgrade, happy hour, and a lavish breakfast in many cities in South East Asia for example.