DaM3nace

Stayed over Labor Day week and there have been some changes:

• Pool towel cards were rolled out and are required to get a towel. We didn’t really need to use these as we had paid chairs most days and they provided plenty of towels. I can see this becoming a nuisance in the future if you need several towels. They said many towels are being lost or stolen.
  
• Platinum breakfast is not a buffet, but is a one time continental breakfast brought to you or you can pay to upgrade.
  
• They offer the fill your own gift bag at lobby, previous visits they gave us a pre-filled bag. The store is open 1:30-4:30 daily.
• Had previously received a card for a free appetizer but didn’t get any of those this time around. Not sure what the logic behind those is.
• 
  Towel cards
  
  Towel card back
  
  Elite upgrade menu
  
  Continental breakfast
  
  Egg white omelette
  
  Eggs benedict
• 
  Welcome gift bag card
  
  
  
  
  

edgewood49

WOW First thanks for the great post/update. So stealing towels happen, really? This sounds like a huge smoke screen for portion control I think it will get worse yet. Once again we can say "Aloha" to what we once knew and loved. Loyalty continues to take huge hits, think about this now an argument can be made to eliminate FF programs use that huge cost center to lower rates until Covid that would ave been possible today no, why because airlines leveraged their programs for loans/cash.

bocastephen

Wow those breakfast "upgrade" prices look mysteriously like the full menu price minus about $5 - how generous! The breakfast change is a MAJOR downgrade, that plate looks really pathetic.

Interesting that we're back to the old "Price is Right" style game of stuffing your bag, haven't seen that in years - if you're careful, you can get away with 2-3x more than you got in the original gift bag.

The pool cards are tacky - they can't see people walking away with a big white towel? Where are the towels going? Probably back to the room, vs back to Indiana, so I'm sure it's something they can deal with differently.

The appetizer cards are useful - as a matter of fact, we had so many of them for a 3 night stay, it covered 2.5 meals plus snacks to take on the flight home, although there was a chance the FD agent gave us too many

edgewood49

What gets me is all of a sudden there is a problem with towels ? And how long has the property been there ? Or are towels the next toilet paper shortage on the mainland. I think it's a red herring thrown out there to cover this mess.

margarita girl

1) The breakfast upgrade does not include the fruit and yogurt! So you pay extra for the other items, but that’s all you get! Restaurant Mgr insists that Marriott says they only have to offer continental breakfast which is far below what was offered in the lounge. All 4 properties (SW, MS, RH, PK) have standardized on this “breakfast”. And to make matters worse, they ran out of yogurt!

2) It’s easy enough to get extra towels.

3) What appetizer cards? I’m here now and we were offered no such thing.

4) I was offered 1K pts or a box of chocolates as a welcome gift (on top of the gift bag). No chocolates were ever sent to the room, but my first room was very mouldy smelling. Housekeeping came up and suspected it was coming from the carpet. I changed rooms. Should be getting a suite for the rest of my stay.

I miss Kelly Sanders (GM when it was SPG) and I hate how much this property has gone downhill since the merger.

DaM3nace

Regular breakfast prices are not cheap:

https://www.qpendium.com/admin/files...kfast_Menu.pdf

The continental plate is a downgrade from the hot breakfast included earlier this year and even the buffet continental breakfast but we got by with ordering one hot dish and the free continental and sharing.

Kacee

Very sad :-(

Were you able to get your chaises at the pool?

margarita girl

You can’t reserve anything and they’ve removed about 2/3 of the chairs. I can’t imagine what it will be like if the hotel is at full occupancy.

I got my Kai Suite starting with the second night, as did one of my friends. Another friend got a Malia Suite.

edgewood49

MG good to "see" you again hope all is well, Is there anything going on across the street at the Princess K? Has the remodel stopped ?

Travel safe

GR

margarita girl

Sorry, no idea.

bocastephen

It's hard to know where to lay the blame - Marriott, or the Japanese owner, who no longer seems to care about offering a great experience. Either way, the situation is bad enough that it warrants looking into non-Marriott properties for a better experience, and not staying at the SW would be a sad change given my 20+ yr history there.

edgewood49

I have been traveling to the islands since the mid 70's business and pleasure the Hyatt was my "main squeeze" for a long time until they closed the Colony then GS bought it bled it dry and so on I said farewell. I have stayed at most of the "majors" during this time now its sad to see the continued downward spiral which will only continue. Off subject but even the Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris has chopped services/bar/buffet.

UGH

Having said all this there is a new "norm" coming I predict more travelers will look to at price point/services than brand loyalty. Now the problem the airlines/hotel flags have is most have leveraged their FF accounts and or using it as a valuation to their bankers. The more of us that complain / stop staying the sooner something will have to happen. Look no further than to the new CEO at Marriott and his comments of late. The couple him with Parker at AA. Even my go to airline Alaska is changing.

Travel safe everyone

HNLbasedFlyer

This hotel or any hotel on Oahu probably won't have to worry about full occupancy for quite some time.

Right now Oahu is on some of the most Covid restrictions in the US with outdoor and indoor gathering limits for at least the next couple of months. Hence removal of pool chairs. You've also got to be vaccinated or recent test to eat indoors which has caught some tourists by surprise.

As far as people stealing Sheraton Pool Towels - they've certainly had pool cards in the past, I have some old ones. I don't know if it is a meaningful number of towels stolen - but it isn't uncommon to see the distinctive Sheraton orange striped towels on beaches around Oahu that were taken by residents.

anteater

As someone who has stayed and continues to stay on Oahu innumerable times over the years, I think the Sheraton is doing just fine.

The hotel itself is doing a great job at maintaining the facilities and treating repeat guests well. Though, being under the Marriott flag does mean they do have to tow the line with respect to the trickle down culture from the current CEO. Yes, that’s meaning a change to some benefits like breakfast.

That being said, all industries undergo change. There seems to be a romanticism about the past, such as the post WWII era of air travel and hotels where you’d have a cart of prime rib rolling down the aisle on a 747 in First Class. That style of travel and hotel experience is long gone as the industry has fundamentally changed to match the needs of those who are actually traveling.

If you go to Oahu or the Sheraton expecting the exact experience of your decades past trip, you’re going to have a bad time. However, if you go expecting a clean, modern hotel with friendly service you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Nothing is forever, even visit the same place or hotel week over week will eventually look quite different as the years pass. Change isn’t necessarily bad, and the Sheraton is far from dwindling.

I’d recommend the Sheraton for families, the RH for a more quiet experience, and the Moana for the view.

🙌🏻🍹

Finkface

Well said!