I have a choice of the following hotels in Waikiki and I was wondering if anyone had any experiences with them. I was originally going to go for the Ren Ilikai or the Waikiki Marriott since I'm a Marriott member but I've heard they're not too great.
My only preference is that I get a nice view and am very close to, if not ON the beach.


Price is a factor, so I've narrowed it down to:

Hawaii Prince (have stayed here before - no complaints except it's not on the beach)

Ren Ilikai

Sheraton Moana Surfrider

Waikiki Marriott

HHV (heard bad things)

Princess Kaiulani

Help!!

We have been to both the Moana (about 15 years ago) and the HHV (twice - last time 5 years ago). IMHO, you can't go wrong with either - with some exceptions. I have heard that the city side rooms at the original Moana are (were) horror rooms. We lucked out and got a oceanfront room in the newer section and it was fantastic! You can walk right out to the beach from the beach elevator, and it is smack dab in the middle of all of the honky tonk action (if that's what you want).

Were at the HHV twice, and if you want things a little quieter, this may be the place for you. We really enjoyed our stay there both times.

We are going back to Hawaii this October for our 35th W.A. and will be staying both at the HWV (Free ) and the HHV (paying).

Enjoy!


DD

My Opinion - None of the above. Call Outrigger Hotels & ask for the entertainment rate at the Outrigger Waikiki for the dates you want to go. If the discount is available, it will be 50% of the rack rate. Ask for an ocean FRONT room, and your room will almost be hanging over the sand/pool area.

Of the hotels that you mention, only the Moana & the HHV are on the beach.

The only downsdie to the Ourtrigger Waikiki (not the Reef or East)is that Dukes Canoe Club is on the lower level. It's one of the hottest spots on the beach, and there will be music playing until around midnight.

If you don't get an ocean front room & request that your room NOT face diamond head (for the partial views), then you probably won't be able to hear anything from Dukes. We don't find it a major problem, but silent, it ain't.

If we weren't able to get the HHV for free on an ALON award, it's where we would be staying. The location, central Waikiki, can't be beat. The hotel has been described as the best value right on Waikiki Beach.

Mary


[This message has been edited by Mary2e (edited 04-10-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Mary2e (edited 04-10-2002).]

If you can stay at a hotel not on your list, I have stayed at the Waikiki Beachcomber and found it a nice hotel at a reasonable price. It's a very short walk to the beach and shopping. Their internet special starts at $89 per room per night.

You can call them and ask about the internet specials and then ask about upgrades from those rates. That may be a lot cheaper than the posted rates on the webpage.

http://www.waikikibeachcomber.com/

I don't know when your going but I won the HHV for $90 from 5/6-5/8 on priceline.com

I know it's not a popular resource for many flyertalkers for one reason or the other. But if price is a factor then you might be well served bidding through priceline. Check biddingfortravel.com for bidding tips also. Ive also got the marriott waikiki booked from 5/1-5/4 for $76.

we just got back from waikiki 3/13-stayed at sheraton kaiulani for $50 per nite through price line.ok room--partial ocean view--great location--right across street from beach and next door to international market place.not perfect but the price was great and so was the location.it has a coffee pot in the room and they provide kona coffee every day and it also had a small refrigerator.across the street is an abc store and a supermarket and great buffet[PERRY"S] are one block away.our room allowed us to watch the changing of the guard nitely across and the street at the KING'S ALLEY SHOPPING CENTER and also a special JAPANESE PARADE.we really didn't spend that much time in the room ,so for the price it couldn't be beat!!!

Thanks for the suggestions - keep them coming - I'm not going until the beginning of June.

I picked that particular list but I'm not bound to it - I just selected those hotels because of the various hotel program affiliations we have with most of them.

I will be spending a good deal of time on my own, (without a car) so I just request

1. closeness to the beach (close enough where I can just take my room key with me and nothing else!)

2. closeness to restaurants, shops, etc (walking distance)

3. nice hotel that doesn't look like it came out of the 70's

I've been to the Hawaii Prince several times and although I really enjoyed it and its proximity to Ala Moana shopping center it was still a ways from Waikiki beach proper.

You're requirements are very similar to mine, except that we always rent a car (& waste a ton of money in the process). But don't you want a book, too?

At both the HHV & the Outrigger Waikiki the only thing you need to take is your room key. There's always a host(ess) that will take food or drink orders.

The Outrigger is centrally located. It was updated not too long ago (late 90's). Some of the rooms at the HHV are dated. Also, if you stay at the HHV, unless you're in the Rainbow or Alii Tower you will have to take a walk to the sand.

I definitely would stick to one of the central Waikiki properties. Any of the Sheraton's (except Princess Kaiulani) would be good (but expensive). The Princess Kaiulani is right across the street from the Outrigger.

Downside to the Outrigger - no points (except with United-I think).

I honestly think that if you can get passed the no points & noise from Duke's, then your best bet will be the Outrigger for location and price.

And - it sounds like we will just miss each other....

Mary

HELP!!!!


Ok, I had to resurrect my own thread because things have gotten more confusing

Due to the fact that my company is paying for the hotel, I can't stray too far from the lowest price that our company gets at the "preferred" hotel (Hawaii Prince = $150.) I currently have the Marriott Waikiki booked, but the Princess Kaiulani shows up as slightly cheaper.

I have Marriott silver status which probably won't get me an upgrade at the Marriott property... I also have Starwood SPG (regular) status so will that get me anything at the Princess K? I did some searches through the threads in the Starwood forum and some people have said that the Princess K is obstructed and is considered the "worst" of the *wood Hawaiian properties.

On the other hand, I've read very little about the Marriott.

Any thoughts?

I realize it may be off your list by now, but we love the Moana Surfrider. It's right on the beach, has a wonderful porch in front, beautiful bbq and entertainment each night in back on the beach, and it is so conveniently located, near everything.

Don't want to sound like a broken record here.... but call Outrigger & ask for the entertrainment rate for the Outrigger Waikiki on a partial ocean view room. It probably will fall within your price guidelines AND be right on the beach.

I stayed at the Princess Kaiulani once. I won't stay there again. Depending upon where your room is, your view may be obstructed.

The Marriott Waikiki has recently been refurbished, and is directly across the street from the beach. There are no hotels in front of it on the beach & the closest hotel on the side is the Moana Surfrider. If your lucky, you can get a good view from this property. I've never stayted there (it used to be the Hawaii Regent).

Good luck!

Mary

I was in Waikiki last week -- I just wanted to let you know that the hotel across the street from the Marriott Waikiki (the Aston Waikiki Beach hotel, in the direction towards the Zoo and Kapahulu Ave) is undergoing pretty extensive constuction, which will continue through the summer. While I was there, they were tearing down a portion of the building right across the street from Marriott and was very loud weekdays from 8AM-5PM. While I don't know what impact that it might have on noise in the Marriott rooms, I would suggest you request staying on the opposite side of the hotel or in a higher room.

Just an update on a recent trip that I had. Check out this thread, which includes a link to pictures.

Avoid the Royal Hawaiian.

Please post any responses to the Starwood thread as I don't check the Hawaii board often.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum74/HTML/007231.html

Thanks

What purpose does bumping a thread 2 years old serve?

Serves many purposes:

a. Those who are too lazy to look up information
b. Our welcomed new members who don't know of the search function and are trying reading up on as many different viewpoints for an upcoming trip to Hawai'i
c. Lurkers who simply read these posts.
d. Keeping information up-to-date without opening up new threads and wasting bandwidth for Randy.
e. Following-up on topics that benefits the community as a whole.

IMHO, as long as the "bumper" posts relevant information and isn't bumping posts simply to increase his/her post count (as do people on OMNI), it's a good addition to our FT Hawai'i Library.

In this case, bigjim, I felt, was helping to bring attention to the Royal Hawaiian by pointing out his trip report on the other forum.

aloha