FlyinHawaiian

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

FYI, there is a forum in the FT Travel section dedicated to travel questions for Hawai`i. You might want to take a look over there and see if you can find the information you are looking for.

This forum is dedicated to Hilton properties only, so your responses might be a bit limited (although it appears many here have stayed at the HWV/HHV at one time or another)

Hope this helps.

ALOHA!

squeakr

as mentioned..

please check the FT Travel - Hawaii for this thread. it's a well populated forum so I am sure many will have good responses!

squeakr
MODERATOR Hilton

Mahalo

There use to be 2 trams working when I was last here in February 2002 and now there is only one which means the wait time has increased dramatically. I've waited 15-20 minutes, several times during my trip. I've opted to walk many times when the tram has already headed out towards the Ocean towers.

I wonder if I should've just asked for the Lagoon tower since it is the fastest way out and the walk itself isn't so bad. Any comments on this? My friend is staying here in 2 months and wanted me to suggest the best tower but I've only ever been given the Ocean tower during my 2 stays. The Palace tower is also closer than the Ocean tower but it seems virtually all of their rooms face the golf course. Nice lobby in the Palace towers though.

The first night I got in (last Saturday), this place seemed to be quite full but now, it almost seems like there is much less people on the resort.

I've read a lot of criticism here about the HWV and I've read where many people enjoyed it. To be honest, there are many other Hawaiian hotels which I've stayed in which I would rate above the HWV.

I earned my Hilton points and think that the ALON award (pre-inflationary) is (was) a good value and simply enjoy the HWV for the mega hotel that it is. There is no doubt that there can be many improvements made though as it is clearly evident by all the complaints.

l etoile

I no longer stay at the HWV, but began staying there when it first opened as a Hyatt and stayed there at least six times after it was a Hilton.

To put some of this in perspective, when it was a Hyatt, it was a pretty spiffy hotel. Rates were high and it was fairly exclusive. There were few or no kids or families. You also didn't have to pay for extras and there were a lot of extras - ballroom dance classes, cooking classes, you name it.

When it became a Hilton the marketing strategy changed. I believe you can still get rooms for as little as $149 a night at times and kaamaina rates are even less. It's pretty difficult to hold a hotel that charges $149 a night or 100K (yeah, it's more now, but I don't know if there's a FT who hasn't stayed for 100K, most of which were earned through promotions) points to the same standards as one that's $300 a night. Ever checked out what the Grand Wailea charges? Of course, low rates don't begin to pay the bills at this place so they really depend on all those extra fees. And last I saw, their extra charges per room were very low, which meant cutbacks such as one tram instead of two.

I don't care for this hotel now for a variety of reasons, including that every Tom, Dick and Harry with $149 bucks can stay there, meaning it's usually filled with screaming kids.

Open criticism is important and lets others here know what to expect. At the same time, it's unrealistic to think a hotel that charges so little for such an immense spread can make it on room rates alone.

Just my 2 cents.

Football Fan

Deleted, I need to clarify some things first. This was some criticism of HWV, but I might be wrong. Thanks for your understanding.

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Please have a look at my round-the-world travel blog and leave some comments - thanks :-).

[This message has been edited by attorney28 (edited 10-03-2003).]

PaulGQ

This is what I'm talking about.

They could do better. They simply chose not to. My AMEX was also $135 off in their favor.

Now I call them Wackulater as I must waste more time correcting this.

[This message has been edited by PaulGQ (edited 10-03-2003).]

l etoile

There seems to be a trend here Paul and attorney as the last straw for me was when they put a charge on my bill that wasn't mine. I spent five days while I was at the hotel trying to get it resolved, thought it was resolved and then had it reappear. It was eventually deleted for good, but no one should have to go through so much to get an accurate bill.

djhouk

Does anyone have any other email addresses for contacting the hotel directly to make some special room requests?

Brandy

We used the following to get direct emails

" Sorry for sending this email to two different addresses, but we do not know which one would connect with the Diamond Member Services Manager at the Hilton Waikoloa Village. If you would forward this email to the proper person, we would be most appreciative: "

[email protected]

[email protected]

# # #

Also, check out their OWN website at:

www.HiltonWaikoloaVillage.com

Hope this helps.

gpapadop

This thread is intended to be updated as a resource for other FTers with names, addresses and directions to places where we can get online paying reasonable rates.

I am assuming the Internet access from Hilton costs too much, anyone know currently how much it is?

I bought Hawaii the Big Island Revealed Book and it lists the following places:

Zac's in Kona (329-0006) or in the Kings Shops in Kohala (886-0047): $8 per hour.

Lava Java in Kona (has good cinnamon rolls too).

Anyone visited the libraries in Kona or Hilo? Have their addresses or phone numbers?

Please add to this list if you can.

Yes I did use search

PaulGQ

Internet from the hotel is $10.36 a day for unlimited access. The problem is that is was spotty and often did not work.

It almost cost us a scuba trip as we were almost unable to print our scuba tickets.

Faxing in Kona was VERY expensive and suprisingly the hotel offered better value.

At the Long Drug, it was $5 for the first page and $3 there after for a fax to the mainland.

Down the street was better, $9.30 for 3 pages at Zac's.

The hotel turned out to be $8 for 3 pages (a 45 second phone call.)

It was business and had to be done. They realize this and rape accordingly.

gpapadop

>Internet from the hotel is $10.36 a day for unlimited access. The problem is that is was spotty and often did not work.

Thanks for the info. Can you elaborate on the very reasonable $10.36 rate from the hotel? Are you using your own laptop? or is it a PC in the business desk? or is that the internet from the TV I never figured out how to work?

Thanks again.

squeakr

s¬?iginally posted by PaulGQ:


It was business and had to be done. They realize this and rape accordingly.[/QUOTE]

I REALLY hope you didn't mean to say it this way....

Please consider editing your post for language.

PaulGQ

You get Wackmelonger to edit their rates for a 45 second fax to the mainland and I'll consider editing my language.

Here are 3 other threads in the Hilton forum alone where FTers used the same expression. I don't see you getting in their face about it.

You should have emailed your personal message to me privately as this has nothing to do with the thread.

For your review:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum57/HTML/006389.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum57/HTML/007089.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum57/HTML/008583.html


[This message has been edited by PaulGQ (edited 10-23-2003).]

PaulGQ

This was semi high speed for your laptop.