vg247

Ray,

So sorry to hear about the terrible and unacceptable experiences you encountered at the RH. Thank you for writing and thoroughly sharing with us all so we may avoid the RH altogether...

I have never stayed there, however we have always been regular guests next door at the Sheraton or Westin Moana Surfrider, and throughout various times of the year our visits were all some of the best vacations. Just returned from a fabulous stay through July 4th weekend at the Sheraton Waikiki...

-- no affiliation to Sheraton or Westin, just one super happy regular guest

RayGunFlyer

VG247-

Thanks for the reply. I have stayed at both the Sheraton Princess and Moana Surfrider previously, and only had good things to say. I agree with you. I tried the Royal Hawaiian because it was presented as a bit more family friendly and full service (e.g., kid pools, water slides, grassy courtyards, luxury service, etc...). I have learned my lesson--Customer Service is most important. In fact, the "make-up" points promised for my inconveniences at the Royal Hawaiian have never been followed through on (12+ days and counting). I am not really surprised.

If I could do it again, I would book with the Sheraton Waikiki or Moana Surfrider. I have always been satisfied and taken care of at those great hotels.

SST

Here now. I am aghast that they can get away with BOTH a "resort fee" AND charging $40-55 for chairs on the beach each day. And the "new" high-rent brown umbrella chairs essentially block the view of the traditional four rows of "Pink" chairs and umbrellas.

What has happened to my favorite Waikiki digs?

Nickel-dime fees make no sense... Don't people come to Waikiki for the beach? That'll be $75-85 extra a day, sir. Please feel free to enjoy the tiny pool at our "five star" resort. What? I could do a pool at any of four dozen hotels here... What makes the RH special is in fact its place on the beach. Management seems to have lost its way.

More once we've had our four nights, and hopefully my disappointment will be outweighed. We'll see.

CRAZ8

Here's a different perspective from someone who'll be there in a few weeks.

I'm going to use the Valet parking, so the resort fee covers something I'm using.

I'm unlikely to use the beach chairs. Why should I pay for that in my room rate if I'm not going to use it, or, if there's so few chairs that I'd have to be there at 7am to get a place (see the Four Seasons Maui for this problem)

If you don't like the fees, stay somewhere else without them. All the resorts seem to have these - I stayed at the Grand Wailea on Maui last year - Resort Fee + Mandatory Valet Parking fees + Adult Pool closed, so less space at other pools for quiet relaxing. Still, the place was packed. People are voting with their wallets, and the vote is that these fees aren't killing their business.

My new rule is to add these fees to my budget and suck it up, otherwise it spoils my expensive vacation for something I can't change.

clublounger

The resort fee doesn't cover valet parking. It covers self parking.

HNLbasedFlyer

We are year 3 of record tourism in Hawaii - that is what happened.

Waikiki was practically a ghost town in 2008 - now jammed packed with 90%+ occupancy all year around.

LovetoTravel83

Actually it does cover Valet Parking.

From the hotel's website:

SST

Day two report: both days, the pink umbrella seats were half empty ($40). The brown umbrella seats, nearer the ocean, seemed to be mostly full ($54, non guests permitted). So capacity isn't the issue: as I sit here now mid morning on day three, I count 45 umbrella sets in pink. 11 of them have towels on their chairs, the rest are vacant. Half the brown sets are vacant too.

Pool chairs (still free) were 100% taken by 10:30 each day; we got two, and it's an additional 30' to the beach. In the past, these were mostly taken up by families with small children, but not now. To the swift come the spoils; a family can either pay for TWO umbrellas, tough it out on a towel, or enjoy the malls instead of Waikiki.

No problem for me! We're early risers.

I do wish there was some consideration for Platinums in all this (free, or a reduction, or beach chairs after noon if available?) but apparently they now see this as pure revenue-- I don't buy the occupancy argument, as IME the Royal Hawaiian has been almost always full over years of visits.

Early review of this trip: our room, in the historic building, is wonderful. Breakfasts for Platinums are both sufficient and delicious. I especially like the house-made granola with their plain yogurt. Fresh squeezed juices too, excellent Kona coffee. It's $15 to upgrade to a breakfast entree like eggs Benedict, but we didn't find any desire to. The complimentary is that good.

Drinks excellent; lunch entrees were good, but not up to the standards of the past several visits--- someone decided to use yesterday's Mahi Mahi in the Thai salad, for example, instead of the tender, moist, steaming filet we got last visit, in March. The Thai dressing was excellent, but really--- for $22 let's use fresh ingredients. Contrasted with the prior evening's Mahi Mahi filet at Halekulani ($26, with two sides), a short walk away, this was just disappointing.

Bed comfort is superb. Turndown service provided water and snacks in the evenings. Water pressure in the shower was good. A/C is adequate, but barely. Never have achieved 68 degrees. Housekeeping kills it when they leave, too, so we turned it back on ASAP to make sure evenings were comfortable.

Our place is quiet, despite being over the bar area. Kudos for that. At checkin, our agent got us a nice room, noted the upgrade without prompting, and except for the line with no dedicated Platinum desk, that part of checkin went fine. We were given a key to the upstairs suite used for clients who need to change upon arrival, and our luggage was stored by the bell staff.

Luggage retrieval was another thing. When we actually got our keys at 3pm checkin time, another checkin agent took our luggage receipt and said she'd have it sent up. An hour later, we called down and no one knew anything. My wife visited and the manager actually FOUND our luggage receipt in this agent's waste basket! Our luggage was found and delivered, about 90 minutes after we arrived in the room, after this exercise. Little stuff like this---- not five star. Slipping.

So far: a pretty good stay, weather great, room very good, beach excellent. Might go back to the Moana next time, as it was flawless last time, and $60 a night less.

joelfreak

Kelly Hoen, the GM since the RH reopened, is gone. Now the GM over at Modern Honolulu. Will be interesting to see if the new GM (yet to be named) breathes some fresh life into RH. http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/n...ennon-and.html

LovetoTravel83

Well I can tell you they haven't changed anything yet. Received an email yesterday regarding my stay in a couple of weeks, and all I can see on that email are fees fees fees. I think I will get charged just for walking in there.

clublounger

they've got to charge you.....pink's not cheap ya know !

SacTownGuy

I saw some question above about the resort fees and what's included. From their website:

Starwood Hotels & Resorts in Waikiki now charges a daily Resort Charge posted to each guestroom to offer our guests an array of generous amenities and services for a nominal all-inclusive fee. Please find below information on the benefits and amenities guests receive for this charge:

Wireless internet access in guest room/suite
Valet parking for one(1) vehicle
Unlimited local and 1-800 telephone calls
Up to 60 minutes of long distance telephone calls per day (cumulative of domestic & international calls; unable to carry over unused minutes)
Children 5 & under eat for free from Children’s Menu at designated restaurants for breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner with paying adult (One paying adult = one free child meal)
Morning coffeetea near the entrance of Surf Lanai
Historical/cultural activities (Ukulele Classes, Lei Making, Historical Tour, Hula Classes)
Seasonal Beach activities (On sand-surf lessons, Talk story with the Beach Boys, On Sand-Outrigger Canoe Lessons)
One Drink Coupon per person per stay. E Komo Mai Tai. A non-alcoholic option is offered as well
One 4" x 6" color portrait by professional photographer
This charge will be billed directly to all guests, at a daily rate of $36.65 inclusive, per room, per day.
RESORT CHARGE RATE AND INCLUSIONS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

spgplat21

$40 seems really high for beach chairs, but I prefer the charge to the terrible system that was used when I was there. A few years ago during my stay, it was a bunch of people running down at the crack of dawn each morning, putting books and towels on every chair in sight and leaving them there all day only to show up periodically for a couple hours later in the day. The attendants were supposed to remove items from chairs after they were vacant for more than 30 minutes, but that's a really tough thing to enforce with so many people moving around so there were rarely any chairs available and we usually had to wait quite a long time before some would come available.

I think the best solution is probably somewhere in between a fee and some enforcement of the old rules, but for a once in a lifetime trip I would have been really happy to pay $80/day for chairs that week.

LovetoTravel83

Checked in today. The place is just wonderful. Received an upgrade to a loft suite (tried to get downgraded to a garden suite but it seems it was full). I asked about the alternative amenity, and yes, I received that stare that led to nowhere. However, the staff that work here are just wonderful.

LovetoTravel83

Stayed for 6 nights. The place is great. We were upgraded as noted above to a loft suite which is located on the ground floor. We were assigned room number 1 (very strange having a room with a single digit), the room had a bed on the first floor and another on the second, after checking the bathroom, I got the feeling that it is an accessible suite. Asked if it's possible to move to a non-accessible room, and we were moved to suite number 5 (it had a living room on the lower level). The rooms are in close proximity to the beach which is great.

The breakfast was also good. Paid $20 to upgrade to an item of the menu for myself and my wife. They had a Hawaiian Santa on one of those days at the restaurant.

The only negative thing I could speak of, is that Housekeeping entered the room even though it was on DND. They called prior to entering to make sure that no one was there, but I was taking a shower so I couldn't hear the phone ringing. They entered anyways. This happened twice. It also happened once at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani on a one night stay. It seems DND is DD in Waikiki.