VickiSoCal

Hmmmm. If they upgrade the pool and other facilities that might be a good thing.

nearSACTO

Just finished a 7 night stay at Waikoloa. I'm only a silver member and had to pay the daily $30 resort fee (include self-parking, internet, free 30-minute picture session, discounts towards some misc. things at hotel). Did get an upgrade to a larger room, standard room is 400 sq was upgraded to 500 sq room. Overall, hotel staff is nice, breakfast/lunch is reasonable, and grounds are nice.

mongobot

For those interested in staying at this property at the end of August, there's a discounted rate for attendees of the Hawaii Food and Wine Festival...

N_Phoenix

Nice, thanks. Lots of other hotels too.

Renard

I booked this stay while it was still a CAT 5... I would never book it as a CAT7. I enjoyed the stay very much. I've stayed here several times over the years, dating back to when Marriott just took over the property. I've never had a bad stay. It's just hard to justify staying here in the future when I can stay at a hyatt with free lounge/breakfast and no resort fee as a diamond.

It's hard to imagine how they are going to convert half of it to a time share. That is going to take some massive renovations. I'm not sure that Waikoloa needs another time share... the current time share offerings are extensive and very nice. Now of course they are not Marriott time shares. The Marriott as is fills a nice niche in the overall resort. My guess is that they are desperately looking to reduce capacity to increase prices.... well there is so much capacity at the Hilton that any drop at the Marriott will be like a pebble in a lake. They always have been about the same price as all the similarly equipped resorts in the area.

Giroud

Hi all,
Check in to the hotel in 3 days. What can we expect as a platinum member? Chance for waived/reduced resort fee and free breakfast? Thanks!

PHLGovFlyer

No chance for free breakfast, but see my post #425 above for a recent Plat stay check in experience and fee details.

rebadc

I don't know about the reopen as an MVC but this property definitely needs needs to close and renovate.

Finished a 5 day stay here and the rooms are just plain beat. color scheme is from the old Airport Marriott's.

Food is only OK; you will certainly will be disappointed if you compare to any resort in Asia.

Service is top notch.

They offer local rates (Hawaii Drivers Licence required) So i believe they have found their core customers, when we where there there were 50% local people staying at the resort.

Not sure where a property like this goes?
Close, Reno and re-open; possibly

It must cost millions of dollars to renovate and be able to charge $350.00 a night; not sure that's in the cards.
Wouldn't be surprised to see this property limp along and offer rates in the low $100.00's. Of course something has to give and right now that is the accommodations and F&B.

highops

Interesting. I booked this as a silver in August. When I applied for the RC card they upgraded my status to gold, but this reset the reservation date somehow in the system. They downgraded my room type because "some people book this a year in advance."

I guess the gold got me the room guarantee penalty, but I'd have rather had the right room.

lking

Anyone know how this works? I booked for a stay in September and there were various rates, one of them being a United Mileage special (or something like that wording)--same rate as AAA so booked the UAL special.

However, did I do the right thing? It says that I would get 10000 united mileage points, and a $50 credit for use at the hotel.

If I do this united mileage booking, will I still get Marriott points and credit for stays?

Help? Thanks.

SkiAdcock

Probably not. You'll get the UA points & credit, & Marriott recognition bennies such as free wifi, possible upgrade. I've seen some promos that Marriott has done w/ the airlines & in the fine print you find out you're not really getting Marriott points or are limited to XX, regardless of spend.

If the AAA rate is still available, I'd drop the UA ressie (unless you want the 10K points) & book AAA.

Cheers.

lking

Thanks, took your advice and changed rez.

lucycan

I see I can stay for nearly the same points up the road at the Mauna Kea. Any thoughts?

vtgambler

The Mauna Kea is vastly superior in all respects in my opinion. The rooms and lanais at the Marriott are tiny. The beach is okay but not all that impressive by Hawaii standards. The Mauna Kea is on a world class beach that doesn't get very crowded due to limited public parking. Most of the room were remodeled a few years ago after the hotel closed due to earth quake damage. You can find some comparison of the two in the Mauna Kea thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...ownership.html

The Marriott is fine for $150 an night on Priceline but there is a reason that the Mauna Kea generally commands 2-3 times as much.

escapefromphl

The Mauna Kea has a better beach and is superior in many ways. There are some things that you should keep in mind though. The Mauna Kea food options are limited and expensive. The property is remotely located which is a plus but can be an issue if $24 burgers and $16 Mai Tais are not to your liking. If that's not an issue, go with Mauna Kea.