Yes - the hotel is 30 years old. Was the first in the area. Just ask the hotel manager.... Very very overrated. Many other nicer hotels in the area. Perhaps they upgraded to an infinity pool in more recent years. My primary complaint tho, is the front desk staff - to keep a plat waiting for hours in the lobby with no explanation is unbelievable. Also, after we finally got into our room, it was kind of old and mold-y. Pool may have been upgraded, but I don't think rooms have been upgraded over the years. :(:td:

Poor customer service, for sure.

But you would never catch me sitting in a lobby for hours while waiting for a room assignment. Especially on Maui! After the first 15 minutes, I'd have given the front desk clerk my cell phone number with instructions to call me when my room was ready, retrieved my bathing suit out of my luggage, checked in the rest of my luggage, and headed to the pool.

You can either wait in the lobby or wait while looking over the Pacific Ocean with a MaiTai in your hand.

Good advice Recreation.

We are going in Feb. Only have 90,000 points (3 nights). Thinking about adding a couple more with $$$. Any advice in geting the dollars the smallest. Anyone wish to divulge what they paid?

When I went to book 3 nights using points at the Marriott Wailokoa on Big Island, which is a Category 5 hotel (theoretically 25k points per night), I noticed that most of the rates included surcharges of either additional points or cash or both. I guess this is how the hotels are getting around the "No Blackout" guarantee.

For instance, the first room listed, a pool view room, required a $25/night upgrade fee OR an additional 5k points/night for that spectacular pool view. The out-of-pocket fees escalated from there, with an ocean front room commanding an additional 20k points OR $125/night.

So I checked the pool view, which I thought meant 75k MRs + $25/night upgrade fee, or $75 total. But wait! When I went to the confirmation page, they also included the following fees:

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - Saturday, June 19, 2010 (3 nights)

Marriott Rewards Upgrade, eCertificate 25 USD per night - $25.00
Extra adult charge (children may be exempted) - $80.00
Resort fee $20.83
Estimated government taxes and fees - $13.04
On-site parking fee: $15.00

Total out-of-pocket per night: $153.87
Total for stay (per room): 75,000 MRs + $461.61

That's right. My "free" room was going to cost me over $150/night!

***

After a bit of hunting around, though, I finally discovered a rate (garden/mountain view) that did not require all those extra fees save the $15 parking fee. The resort fee, extra occupant fee, taxes, etc. were all included via the rate rules. So skipping the pool view is going to save me $460.

So my advice is to search around for the rate that works to your advantage. As far as paying out of pocket, definitely check the AAA rates and call the hotel directly to ask for special promos, including the Entertainment rate. Costco also offers some great rates. Note that you don't have to actually be a member of any of these clubs to inquire about their rates. If you do find one that'll save you a bunch of money, then go ahead and get the membership.

And as a Plat there is a decent chance you will still be upgraded to a better view room without having to pay. :eek:

And as a Silver there is a decent chance you will still get the hard sell to upgrade for a better view room having to pay only xx more per night. :D

Just peeked at out reservation at the Waikoloa whcih starts this Friday. It was a standard 100K point 5 day reservation, but it now says Oceanfront Room. Does this mean we've gotten a free upgrade? Other than the view are the Oceanfront Rooms any better than garden/mountain view?

Does a MR Platinum get free breakfast at this hotel?

No you don't get free breakfast as a MR Platinum. We stayed there over the summer and didn't get any upgrade to speak of. That said, I had booked a Full Ocen View room on points because I didn't want to leave it to chance. We did indeed get a full ocean view room as close to the Ocean as possible. The only upgrade I am aware of that they could have given me was a junior suite which is really just a larger room with a circular dining table in it. Still that would have been nice since we like to eat breakfast in our room.


--Jon

No free Breakfast or Lounge, but I think the Resort Fee was optional for PLT, and my Garden View award reservation was upgraded quite nicely (view from our Balcony)
http://richs.smugmug.com/photos/605520311_QsphX-M.jpg

From previous conversations, this property seems to have rooms at both ends of the spectrum, so as a Gold, during peak time, you may want to spend the extra points to be sure.

I contacted this property and the JW on Oahu in advance and both gave us HUGE uprageds. The Wailea Marriott gave us a delux ocean front room. We were UNBELIEVABLY close to the ocean with nothing in front of us but 2 crossing palm trees and than the wide open ocean. I have some of the most amazing pictures from our hotel room! PM me if you are planning on staying here and I will give you the contact info I have. My rooms were actually upgraded ahead of time so my itinerary actually changed in advance so I knew I was good to go! It was FANTASTIC!

Edit: from our balcony: http://tinypic.com/r/1z5l0t5/6 .... to the left just past the pool from where CPRich was :) . If you see that building in the top left of CPRich's picture, that was the building we were in. :)

Wailea Beach Marriott upgrade question
 

I am going to be at the Marriott Wailea Beach Marriott, Jan 26-31st I am platinum and using points. What are the chances of getting an upgrade to an ocean front view? Or would you recommend that I guarantee that room type with 10,000 point per night. Does calling the hotel in advance make a difference? Thanks in advance

While I haven't stayed at the Wailea Beach Marriott, I have stayed in a number of other Beach resort Marriotts. In general, I have almost always been upgraded to a beachfront room if one was available. You might email or call the hotel manager to find out what they normally upgrade Plats to. And you can ask to be pre-upgraded and they may be willing to do that, though they don't have to. I've had a couple of resorts pre-upgrade me, but I've had more that didn't.

My suggestion is that if you really want that upgrade then don't chance it and go ahead and reserve the oceanfront with points. If you are willing to take the chance of only getting what you reserved then don't upgrade. Maybe you will get lucky and get the upgrade without any extra points.

I will say that I once pre-upgraded with points at the Kauai Resort Marriott just to make sure that I got at least a nice view. Once I was there, I asked that as a Plat could I get that upgrade without the extra upgrade certs. They let me have the upgraded room without the certs and I was able to return the certs (they were still paper back then) to get my points back. So you can always try that. (But realize they would be well within their rights to keep the upgrade certs. So again, you would be playing roulette with the outcome.)

I stayed at this hotel last spring on points as a Marriott platinum and when I asked for an Ocean Front Upgrade they said they were totally sold out. My garden room view was a waste and had very little privacy. I would recommend shelling out the extra 10K in points.

At the other end of the opinion spectrum, I booked a Garden/Resort View (whatever the base level is) in July, and was quite happy. This is looking out my balcony early in the morning.


http://richs.smugmug.com/photos/605520311_QsphX-XL.jpg