margarita girl

Anyone staying at this hotel in the next little while should be aware that the hotel is practically sold out due to the railing accident at the MS. MS has blocked access to the lanai and many guests have checked out and moved to the SW.

My friend and I had 2 back-to-back reservations at the SW so we could both get points/stay credit. I used NUAs to upgrade my reservation to Kai Suite with 2 beds (it's the only box I ticked off). At check-in, agent says we'll be able to keep our city-view room for both reservations. I protested that I was in a Kai suite and showed the FDA my app confirming the suite upgrade, as well as the confirmation email from Marriott. She went to the back to talk to a mgr and says they'll have to put us in a city view room for now, and sure enough, the app says I'm now in a city-view room. I ask to speak to the mgr and he says they are sold out but he is trying to get me into a Kai suite. He is finally able to confirm us into Kai suite with 1 king bed and sofa bed.

In the meantime, I ask mgr to keep checking for at least an ocean view room for my friend's reservation (also Ti status). No luck, hotel is completely sold out and there is not a single ocean view room available. After 30+ stays at this hotel, I don't even know what a city view room looks like.

Not sure how long this will go on for, but if you are going to be staying here, upgrades may be hard to come by.

littlevoices

I stayed at the Sheraton Waikiki for a week, over the Easter holidays in 2024 so I probably experienced it at near capacity. Not wanting to take any chances I, Ambassador, booked and was given a Malia Ocean Suite, for about USD1000/night including all taxes and resort junk fees (needed space for 2 kids). This was my first tip to Hawaii, and I chose the Sheraton for the balcony – and the view at the end of Waikiki beach really is spectacular (The Westin Moana balconies are still closed), plus a USD200m upgrade was stated to have just finished – which does seem to mean newer rooms/bathrooms and public spaces.

I’ll try to make this a review focused on the pertinent points for elites:

Breakfast – is all al-la-carte. As a Platinum/Titanium/Ambassador member you get a continental breakfast (over-priced at USD21 in the menu) for two, or a discount on a more normal breakfast (that removes the continental part). You really can have a basic breakfast for free, but if paying it is pretty much the same or slightly more expensive than choosing a local favourite restaurant like “Eggs n Things”, though with a potentially better view. Kids were paid for too. You can see the menus here: https://www.kaimarketwaikiki.com/our-menus

Sheraton Waikiki elite continental breakfast(free)


Capacity and Queuing – My god the hotel is huge and always busy. Breakfast queues started about 7.30am (7am for an outdoor table), which was about the same time people started queuing to get to the adult-only infinity pool (opens at 8am, strictly enforced no entry before then). The child-friendly pool had the majority of the loungers were taken by about 7am, except for “red” loungers that were sold from USD125 for 2 people to about USD625 for ~6, which in the week I was there were booked almost every day. So if you want guaranteed spaces you need to pay and book in advance. We always managed to find one lounger as the turnover was fairly quick, and the staff did do some level of removal of items after being unattended for an hour or so.

Welcome gift – It is worth calling out that the hotel has a great idea where they have a gift shop open ~4hours/day to select your own welcome gift, the higher your Elite status the bigger the bag. That includes chocolates, cookies, but also mementos like mugs and notepads. I thought this was a great idea, but is also a reminder of just how many status members they have that its worth a unique shop just for that. Aka, expect no upgrades or special treatment.

Restaurants – Because you are so close to all the eating areas of Waikiki beach I don’t think you need to eat at the hotel, and they seem to recognise this. I’ve spent the least of any resort hotel in extras here, as there was fairly limited patrolling of the pool space to offer lunch/drinks, the pizza restaurant has closed, and the edge bar closes by 5pm (before sunset). There are a selection of stores within the hotel, but except for Baskin Robbins for icecream (great idea), it’s a pain to put things onto your room, so you may as well use cash/credit cards, or go elsewhere.

Pool – Isn’t heated. Perhaps it’s my weakness of being in Asia too much, but in April that meant that most people just focused on the overcrowded hot-tub. It is however very kid friendly with a couple of slides and areas to jump and splash around, and you are very likely to spend a lot of time here. It is always busy during daylight hours.

Room: Perfectly reasonable, with a free reusable water holder, branded for the hotel. It’s a good idea, and means no water bottles in the room. Otherwise, very functional, recently refurbished, and a lot of the balconies have a great view of the Diamond Head.

Resort fees – Truly useless, there are 1600 rooms, and they offer 20 places to learn a Ukulele once a day, however they are so niche they did have space 3-4 days in advance... You can see the full list here: https://ipoolside-media.s3.amazonaws...tivities_2.pdf . There was Yoga, a gopro rental for one day, a Wifi device and so forth. You’d struggle to get any value.

My overall view then is that you are paying for the room, your status won’t get you any upgrade, so just be happy to earn points on your spend. The hotel is impressively massive and always busy, and it makes a great base to explore the rest of the beach area, and eat out. I would consider coming back for the views.

edgewood49

Very nice well written as you said. Thank you for not adding the usual massive amount of pictures.

margarita girl

Believe it or not, this gift was the idea of Kelly Sanders, the amazing GM that ran the place under Starwood. It's the same gift shop that was used 13 yrs ago when I started staying there. There were far fewer Elites under SPG than under MAR.

Another great benefit Kelly put in place was allowing SPG Platinum/Ambassador members to reserve chairs in the first row in front of the Edge pool months ahead. (This would be the first row of free chairs.) I would book my 2 favorite seats as soon as I made a reservation. They had to do away with this benefit after the merger because of the number of Elites meant that someone would always be annoyed that all the chairs were booked.

Also, I never had to use SNAs. I got a suite every time I went if there was a suite available which was 90-95% of the time.

Kelly also allowed Gold members one complimentary visit to the Leahi Lounge to give them some recognition.

edgewood49

Ah " those were the days "

zs58

Hear hear! My first visit to the SW was in 2012 (was plat/ambassador off and on for most of the next decade) - after my first few visits I was so impressed by Kelly and his whole team that I used to send annual gift baskets. Regular suite upgrades, welcome candies/beverages delivered to my room, the (truly incredible) Leahi lounge, the whole FD crew and lounge staff - easily my favorite North American hotel, by far. Sadly, ever since ~2021 I haven't been back as a guest - my Honolulu visits have been spread across the Surfrider, Outrigger, and RH. Bittersweet every time I walk by the SW - there is nothing like the view from the lounge in the morning or choosing between an ocean or Diamond Head view from either balcony in a nice suite. What a wonderful run it was!

bocastephen

The absolute dumbest act Marriott and the Waikiki franchisee every made in their mutual history was creating an environment where Kelly Sanders had to leave. Doing so was a pretty obvious declaration of war on their best customers and many years of loyalty that so many of us gave this resort.

margarita girl

LIKE button not working, so YES and YES! And that was pre-renovation! I didn’t care that the hotel was starting to look shabby. The way I was treated made me go back again and again.

edgewood49

The same can be said for the "Mona"