squatch

the wife and i are going to maui for a week the week of new year's. i couldn't get 7 nights at any one resort, so we're doing two nights at the ritz followed by 5 at wailea beach.

i'll post a comparison between my experiences of the two when we return.

what i would like to do, though, is compliment the marriott rewards customer service agent that helped me book this trip. we are a month away from the trip and i could not piece together 7 consecutive nights at maui hotels using points online, and she made this work. this was fantastic and i left compliments on the phone survey after the call.

this trip reminds me of the reason i put up with all of the travel for work: i got a week in maui + a week in a hertz SUV + two plane tickets for the cost of some taxes and resort fees. i look forward to the sand between my toes.

there are a few threads regarding these hotels here on FT, but if anyone would like to toss any observations here about these two properties, i would appreciate it.

thanks!

MikeR397

I just stayed 6 nights at the Maui Kapalua Ritz, followed by 2 nights at the Four Seasons Wailea last week (currently in 7 nights Marriott on Big Island Waikoloa). This is my honeymoon trip. For us, we had better weather in Kapalua actually, although I know this is not the norm perhaps and 2 nights in Wailea was a short time (Virtuoso bookings BTW). A little windy, but plenty warm in both spots. The Ritz beach is beautiful and had some fantastic, fun ~8ft waves to play in. Wailea waves were little putters, as is the waves all over the Big Island.

Honestly, if possible I suggest staying on both parts of the island. Beautiful views and sights and things to do on both. I loved Maui. The Big Island is great, but Maui was much cooler and beautiful to me. Loved sunsets on top of Haleakala and all day trips around Hana and the hiking/swimming. The blue guide to Maui is a must book for sure. Not as helpful for the Big Island.

Enjoy your trip!

jjjansen

When I stayed at the Sheraton a 3 years ago, we could use the Westin pool. I think they do share facilities.

doctor15

You cannot (officially) use the other hotel's pool. The shuttle even had signs clearly saying this. You can use the restaurant/spa facilities at the other hotel and charge to your room though.

UA2PEK

My .02. Stayed at both before.
Short beach walk from one to other.
Westin if you bring kids and want the best pool.
Sheraton for couples.

UA2PEK

Yes they ended to poll sharing although it can be done as long as you blend in

ikonos

Hi, Do the SNA certs apply to these properties? Are the plats getting breakfast at these properties? I understand there is no lounge but how is breakfast handled? At the restaurant? Is it only Plat + 1 or more like kids as well? Appreciate your comments. Thanks.

UFgatorgal

Just returned on Monday from 5 nights at Sheraton. As Plat I was given breakfast vouchers for continental breakfast (fruit, yogurt, pastries, etc...be sure to get the bread pudding - best thing on the buffet). Was told I could upgrade to full buffet for $10, we opted for that twice but each time we got the bill we were only charged $8 per person to upgrade. Overall not bad. Just wish they had more variety - after 6 mornings it got old...be nice to see some different fruits or pastry options.

mpclaw

I recently returned to Maui and spent one night at the Sheraton en route to a 10 night stay at the Four Seasons on the other side of the island. Except for the annoying time share invite which always comes, the room and stay at the Sheraton was quite pleasant.

Upon check in I was told they had a nice "garden View" room and has to push the issue with the front desk. Eventually received an ocean view room when insistent.

I have been a platinum for 10 plus years which means NOTHING at the Westin. Until the room upgrades are completed at the Westin, avoid it like the plague. The fact that its a run down dump is well known to the front desk staff and management who in my opinion could care less. The check in lines are always long and slow. Supposedly the Westin in undergoing renovations but its 5 years overdue.

My anger runs so deep at the Westin, that I will never stay there again. Ever.

Have a look at February reviews on Trip Advisor. Management's replies stand logic on its head.

milemission

I saw the resort fee $31.25 for a points stay. Is it just increased?

HNLbasedFlyer

Yes.

Here is a link for all the resort fees in Hawaii hotels:

http://travel-hawaii.com/hawaiiresortfees.html

greg999

I will be travelling to Maui in the summer with two kids (will be ages 1 and 3 at the time of the trip). It looks like the going rate for a week in the summer for a one bedroom at the Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resorts Villas from an owner is around $2000 - $2300. Would this be a better deal than using starpoints to stay at the sheraton maui? Would be using the 5th night free award for 48,000 points + two extra nights for 72,000 total for the week. I am a gold member so unlikely to get a great upgrade.
I'm leaning towards the timeshare rental and using the points for something else but wasn't sure if the surrounding hotel might be better for small kids. Thanks for your opinions.

Fizzer

The extra room at the villas will come in handy with the youngsters, as will the kitchen facilities . The kids pool area at the villas seemed very popular and they all liked the koi feeding. The Sheraton is a nice resort but IMO you would have less flexibility there.

We used points for 1 night at the Sheraton before taking our villa
. The room we got as a Gold was a standard room in the Lahaina building, which whilst not unpleasant was certainly dated. There are sometimes deals to be had at the villas too, particularly if you are willing to sit in on a 1-2 hour time share spiel. If you want a referral PM me. I'm not sure what you'll be offered but at least you can explore it.

nycguy1963

We stayed at the Sheraton for a week last May. I would not recommend this resort; service was poor (we had to haul our own luggage to the room, which was faaaar away from check in; we had to push for our upgrade in spite of the fact that we had received an email confirmation of it; the bed was very uncomfortable (saggy, broken down mattress) and gave us sore backs; and the buildings were ugly, concrete slabs (we jokingly referred to it as Ape City for any original Planet of the Apes fans).

I wish I had chosen it instead, and definitely will on future Maui visits if Starwood is the chain I use.

BillY728

I'm a longtime lurker and I've used Flyertalk quite extensively in planning vacations. When it came time to decide between the Starwood resorts on Maui, I read this thread from top to bottom. It's clear from a lot of the members here that the Sheraton is capable of producing really memorable experiences. Unfortunately, I just didn't luck out.

About me, I was on vacation with my girlfriend and booked with points for 5 nights. I'm a 7-year platinum, 550+ nights at Starwood properties in that timeframe. I've been to amazing SPG resorts in Cancun, Bali, Virgin Islands, Pattaya, and others.

Problems began at check-in. First, I noticed that everyone was greeted with leis upon arrival... except us. At this point, it was no big deal. Next, I was told by the front desk associate that I was a Gold member. I gently let them know I was Platinum to get the check-in points, at which point I was told "it's the same thing". At this point, I assumed that this was one of those resorts which doesn't really recognize status and not a suggestion that I should stay 25 nights per year instead of 100 nights per year. (In actuality, it should fully recognize SPG status.) Next, I was told that I was given a room with a double bed, at which point I told them I had booked a king bed. This apparently was a surprise, as it took over 10 minutes for me to get keys to a new room with a king bed.

Fine, things started off bumpy, but it's Hawaii, it was time to relax! Except... I was told that I had to drive up to my room. But since I had already valet'd the car, this meant I had to drag the luggage back out, wait in the line for the valet, and repack the car.

At least the drive was short. But after driving up to the building, I almost felt like I was being put out back. But I thought to myself.. okay, maybe it will at least be a great room - the front desk talked it up as the "highest category" room. Nope. Walking there I felt like I was put in the basement, having to take the elevator down to the bottom floor. Speaking of elevators...

To get from the room to the beach took THREE elevators. Directions: walk to elevator #1, take to third floor, walk to another building, take elevator #2 to 8th floor, walk to end of building, take elevator #3 to 1st floor. To get to the room to the lobby was even more complicated and long - we were literally at the farthest possible point from the lobby. What's even better is the fact that at any given time, some of the elevators would be out of service. At least we got a workout.

"Highest category" or not, I wanted something more convenient. So, walked alllll the way back to the lobby to request a change. Was told they'd check and give me a call back. I'm still waiting for that call.

Fast forward to the end of the trip, to the hour and a half I was locked out of my room and barely made it to the airport in time. Because of the long walk between my room and lobby, I was extremely careful in making sure I always had the key. Unfortunately this caution was useless because apparently keys stop working at 2 PM on the day you check out... except I had late check-out at 4 PM. So after the girlfriend and I made the trek from the beach to the room, we had to make the same trek and more back to the lobby in wet swimwear.

At the desk I was told that I needed ID to get a key... except my ID was locked in the room. Despite offering up a variety of other information, it was useless - frankly, this was okay, as the ID is a safety precaution... right? But isn't it kind of ridiculous that as an alternative, I can just call the hotel on my phone, add the name of a random person in the lobby to my reservation, then have them show their ID and get my key that way?

While this technically worked, the next problem was their machine stopped being able to issue keys. Looking back, I'm not sure if this was actually a problem, or if they were just trying to inconvenience me further, since everyone else around us got their keys just fine. At this point, I was told that they would only be able to let us into the room once instead of giving us a key. At first, the front desk offered to have a security guard drive us to the room. After waiting around for this to happen, we were told that we should just walk back to the room and a security guard was to meet us there. After walking back and we waited for 20 minutes with no one in sight. Nervous that we would miss our flight, we began to wander around the hotel to find a phone. Upon finding one, we called guest services who paged a security guard for us. It took him 5 minutes to get to our door. After asking him what took so long, he said that he just got the call and came as soon as he did. After explaining what happened, even he was shocked and suggested that I complain to management. This also makes me wonder… what happened to the initial security guard that the front desk promised to meet us…? Did they even bother to call…?

After frantically packing everything and showering, we finally got on the road. Halfway to the airport, I received a final parting shot: on the bill was a $5 room service charge, even though we never ordered anything or touched their minibar. A fitting end to a stay at the Sheraton Maui.

Other things that just roiled me:

- Extremely rude person at Ka'anapali Point. The hallway to my hotel room leads to this area, which is just a lawn where the Sheraton holds events. When walking to my room, I was accosted by a worker who literally stepped right in my way and said "You can't go this way." There's only one way to my room... how else am I supposed to get there?

- No one ever picks up the phone. Whether it was to call a taxi, order food, ask for the concierge, it was a total crapshoot as to whether or not anyone would pick up. Of course, this meant to get any answers, you would have to make the trek to the lobby. This also meant we never got to enjoy our complimentary champagne toast even though we tried to order it three separate nights.

- Woke up a few mornings to towel or maid carts entirely blocking our door or our hallway and no one in sight to move them.

- Some of the towels were disgusting... after unfolding a "fresh" towel on a beach chair, we noticed there were dark brown stains all over it. Ugh.

To be fair, I did like some things about the hotel:

- the location is great - everything you might need is within a 10 minute drive

- Black Rock is right there - if you want to go snorkeling, I recommend going to Boss Frog's, about a 5 minute drive away. You can rent snorkeling gear there for the whole week and it will cost less than renting from the Sheraton for a day. Think of it as renting off-mountain during ski season.

- the pool is nice – set up like a lazy river, but isn’t

- The Sheraton Sweet Sleeper bed is great

- I appreciated the VIP wristbands for towels… much better than towel cards

This experience was so different from my other Starwood stays that I even spent time to research the hotel. It turns out the problem might be the fact that Starwood doesn't own this property... instead, it's owned by a company called Kyoya Hotels and Resorts. Frankly, the next time I'm in Hawaii, I'll be staying at the Westin Maui.