Nyurka

I am looking at an award stay for Thanksgiving at this hotel, and when entering 2 adults and 2 kids it shows availability at 35,000 points but then slaps a $900 extra person charge for 2 kids for 6 nights. 1 kid is $450. I have never seen this anywhere... Usually 4 people is a standard occupancy in the US/Mexico/Hawaii, and if there is a room with 2 queens/doubles you can book it, doesn't matter how many people so long that it is under occupancy limit. I know about hotels that do not allow that many of course (Mauna Kea next door is know for this, 2 adults plus 1 kid is ok but no more, and they don't budge), but that's not the case here.

Is this a new thing/something to be expected? at $75 per child per night I need to be looking at other properties/other programs...

TerryK

Seems to follow program rules.
https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/ter...ault.mi#redeem

Perhaps try to contact property for an exemption?

AskTravis

We just did what you are after - book as 2 occupants, two queen beds (or doubles, can't remember) and then at check in they asked how many in the party, we said 4 and they didn't even blink an eye. Breakfast buffet we got 2 free ppl per day, and just paid for the kids, or some days had mom+kid#1 go, and myself and the other went on an excursion elsewhere.

Enjoy, we had a magical pre-Christmas stay here, beautiful property with a great beach and platinum experience.


T.

hockeyinsider

How is the construction?

AskTravis

Our room was far on the South end of the hotel, so we could not hear it from the room at all. At the beach it is a little disruptive, but after about 30 minutes you don't notice it any more. Also, the beach is about 500m long, so if it was really bothersome, you could just take some towels down to the other end... but honestly, we never even considered that.

Breakfast buffet is one of the best, and they left a beautiful fruit and cookies plate in my room for my son's 8th birthday. Nice touch, especially when they were at 100% capacity around the holidays.

hockeyinsider

I imagine it would still be pretty bad if your room was right behind the construction, especially if you wanted to enjoy the balcony.

AskTravis

I would guess so as well, but we used our balcony extensively and I don't recall ever hearing it.

TerryK

You were at South Wing while construction was in front of North Wing.

AskTravis

Correct. I made the request when the concierge reached out before our stay, not sure if that had any bearing or not.

CIT85

We had a 5 night stay before Christmas. I booked a room with 2 double/queen beds for 2 adults. The reservation detail was changed to 2 adults after I replied to hotel email with my daughter's name. No problem checking in with 3 people and no mention of 3rd person fees.

I was assigned a room about as far from construction as you can go so no construction noise at all. No upgrade in room due to high occupancy over the holidays.
Partial ocean view meant you can see the ocean towards the right from the balcony.

SPG Plat free full buffet breakfast for 2 is probably the best breakfast at SPG properties in the US. I can't think of another US SPG hotel with better Plat breakfast. Server told us on the second day that gratuity was included, which is nice, just like Hyatt.

We went to Kona for shopping (my daughter wanted a real ukelele, not a cheap toy) and drove to Waipio Valley and Akaka Falls for sightseeing day trip. Snorkeling at north end of Hapuna Beach was pretty good. We also went to Beach 69 for snorkeling. Mauna Kea was in holiday capacity control mode, so we could not drive to Mauna Kea and park. We walked along the shore trail to Mauna Kea to check out the beach and snorkeling and decided it wasn't worth the effort to even get in the water.

I enjoyed this stay better than the last time we went to Manua Kea. This is now my go to hotel for the Big Island. Good value for award.

MasterGeek

slpybear

Curious on this as well. We have a 5 night award stay booked for late May. Wondering if it is worth hanging onto my SNA for 2019 for different stays or put in for all 5 here and see what happens? (Bonvoy Platinum Elite, so not sure if that will get me a good upgrade or not?)

escapefromphl

Use your SNA's if you want a suite/better view etc The general rule in Hawaii is you get the room you booked. Although not peak summer it's starting to get a bit busy by late May. Assuming no conference etc you should get a better category room without the SNA's but I can't think of a better use of SNA's than securing a suite for a resort vacation.

hockeyinsider

I was there in August with a group. I gave the the hotel something like 170 nights of business. Part of our stay overlapped the 8/18 integration of Marriott and SPG. Under our contract, we had one guaranteed suite upgrade and three other upgrades to the best available room, including suite, at check-in. Basically, we had to fight tooth-and-nail for the three upgrades, despite the hotel being dead.

While the property has its own general manager all of the other back office management and ownership is the same as the Mauna Kea, Autograph Collection. It's actually kind of weird because some employees, like maintenance, wear Mauna Kea clothing and even the Westin gift shop sells only Mauna Kea-branded attire. You really feel as if you're staying in a cheaper annex of Mauna Kea, but I digress.

It could have been that this was a new Westin and staff weren't familiar with the upgrade benefits, but given the fact that we had contractual upgrades and the fact that the Mauna Kea is known to be stingy with elite benefits I don't think I would expect anything more than what I booked, unless you're willing to fight for the upgrade and escalate to the general manager. For what it's worth, it took forever for the property to post the points and send me a final folio for our master account. Island time is very much a real thing. When I was on-property everyone was warm and welcoming but I could see that island time is very much a real affliction (even for managers).

This is a beautiful hotel, albeit with some weird design flaws (see my review, https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30086224-post1.html). I'm not happy with how they handled (and may still handle) the construction. I had to throw a fuss to get all of our event participants moved to rooms away from the construction. They actually assigned some of them rooms directly adjoining an active construction site.

I would be curious to know if they have changed the food-and-beverage now that they've had nearly a year to get things straightened out. When I was there the big complaint was insufficient variety of dinner options. Besides only having two restaurants -- three if you count the room service menu -- the menu never changed. I don't mind eating the same food every night if the food is good, but I know most of the 40 or so people in our group were tired of the limited food choices after three nights.

slpybear

Thanks for the feedback Hockeyinsider. This will be our 4th stay at the Hapuna, with three visits prior to any affiliation with MR or Starwood. We love the property and all of its "quirks." I will drop a review when we get back in June.

I will definitely consider using my SNA's. This is the first time I have received these, so I am debating the value of randomly using them throughout the year vs. getting a shot at a nice room for 5 nights. Seems like the odds are better scoring a Plat upgrade at various properties throughout the year vs scoring a Plat upgrade in HI.

Thanks!