Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort

“Charged to book tours and activities”

The hotel was wonderful, clean, friendly, and covenant. However, be aware that the tours and activity service is not a free service the the patrons. When in fact, they add a whopping 40% fee for booking anything for you. Being a hiltons honor member for years, this was disappointing and embarrass… more

The hotel was wonderful, clean, friendly, and covenant. However, be aware that the tours and activity service is not a free service the the patrons. When in fact, they add a whopping 40% fee for booking anything for you. Being a hiltons honor member for years, this was disappointing and embarrassing when I was telling others about the trip and the cost to find out I paid $20 more and to add insult to injury, i tipped the person who booked me!

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“Nice but not impressive ”

Although this was not an all-inclusive resort, as a resort, there are still some expectations that I have when traveling and staying at nice hotels and/or resorts. So here are my pros and cons about this Hilton resort. PROS: 1. If you don't want to, you don't have to leave the resort grounds b/c … more

Although this was not an all-inclusive resort, as a resort, there are still some expectations that I have when traveling and staying at nice hotels and/or resorts. So here are my pros and cons about this Hilton resort. PROS: 1. If you don't want to, you don't have to leave the resort grounds b/c they have it all, from food to shopping and the pool/beach life. 2. The staff was always very nice and helpful. Two of the staff members were truly amazing, Sam and Fia. They were just very helpful and extremely nice. 3. The rooms were decent, nothing out of the ordinary. We had a decent view with partial lagoon view. 4. The Tapas pool had a DJ every day, so that was nice, and the Tapas bar had a different band playing each night. So there was a variety of music for all to enjoy. 5. The ambiance of the resort is also really nice. There are sounds of water everywhere, from the water fountains located throughout to the pond with coi fish to the ocean nearby. It is just a relaxing surround sound 6. You don't have to wear any type wrist bands which is great; however, the resort is also sort of open to the public as well since there is shopping and whatnot, so you don't know if ppl at the pool are resort or public, although you need a towel card to get a towel, but you don't necessarily have to get one. 7. They also have this towel container near the Tapas pool, just in case the towel person is away, you can use your room card to get a towel or 2. 8. The resort is surrounded by walkways and parks, so if you want to take a run along the beach or stretch and meditate in the park, there is plenty of outdoor space to do those things. CONS: For a resort, even if non-inclusive, it just lacked the basics that you would get at regular hotels. 1. You only got 2 bottles of water for your entire stay. I am silver and so I had a link to get these 2 bottles, but when I went to retrieve them, the concierge wasn't around so had to go to the Korean concierge desk, and you had to shoe the link and click redeem before you get the waters. I was having a bit of trouble with all the links I received to find the right one, but let me tell you she was holding on to those 2 bottles as if they were gold before she let me have them. I had to show her the link cluck redeem, and then she gave them to me, I understand protocol, but it was her attitude about it that was a turn-off. 2. For a resort, they didn't even have anywhere for you to fill up on water. Usually, a regular hotel would have water sitting out with fruit or regular for your enjoyment. Not here. There was no water refill to be found, not even a fountain. You had to buy them. 3. The restaurants on the grounds were expensive for what they served. For instance, I paid $30 for a lox bagel. They give you a good amount but at the end of the day it was a bagel. So you had to go off campus to find cheaper food. 4. Wasn't that many activities for you to do. They had yoga and stretching classes on once a day at 630a. So if you missed it then oh well. And they had a lei making class also only on certain days and only once that day. 5. To get a de ent price on any other activities such as sunset cruise, a luao, hike etc you had to listen to a presentation for 2 hours, or you could just book it with a company off campus. 6. The campus is basically a shopping mall, there is everything thing there from Louis Vuitton store to Pandora, to other local shops and restaurants but you will pay premium prices. For instance I went to Pandora at the International mall first (b/c I didn't notice there was one at the resort), then another day went to the one on site and it was $30-$45 higher than the one at the mall. B/c it's an affliation location they are allowed yi upcharge, which is crazy and you won't get the sales there either. Pandora was having a 30%off sale, but not in the one on the resort. 7. For this size resort, the pools were small, and the cabanas they offered were laughable. No one ever got a cabana, not one time while I was there. And they had pool chairs packed in and no umbrellas, so if you didn't want to be in the sun, it was hard to find a shady spot. 8. The beach was nice, but unlike other resorts, you had to rent the chairs as well. From my understanding, they could only occupy a certain amount of space on the beach, but with that, they didn't even have a roped off section for the resort chairs, so that it could be first come, first serve. To have to rent beach chairs, I thought, was ridiculous. 9. I always clean and wipe down my hotel rooms when I fist arrive, and I always run water through the coffee and tea pots/dispensers. However, in my room, I ran water through the dispenser and it was brown and had coffee grounds so I ran water through it again b/c that's not abnormal, however with this dispenser I ran water through it for 4 days several times a day and there was always coffee grounds in it an not a little but a lot. So that said to me they NEVER clean those things. I finally called for a new one. I wanted to make tea and didn't want grounds in my tea. All in all, it was ok, but not like I have to stay here again. Although the staff was very nice and accommodating, it just didn't make up for the lack of basic things. I think the resort was missing. And to charge a resort fee, to basically have small pools and cabanas from the 70's was just unacceptable. The food also was so great that it should be so high in price. I truly just felt like I could have stayed in a regular hotel and had the same experience. The property is nice, but my overall experience was just mediocre at best.

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