May 26, 2018, 4:05 pm
Last edit by: DELee
Reviews of this property:
- beckoa: Doubletree lite an oasis of sorts in Hilo (Jun 7, 17)
- DELee: Grand Naniloa Review: May 18-20, 2017 (Jun 19, 17)
- kpbadger: Grand Naniloa review: July 2017 (Jul 22, 17)
- TxTrav: Very happy with the Grand Naniloa (but book a balcony room) (Aug 27, 17)
Grand Naniloa Hotel - a DoubleTree by Hilton {US-HI}
Nov 28, 2017, 12:42 am
#76
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David
May 7, 2018, 5:57 am
#78
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stay planned for early May 31 - June 4 - will update
Last edited by mdaecher; May 12, 2018 at 10:01 am
May 17, 2018, 3:48 pm
#79
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Review after checking out yesterday
Check-in: Warm staff - what you'd expect from a 3* hotel. The staff is proud of working for the Hilton behemoth.
Room: As Gold, I got upgraded to 9th floor on ocean facing tower (Mauna Loa tower). No balcony. Some weird buzzing from the wall woke me up a couple times in the wee hours of the morning. (Next morning, the maintenance guy said they were refreshing the AC units to stop the noise. But my AC was off?! And the front desk manager contradicted what maintenance guy said. Who knows - this old building just buzzes - and not in a good way.) The showerhead mount was also broken. Other than that, the room was fine, although it was showing signs of age.
Other Hardware: You guys gave me the impression this was a brand new hotel. It's actually looking middle-aged - and the white color theme doesn't help. I also waited 3 minutes for the elevator before breakfast. They really need to improve maintenance - I've seen better maintenance at $29/night hotels in Vietnam.
Breakfast: Golds get free continental breakfast, which is pretty decent - guava juice, oatmeal, fresh fruit, croissants. Too bad the waitress never asked me for coffee (which I hardly drink anyways). She also never cleared any of my plates during a whole half hour. What's the difference between this DT and a nice cafeteria? - None!
Conclusion: If you're a Hilton Gold/DM member, can get a good rate, bring earplugs, and am a heavy sleeper, then I recommend this hotel.
P.S. I walked along the shore over to the next door property - Hilo Hawaiian - and asked the groundskeeper which hotel this was. He proudly proclaimed their hotel was newer than the Doubletree. Hilo Hawaiian looks about $50 cheaper per night than the DT. Unless you're a Hilton fiend, it may make more sense to stay at the Hilo Hawaiian.
Room: As Gold, I got upgraded to 9th floor on ocean facing tower (Mauna Loa tower). No balcony. Some weird buzzing from the wall woke me up a couple times in the wee hours of the morning. (Next morning, the maintenance guy said they were refreshing the AC units to stop the noise. But my AC was off?! And the front desk manager contradicted what maintenance guy said. Who knows - this old building just buzzes - and not in a good way.) The showerhead mount was also broken. Other than that, the room was fine, although it was showing signs of age.
Other Hardware: You guys gave me the impression this was a brand new hotel. It's actually looking middle-aged - and the white color theme doesn't help. I also waited 3 minutes for the elevator before breakfast. They really need to improve maintenance - I've seen better maintenance at $29/night hotels in Vietnam.
Breakfast: Golds get free continental breakfast, which is pretty decent - guava juice, oatmeal, fresh fruit, croissants. Too bad the waitress never asked me for coffee (which I hardly drink anyways). She also never cleared any of my plates during a whole half hour. What's the difference between this DT and a nice cafeteria? - None!
Conclusion: If you're a Hilton Gold/DM member, can get a good rate, bring earplugs, and am a heavy sleeper, then I recommend this hotel.
P.S. I walked along the shore over to the next door property - Hilo Hawaiian - and asked the groundskeeper which hotel this was. He proudly proclaimed their hotel was newer than the Doubletree. Hilo Hawaiian looks about $50 cheaper per night than the DT. Unless you're a Hilton fiend, it may make more sense to stay at the Hilo Hawaiian.
May 17, 2018, 4:01 pm
#80
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Not sure why you thought this was a "new" hotel...was the Grand Naniloa before it became the Doubletree Grand Naniloa. I'm sure with a little digging you can find out when it was originally built, and our room was newly renovated. You could tell.
To me not having a balcony in Hawaii would be a dealbreaker - it's what "made" our small room. Very quiet room with a fabulous view.
I would never spend a whole vacation there, but I was thrilled to get Hilton points for our one night.
And I thought the breakfast was abysmal - in Hawaii you expect the fruit to be good, ours was so old and crappy all the pineapple had a brown cast. Yuk.
Did you eat dinner in the restaurant? We were there during the transition and dinner was bare bones, we didn't even make the attempt.
To me not having a balcony in Hawaii would be a dealbreaker - it's what "made" our small room. Very quiet room with a fabulous view.
I would never spend a whole vacation there, but I was thrilled to get Hilton points for our one night.
And I thought the breakfast was abysmal - in Hawaii you expect the fruit to be good, ours was so old and crappy all the pineapple had a brown cast. Yuk.
Did you eat dinner in the restaurant? We were there during the transition and dinner was bare bones, we didn't even make the attempt.
May 17, 2018, 4:45 pm
#81
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The hotel was built in 1939...I couldn't find any info about interim renovations before Hilton put $30 million into it recently, but someone must have.
It's registered as a Historic Hotel of America.
It's registered as a Historic Hotel of America.
May 21, 2018, 12:08 am
#82
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Have seen this hotel featured on the original Hawaii Five-O 
Shows it has a bit of history.
Shows it has a bit of history.
May 26, 2018, 4:26 pm
#83
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Other Hardware: You guys gave me the impression this was a brand new hotel. It's actually looking middle-aged - and the white color theme doesn't help. I also waited 3 minutes for the elevator before breakfast. They really need to improve maintenance - I've seen better maintenance at $29/night hotels in Vietnam.
The Grand Naniloa is not anything like the newer resorts on the Kona or west side of the Big Island. It's a hotel. It's located in Hilo on Banyan Drive which also defines a different historical context and much different climate than either the Kona side or other parts of the island.
David
May 26, 2018, 4:41 pm
#84
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Two found references:
From a historical context, here's a link to a thread of images on another web forum about what was the Polynesian Room at the Naniloa Hotel.
Additionally, possibly because of the number of cancellations they've gotten because of Kilauea's volcanic activity, the hotel has set up a live feed camera with audio. As of this posting, there appears to be some live music event going on since you can hear the beat, voices and chanting and higher pitched kids voices (but is not visible in the feed). My best guess is that the webcam is positioned atop the Mauna Kea wing building.
David
From a historical context, here's a link to a thread of images on another web forum about what was the Polynesian Room at the Naniloa Hotel.
Additionally, possibly because of the number of cancellations they've gotten because of Kilauea's volcanic activity, the hotel has set up a live feed camera with audio. As of this posting, there appears to be some live music event going on since you can hear the beat, voices and chanting and higher pitched kids voices (but is not visible in the feed). My best guess is that the webcam is positioned atop the Mauna Kea wing building.
David
May 26, 2018, 5:59 pm
#85
Join Date: Nov 2008
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As far as I can remember, this is the only hotel at which I have stayed that I have seen featured in a game does as a prize. I saw it on a rerun of Press your Luck from the early 1980's.
Our stay here was great other than the amazingly slow elevators.
Our stay here was great other than the amazingly slow elevators.
May 27, 2018, 3:10 pm
#87
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May 27, 2018, 7:55 pm
#88
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Aug 27, 2018, 1:48 pm
#89
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The hotel is in the news:
Former Grand Naniloa GM sues hotel management company, executive - West Hawaii Today
Former Grand Naniloa GM sues hotel management company, executive - West Hawaii Today
Oct 22, 2018, 3:17 pm
#90
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Spend four nights there a week ago, primarily because we wanted to check out that side of the island. I booked a room with lanai because I didn’t want to risk getting one without. I got exactly what I booked (as a Diamond). In retrospect i am glad I didn’t end up on a higher floor (we got 5th).
Continental breakfast was pretty bare bones. Industrial bagels, muffins, bread, croissants, some fruit, juices, jam, coffee. $10 upgrade for full breakfast. Didn’t ask if the $11 value of the continental breakfast could be applied to a made to order breakfast item. My hunch is, no. A better breakfast option to consider would IMO be Ken’s House of Pancakes (0.5 miles, easy walk if it isn’t raining).
One of the three elevators in our wing was broken the entire time, with a nice laminated “out of service” sign and no one working on it. The running joke among guests was to get on any elevator that would stop on your floor, no matter which direction, since the next one would be a while and probably be full.
The ice machines on our floor and the one above were out of service, too. Again, laminated signs lead me to believe that this situation either is frequent or not a high priority to fix.
Staff was always friendly.
Parking (self or valet) was $20/night.
(False) Fire alarm with partial evac at 12:30am was a surprise “bonus”. We made it to the stairs before they called it off. Other than a “We are sorry, you can return to your rooms” over the PA system there was no apology or explanation.
Fitness center looked nice, with fairly new machines in good condition.
Continental breakfast was pretty bare bones. Industrial bagels, muffins, bread, croissants, some fruit, juices, jam, coffee. $10 upgrade for full breakfast. Didn’t ask if the $11 value of the continental breakfast could be applied to a made to order breakfast item. My hunch is, no. A better breakfast option to consider would IMO be Ken’s House of Pancakes (0.5 miles, easy walk if it isn’t raining).
One of the three elevators in our wing was broken the entire time, with a nice laminated “out of service” sign and no one working on it. The running joke among guests was to get on any elevator that would stop on your floor, no matter which direction, since the next one would be a while and probably be full.
The ice machines on our floor and the one above were out of service, too. Again, laminated signs lead me to believe that this situation either is frequent or not a high priority to fix.
Staff was always friendly.
Parking (self or valet) was $20/night.
(False) Fire alarm with partial evac at 12:30am was a surprise “bonus”. We made it to the stairs before they called it off. Other than a “We are sorry, you can return to your rooms” over the PA system there was no apology or explanation.
Fitness center looked nice, with fairly new machines in good condition.
Last edited by notquiteaff; Oct 23, 2018 at 2:00 am