Liz Grenfell

Review of Grand Wailea A Waldorf Astoria...

My husband and I just got back from our honeymoon ...

My husband and I just got back from our honeymoon and we had such high hopes for our time at the Grand Wailea but unfortunately the hotel did not live up to our expectations. We had a great stay in Kauai and we were really excited for our stay in Maui. The location itself in Wailea is great--beautiful beaches and close to a lot of things. If I was going to go again, I'd stay in Wailea but not at the Grand Wailea. Since it is a Waldorf brand, we expected it to be very nice and we expected a certain level of treatment that unfortunately we just felt we never received. The first red flag was when we checked in. I am a loyal Hilton customer and have Gold status. We thought we might get a room upgrade (it's a perk of being Gold) and we were not given one, but instead got a sales pitch on how we could pay an extra $150/night to upgrade to the executive level. As a Gold member you are also supposed to receive complimentary breakfast. At this property the "comp breakfast" is a $15 per person in room dining credit, that can ONLY be used on in room dining. With a 20% automatic gratuity and a $7 delivery fee, the $30 credit we received did not go far, not to mention it wasn't convenient to only be able to use it for in room dining, especially since we frequently ate lunch or got drinks on the resort--we would have appreciated if the credit applied towards all resort dining. We were also surprised how many young kids were at this property. This is obviously a very family friendly resort, but being a couple on our honeymoon, this is not what we were looking for. I think the biggest disappointment at the hotel was the lack of chairs for use each day at the pool. We would get to the pool at times that seemed reasonably early (between 9-10am) and find that ALL the chairs were already reserved. Apparently other guests would come down as early as 6am (note--the pools don't technically open until 7am) and put their towels down to reserve chairs. Unfortunately the hotel allowed this and didn't enforce the "60 minute unattended towel removal policy", which just reaffirmed the fact that this is not what we were expecting from a Waldorf. Additionally, what little chairs were left unoccupied, were all "reserved" for cabana use and would sit empty all day long, as the cabana purchase was quite costly. We just felt that it wasn't relaxing and we were disappointed that instead of being taken care of, we felt that we were being "taken" at every opportunity. An additional disappointment we experienced was with the valet. The only parking option at this hotel is valet for $30 a day. When we needed to get our car, we would find that sometimes the wait would be upwards of 15-20 minutes. All in all we had high expectations for our stay at the Waldorf and they just were not met. The property is nice, but the treatment of guests is not what I would expect from the Waldorf brand. Additionally the rooms are a bit dated and need some work. I would personally not stay at this property again and I wish I had done more research and stayed somewhere else during my honeymoon in Maui. Sorry Hilton, I usually love you, but not in this case!