Grand Wailea, A Waldorf Astoria Resort

This is my second stay at the Grand Wailea. Last year we had a great stay. It’s kind of surprising how much the property has gone downhill since then. They seem to be understaffed and the rooms not as nice. As a Diamond member we were placed the farthest possible point from the pool with a loud utility room or something outside…not what I’d expect at a luxury hotel. Valet Parking only -$75 a night. I get valet only at a luxury property on Maui, but it’s significantly more than other properties nearby. The pool - the pools are great, especially if you have kids. However, the check in process and obtaining a pool chair can be challenging if you don’t get there early. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a nice property overall, but I likely wouldn’t come back for a 3rd stay - there’s too many better options nearby that will likely get my money in the future. I want to love it and for it to be a place we come back year after year, but unfortunately that’s not the case. As a side note - I’ve also stayed at the Marriott Beach resort a few times, always upgraded, can self park if you wish, much cleaner and nicer property. Pool chairs are plenty, and free beach chairs if you’re there early enough. If considering Wailea, I’d weigh all my options before choosing the Grand Wailea.

Excellent property with no better views in Maui. We were here w our two adult sons and their spouses (3 total rooms). Great experience. Staff was super helpful and professional. Comfortable rooms with wonderful views. Fun shops on premises. Beautiful grounds but easy to get turned around in. Frankly, I’d recommend eating off property (yes we ate at Nobu, but that is a separate review). Location was close to shopping center and restaurants. Love to stay here again.

This hotel is a mixed bag and has gotten worse in the last several years. I am staying there now and have one more night before I leave. The grounds are beautiful, enormous, and welcoming. The pools, with the water slides and lots of different aquatic activities, are quite wonderful, and kids love them. However, the hotel needs lots of improvement. It is nearly impossible for anybody who has mobility issues. In order to get from most of the hotel rooms to the pool or beach, guests must walk a long way down winding paths and stairs. That means walking a long way back up every time you want to get to your room from the pool or beach. I am a senior citizen and have pain in my knees, and it was a struggle for me to walk down to the pools and back up every day. The adult pool and adult hot tub are ridiculous because the pool is ice cold. Literally I saw dozens of people start to get in and turn around to get out when they felt the temperature. The hot tub is so hot in literally feels like it’s scalding your skin. Temperatures are way off. Location is excellent, but everything here is about making money off of guests. Exorbitant fees for the rooms, usually running $1,000 or more per night, and then a resort fee on top of that. The parking, especially valet parking, and food at the restaurants and cafés is ridiculous. $60 for the breakfast buffet, and even at the snack shack near the pools, sandwiches are 2 to 3 times what they would cost outside of the hotel grounds. Coffee in the morning cost me $8 at the takeout restaurant, and then they charged me $1 for a refill! An employee of the snack shack told us when we ordered our lunch that we were not allowed to sit at the snack shack tables directly in front of us because that was the only for people who ordered from the wait staff. In other words, wanting to have people pay tips to waiters for takeout food they can get themselves. Everything is about making more money In order to find a lounge chair near the pools, guests must claim them by about 9 AM with their towels and belongings, or there will be none available for the rest of the day. We spent an hour one day looking for a place to sit and leave our towels while we swam, and then finally gave up and sat near the beach because we couldn’t find a chair near the pool. Totally out of control. Lounge chairs are jammed together one right after another, creating an uncomfortable situation. The hotel allows residents of the island to buy season passes for the pool, as well, which only means bigger crowds. It’s all about the money.

My husband and I are Hilton loyalists and had a free night certificate that we wanted to use while visiting Maui. We chose the Grand Wailea resort as we had stayed next-door at another resort previously and thought it looked very nice. I had also heard it was recently renovated. We were not disappointed. We did our research obviously prior to our trip and knew this was not going to be a small intimate hotel. There were a lot of families with small children, but the hotel was big enough that you didn’t feel like you were in close proximity all the time and had plenty of space to spread out and do fun things as adults. There is an adult swimming pool as well as a large children’s pool separated from the adult pool that had great, lazy rivers, slides, etc. unfortunately we were at the hotel during the Kona low storm that impacted Maui and some of the pools for the children were closed. This was an unfortunate circumstance because children were at the adult pool but based on the situation, I understood although I don’t think others did. Because we are diamond loyalists we were upgraded to a wonderful room overlooking the chapel and the sea and there’s an entire section of the hotel that has shops and a market that’s open 24 hours, which was great particularly during the weather situation. In addition, we ate at several restaurants at the hotel, including Olivine, which had exceptionally high-quality food. We moved on to try another hotel that we had wanted to try after our free night and while it was a very nice resort, we just felt that the Grand Wailea felt more like Hawaii as far as the property went, and when our flight was canceled due to the storm and we had two additional nights to stay, we used our Hilton points and booked two additional nights at this hotel. Hilton just never lets us down. We were upgraded to a beautiful ocean view room and the weather actually improved so we were able to sit on our amazing balcony and watch whales right off of the coast. I would recommend the hotel definitely for families and to couples looking for a varied experience and an amazing spa which we also enjoyed. Thanks as always to the grand Wailea resort and team for a fun few days in Maui.

Luau and restaurants are ridiculously sub par With the exception of Nobu The Luau was boring , they didn’t engage the guests and the food was comparable to cafeteria hospital food. At $300 a person we felt scammed and questioned how the resort could live with themselves. All restaurants are double the price for below average food except Nobu Nobu was excellent but very expensive. Breakfast options were painful. Humma Humma buffet cafeteria food at $65 a person, Loulo’s grab and go basically take out sub per fast food, room service is take out from Loulu’s plus the service charge. Do yourself a favor and walk 5 minutes to Wailea shopping mall at half the price and way better food quality!