Royal Sonesta Kauai

Pictures online don’t do this place justice. Beautiful setting. Rooms looked recently renovated. Prperty extremely well kept. Helpful staff. On site restauarants good and short walk away (less than 1/8th of mile) many other restaurants. Great golf course. Free shuttle to/from airport which is 5 min. away. Kauai much more laid back than other Hi. islands and residents very friendly. Went to Beach House for our big dinner. Spectacular view/setting.

Worst service. Front desk staff not helpful and probably the least friendly in Hawaii. Ugliest hotel- looks worse than Hilton garden inn. No amenities in rooms and suites. When I asked for a kettle and cup to make tea in my suite, they said they don’t have ceramic cups, only plastic, and they brought a plastic kettle. The coffee machine doesn’t work. The towels have holes in them. Room wasn’t very clean, especially the bathroom. Kitchen in suite but nothing in the cabinets so it’s useless. Please go elsewhere. The Hyatt looks amazing and our lunch there was good. Places in princevilke also look good. Finally, it doesn’t look like a luxury hotel. It’s weirdly designed, takes ages to walk through the hotel, and doesn’t look like it was remodeled.

We had a few issues during our stay ie broken toilet, smell of mustiness in the room. They said they had no other rooms available even though their website states differently. We’re able to move rooms the next day. Volleyball tournament was going on for 3 days on the ‘private’ beach which woke us early every day which we were not warned about - not ideal whilst on honeymoon and wanting to relax. We were then woken very early to drilling and hammering from the room above us which no-one was warned about. We were told they would be finish by 5pm. But then, the next morning, the very same noise was happening right outside our door with again no warning! Upon check out the hotel manager confirmed we should have been given a food voucher card to check off our included spend. We were overcharged as we thought we had used our allowance which we hadn’t as apparently tips and tax aren’t taken off the allowance. We were promised an email within an hour confirming our new invoice to show correcting the food deduction as well as the resort fees due to the inconvenience and issues. We heard nothing. But they charged our card £265 unauthorised! 2 weeks later and we have still not heard anything from the hotel. Our third party provider have been fantastic in trying to mop up their messes. The hotel has also lied to them saying we were offered a room upgrade which we declined! They declined OUR request to change rooms. They also said they have refunded us which has still not credited our account. Be careful about this hotel. It is extremely overpriced for what the hotel is worth but worse than that, the customer service is awful. We are taking things up with the CEO of the hotel group.

The day before I arrived, I received a text asking what time I expected to check in. I said 2:00, and the response was that they couldn't guarantee a room until 4:00. Fine, I understand. But when you know to expect a guest at 2:00 you might at least try to have the room ready shortly thereafter? Instead, I was told at check-in that, if I paid an additional $400, they could "upgrade" me and give me a room sooner. This felt like an upsell. Instead, I waited in the lobby for 90 minutes until a room was ready for me--and then it was the wrong type of room. I had requested a standard king and was given two queen beds. So I called downstairs and was told the queen beds were an upgrade? (Not even a view, which was fine, since I hadn't booked a view, but definitely NOT an upgrade!) They did give me a new room right away, and it was very nice, but all the hoops I jumped through after 13 hours of travel were not welcome. Even though they gave me two huge bottles of water at check-in as well. The room itself--once I got the correct one--was fine. Floor a little warped (it was a ground-floor room), water pressure and heat in the shower not great. Also a little sad I didn't have an upscale Japanese toilet (as I've had those before in Hawaii). But the room was spacious and I had a cute little lanai where the chickens visited me each morning. I actually liked being tucked in a corner because it felt private. I did pull down an extra blanket from the closet and it had holes in it. Not exactly top tier luxury. I was also disappointed that the sundries shop was closed, so I wasn't able to get a couple things that would have been nice to have. No real ability to buy snacks, say, or sunscreen, or things like that. (I was told it would be reopening at some point, but that didn't do me much good in the moment.) Restaurants were generally very good, Duke's being a favorite. Service everywhere was, shall we say, "leisurely," but I understand that's just Hawaiian relaxation. The pool was especially lovely, and I enjoyed my time there and on the beach. Alas, I was there for a conference so didn't get to enjoy them as much as I might've. Overall, not sure the cost was worth some of the hassle I went through.

We loved our time at the Royal Sonesta. We went for our honeymoon and I was worried at first that it wouldn’t be nice enough. I will say the property itself is immaculate and makes up for the rooms being a little more basic (but perfectly acceptable). We actually checked out of the Sonesta to go to the North shore, and then ended up coming back because we missed the pool, hot tubs, beach access, bar/restaurant, and other amenities. We even went to other hotels we considered in preparation for a trip back to Kauai, and safe to say, we made the right booking decision! We will definitely be back!