Theresea Rusinko

Review of MANELE BAY HOTEL

Edit: I am editing my review up to 5 stars because...

Edit: I am editing my review up to 5 stars because of the immediate and extremely genuine response by David the resort manager. (and removing some things because I've hit the character limit with this edit). He tracked us down on the beach to apologize and ask what he could do to make our last night amazing. We really, really appreciate the effort made to fix things and also believe our experience was at the very least unacceptable to them, if not a complete outlier. Definitely made us feel more welcome and gave us a new perspective that made us feel better about everything that happened. Thanks so much for finding us!

Beautiful grounds and helpful staff were marred by the incessant upselling (on our room, activities, dining... Everything) on top of already exorbitant pricing on it all. Staying at a fancy hotel at this price point shouldn't feel like being hustled. "Because it's your anniversary" we were offered two upgraded room options, and at this point I was expecting maybe a single step upgrade for free, or possibly a bottle of wine, or some small thing... But no, one room at $150/night extra... and the other at an extra $900/night! We get to the first upgrade room option and our ambassador says "Oh this is not a very good room, want to see the other room?" Uh, no thanks. If we were interested in spending another $900/night we wouldn't have booked the lowest Garden view for $750/night. And that was after coming off an exhausting multi-plane trip to get here. We also weren't told there are free hourly shuttles to town and ended up spending $150 to rent a Jeep to visit the town - only to find out the "shopping area" is an art gallery and a couple normal touristy shops. (Still cheaper than buying sunscreen at the hotel shop - $48 for spray sunscreen!) And then we find out a day or two later about the free shuttles. We are used to inflated prices at nice hotels, especially in semi-remote locations, and are happy to pay for a great vacation but all of it together definitely rubbed us the wrong way. I think the upselling was what really put everything else in a negative light. We did receive a happy anniversary cake the night we arrived (not our anniversary) which was very nice... And another one on our second night (also not), with a bottle of wine. We felt bad wasting it but didn't want another chocolate cake :/

The food options, especially for dinner, are very limited and pricey for the quality. They advertise 5 restaurants, but only a few are open for any given meal. There is another restaurant at the golf course, only open for lunch, and we didn't get a chance to try it. Nobu and Malibu Farms at the pool are exceptions - highly recommend the soy ginger steak sandwich at Malibu and doing the omaskase at Nobu. And Eunice at the pool is a delight!

Skip the mountain biking unless you plan on bringing gloves and bicycle shorts - they are bare bones, alright-condition bikes. We had a good time biking to Garden of the Gods but I'm still bruised from the rock hard tiny seat 4-5 days later. I assumed this would be a more tourist-friendly activity. Definitely shell out for the snorkel sail, truly the best snorkeling I've done in Hawaii and the boat crew was great. Same for the UTV rides - one of the most fun things I've done. Uncle Bruno and the parrots on site are also definitely a highlight.

Overall, maybe best for a shorter trip. I hate leaving reviews like this. It was really nice and I feel bad that our view of it seemed unfortunately skewed - but I do feel like if you're considering spending this kind of money on a vacation you should know all of it. We are leaving tomorrow after 9 nights and feel a bit taken advantage of because there are so few accessible options.