Toukolou

Our family of 5 (mom, dad, 9,7,6 yr old) just spent 10 glorious days here. We had a double queen, premier ocean view room. We brought our own blow up mattress and there was plenty of space in the room. There was no issue with 5 of us in the room, I suspect, probably because of the age of the children. You should be fine too. I always make reservations for just myself, and then add my wife at the desk when we check in, I never have the whole family standing by the front desk anyway, so number of guests never even comes up.

Btw, in comparison to the far more expensive Mauna Kea Autograph Collection sister hotel next door, we found the Westin superior in every way.

bsdstone

We aren't scheduled to go until Spring break next year...so not sure I'll be much help. Our plan as of now is to buy a couple of air mattresses at Costco and then donate them when we leave.

cbrown5294

dave.brown

Im debating between the Westin Hapuna and Mauna Kea. Booking with a travel certificate. is it worth using a category 6 on Mauna Kea when Westin Hapuna is just as great if not better?

dave.brown

How did you get the resort fees waived?

linsj

I used my three free-night certificates from Bonvoy credit cards to stay here this month. I was surprised by the gated entrance to the area when I arrived. The person on duty checked my name against a list, then gave me a parking tag.

I couldn't get into the south tower, so my room had a view filled with the new residences in front of the building. Construction noise was minimal though. The patio was large with a dining table, four chairs, lounge chair, and couch. The room and bathroom were huge! The beach is great, although the waves were too high for swimming. The hotel offers 500 points/day for turning down housekeeping. A free shuttle runs every half hour to Mauna Kea next door, starting at 5:00 p.m. I took it to view the manta rays; only two appeared but fun to watch.

Daily resort charge includes:
Internet
Pool & beach chair service
Cultural activities, i.e., lei making, hula lessons
Shopping bag
Evening shuttle service to Mauna Kea
Hospitality lounge with lockers & showers
Local & long-distance calls
Introductory ocean activities class
10% off kids program

I'm glad I printed my reservation since it showed that parking was part of the resort fee--before the hotel changed it to a separate fee. I had to show the paper at check-in to get parking.waived.

Ripley62

According to the resort as of October 1st it is now a Category 6 hotel with a points price of 60k peak to 40k off peak.

This change puts the Westin Hapuna in the same Category as the Mauna Kea.

i have a points reservation for mid July that I wanted to move to late August or early September, I was going to move it last week but the airline booking calendar hadn’t opened for my ideal dates the week of Labor Day. Worse I hadnt yet attached one of my Category 5 7-night certificates to the reservation because you can’t do it online and every time I have a CSR deal with one of my travel package certificates they have made a mistake that’s taken many phone calls and over a week to fix. I’m being serious this has happened more than once with these abominations of points usage.

Two nice thing about my call to Marriott's supposed 'Titanium Line' was
a) the CSR didn’t make any mistakes (literally and without exaggeration a first for any reservation I’ve made that involved the air+hotel travel certificates) but in the other hand because Marriott's reservation system was down for maintenance when I called there was nothing she could do.

b) I found out clearly what Marriott feels about points reservations, and thus loyalty benefits. the CSR said “We don’t do ting like we use to but you should be happy you’re getting a great value from your free points reservation considering the price of the hotel. Nice no know and that explains a lot about Marriott attitude towards those that book rooms because of the Marriott loyalty program. I’ve had very good experience with the franchise's hotels and resorts

I now assume my 7-night Category 5 packages can’t be attached. Funny since I wanted to move the reservation from what should be peak pricing to what is showing as off peak for every day.

freed0m

I should count myself lucky. I booked on September 27th, and off-peak. I think September is still off-peak.

saved 40k points.

tattikat2

Thanks for the heads up^

Quickly checked that the Mauna Kea hadn't also gone up ( it didn't^)

Ripley62

Off peak before the Category change was a great deal at 30k, now at 40k off peak Cat 6 less but still not a bad deal, But since the Mauna Kea is now the same category and same off peak I’m not why you go with the Westin. The Mauna Kea at 40k/a night is a great deal.

dev96

Hello Everyone,

I just noticed that the Westin Hapuna Beach is a cat 6 hotel. It was a cat 5 just 2 weeks ago when I was looking at it (and was stated as so in the Feb 2019 cat changes).

Any other hotels moved?

Is this now a new standard thing we should expect that Marriott will move categories without any notice any time during the year?

dgreen12

Already mentioned in the property's master thread:

Hapuna Beach Westin Resort, Waimea, Big Island of Hawaii [Master Thread]

TommyC80

This can, and does happen. I remember one from a few years ago; the Miami Beach EDITION was slated to move from a Tier 3 to a Tier 4 with the annual category change. About six weeks after it moved to a Tier 4, it moved again to a Tier 5.

I don’t know any consolidated listing of these intra-year category changes. I think you have to just be the recipient of the unlucky surprise when it’s a hotel you want to book.

It’s pretty shady in my view. By Marriott going out of their way to publish annual category changes, it implies that’s the only time hotels change category. While the intra-year changes seem rare, they do happen and Marriott should be more forthcoming about it.

TerryK

There are mid year category adjustments sporadically with various hotel programs. Nothing new to see. Yawn.

dev96

Thank you. I didn't see it in the master thread...seems like putting that in there is the same as making this change without using the annual cat change list. :-)

First time I noticed this at Marriott and was worried that it is a bad precedent. I guess there were others and there will be a lot more.