The Royal Hawaiian, a Luxury Collection Resort, Waikiki

Rooms were dated. My daughter’s room was filled with ants. She had to spend a whole morning emptying all their suitcases, etc. because ants were in a few bags. Won’t go back.

Not sure how many times I have stayed here, but it’s always a joy to stay at the Pink Palace. Nearly 51 years ago was my first visit to Hawaii with my mother and we stayed here. This is my daughter’s first trip to Hawaii so I made sure The Punk Palace was our first destination. She certainly enjoyed our time here. Maybe in the future she will bring her child here for their first trip to Hawaii. Having said this, let me start off with the bad, hence only 4 stars: 1. Flew on an overnight flight and landed in Honolulu at 8:30am, arrived at the hotel at 11. Couldn’t get early check-in, which I understood and was told I will be notified by phone and/or email when the room is ready. Perfect! By 2pm we were in zombie form and returned to the hotel. By chance I asked if our room was ready and it was. No phone call, no email…was happy to get into our room and we all cleaned up. Later on in the evening I noticed an email was received at 3:30pm saying my room is ready. A little late (lol). 2. Ants…didn’t mind it much. Little one was amused by them, but the Mrs was not happy. 3. Helumoa Pool: water was cloudy. At first I thought it was a saltwater pool but later found out its freshwater. It was pretty nasty as cloudy as it was…maybe the filters were out of service THE GOOD: Staff is friendly as always. Started with the valet greeting us with a smile, nice to see after being on traveling for about 20hrs. Front desk, housekeeping, maintenance and activities staff were all wonderful! The larger oceanfront room had plenty of space for the three of us. Had to improvise and remodeled the two queen beds into one super king, and housekeeping did a wonderful job making sure the room was kept tidy.

I would like to express our sincere gratitude for the truly wonderful stay and the exceptional hospitality extended to us during our visit.

When choosing a hotel it is really important to know what you need from it. This hotel was perfect for us because what we needed was a room that was clean and safe with a comfortable bed in a great location. This hotel fit the bill. We were warmly received at check in and the process was seamless. We had booked a package through Costco which included all of our fees so there were no surprises. Instead of plastic room key cards we were given pink wristbands, which I loved having. No matter if you are going to the beach, or just walking to dinner, it makes keeping the room key very handy. The first night we arrived we shared appetizers at the Mai Tai bar and enjoyed the live music. The umbrellas were well placed together so even though it started raining we did not get wet. Our room was in the main building. They gave us insulated refillable water bottles and the water station and ice machine were right down the hall. We would fill them each day before heading out for our activities. This hotel is connected to the Royal Hawaiian shopping center and it was very convenient to walk to dinner and shop. We loved being able to walk to so many places. We also enjoyed walking around the historic hotel and reading through the artifacts in the little mini museum. Yes, this is a historic hotel and the rooms are small, but we were not there to stay in the room. We grabbed coffee and sausage rolls from the bakery each morning on our way out and we greatly enjoyed our stay.

There is so much here to unpack. This hotel is anything but Luxury. It is MAYBE a Courtyard Marriott type of place at best, but not a Luxury Collection. First and foremost, there is no room services here whatsoever. They stopped providing room service after the pandemic. WHAT? How is that luxury? Any hotel that starts their room rates at $700 a night should at a minimum provide room service during day hours. There are no coffee shops, convenience stores, or lobby bar onsite, so if you run out of water or snacks, you will be forced to door dash. The "bakery" they have onsite, is only open for a couple of hours in the morning, so do not rely on that. The Mai Tai bar and Azure restaurant are outside the hotel right on the beach, and they are always overcrowded and overwhelmed, so do not count on that either. I will give them the prime location and kind hotel staff, but none if it justifies $1000 dollar rooms at what is a VERY old and tired property, in need of a complete remodel. The rooms are old and small, the bathrooms are tiny and outdated, and the lobby desperately needs air conditioning. The gym is filthy with sweat stains on treadmill and bike screens that do not get wiped down daily. Due to this being an ancient property, the valet driveway is very old and narrow, and cars are piled on top of each other. I think the worst part of this hotel though, is the Mai Tai bar and Azure restaurant. They are extremely overcrowded and the staff looks annoyed and pissed off. Service is super slow, if any. While we were there, one Thursday the bar completely closed and we were stuck on the beach with no water or food. We purchased the beach chairs at $75 a set and could not leave even if we wanted to. AGAIN, for $1000 a night hotel, you expect better. You expect some sort of amenities and service. I don't know what Marriott is thinking by classifying this place as Luxury, but trust me it is not. It got so bad, that we decided to just leave early and move to the Ritz Carlton Turtle Bay, which was also $1,000 per night, but was an incredibly luxurious place. I really encourage you to not buy into the hype of the "history" and location of this place and go to an outrigger next door which will cost you $200 and you will get more.