Grand Wailea, A Waldorf Astoria Resort

This place is run down and is in need of an update. The walk from the elevator to the door entering the room did not feel like i’m in a 5 star hotel, maybe at most a 3 star. Instead of having dinner at their pricey restaurant with overly salted local mushroom, please go to Mama’s Fish House instead. Request for 4 pm late checkout was denied, Hilton diamond status didn’t mean much here. They said they can offer complimentary 1pm late checkout (regular checkout time is at noon) but it will cost $250 for 4pm late checkout or $500 for after 4pm. This doesn’t seem to be an availability issue but more of a money grab. I’ve stayed at Marriott properties previously that proactively extended check out to 8pm just because they know I’m taking a red eye flight. Now that’s customer service/hospitality! I’ll stick with my usual Ritz Carlton in Kapalua for my future Maui trips. Grand Wailea is a disappointment.

DO NOT HONEY MOON HERE Stayed here for a portion of our honeymoon and left early because it was so bad. Couldn’t get chairs at the beach or pool (even the adult pool was full of kids), food & drink lines were 45+ minutes, and several restaurants were shut down. Check-in was delayed due to housekeeping, valet was understaffed, and the front desk offered no help. Everything was overpriced and poorly run. We moved next door to the Four Seasons and ended up booking Hotel Wailea and had a completely different (and far better) experience. As a Hilton Honors member, I’ll be moving to Marriott Bonvoy after this.

We come here every year. We used to do the Four Seasons or The Andaz, but our growing family shifted us to the Grand Wailea for more family friendly fun. We really loved this place; it was luxurious for the adults, and fun for the kids. But the last few years just feels like it’s gone down and down. Amenities get less, services disappear. The staff is very kind and nice, but today alone, our arrival day: We went straight to eat at Olivine. Food was below average. I’d recommend the pool bar area (which has pretty good food) over this any day. And with a nearly empty restaurant, couldn’t find the server for 10 min to bring our check. I had to get up and go ask the hostess to get our check. Followed by going to the pool to get our wristbands. We noticed the smaller pool slides were all closed. When i asked the attendant when they’d reopen, she seemed afraid to say that they hadn’t been given a date yet and had no idea. Called housekeeping around 4:30 to replace our feather bedding. I was told that housekeepers go home at 4pm. But isn’t check in not until 3pm? So mostly no housekeeping fixes on the days someone checks in? That timing doesn’t seem well thought out or scheduled. Anyways, I was told that there was no one to replace the bedding, but they could drop off blankets and we could make the beds ourselves. I said ok. Off to dinner we went, and when we got to valet and asked if the shuttle could take us our nearby reservation, we were told the shuttle would not be working for a few days because someone wasn’t working until then. I don’t recall when one person drove the van. We’ve been taken to and from the hotel for years with multiple drivers. But another fail. And when we arrived back in the room, bedding had still not been dropped off. I called to ask again, and when i mentioned i had called earlier and it hadn’t arrived, the phone attendant acted like i hadn’t, until i reiterated the whole bit about housekeepers being sent home at 4pm (which i wouldn’t have known otherwise), and then she realized i had spoken to them. And this is just day 1. The moral of the story is that this is no longer a Waldorf. The attention to detail isn’t there anymore for that qualification. It’s an expensive Hilton. And it’s a shame, because we have spent many years here, but it may be time to rethink it.

Armi is one of the nicest staff we’ve met here. She went above and beyond in making us feel special. She told us thst yesterday was her 34 year anniversary of working here at this resort. That’s commitment!! I hope she was celebrated well because she truly deserves it. 😄

Pros- The toiletries in the bathroom were amazing and the bathroom in our suite was amazing too! The food was good Beautiful view Cons- The pool chair situation, if you don’t want to sit in the sun, prepare to pay for a cabana. They nickel and dime everything here (parking, beach chairs!?!?!) We loved the pool but it was crowded- the chairs were touching eachother. The chair I got had shade for about 2 hours- they aren’t really into umbrellas here. (Or maybe they just want everyone to pay extra) Since we booked this resort primarily for the pool, it was disappointing that there were only 2 slides working for 48” and below. There was also a group of 4-6 people standing in the middle of the lazy river blocking it for everyone. (Not the resorts fault, but indicative of the type of person that comes here) It’s unethical not to disclose significant pool closures (like slides) when it’s somewhat obvious that one of the main draws to the hotel. Our first night, we asked for extra sheets to make up the couch for our child and it took 3 hours for them to arrive. We called 3 times and they told us they had a bare bones staff and only had one person making deliveries to 800 rooms. There was some sort of situation where an 11 year old boy was told to leave or something else happened- either way he was missing and his dad was looking for him and was quite upset (I couldn’t blame him one bit for that). The staff didn’t seem very concerned from my vantage point. Also, there are 2 luaus on either side of the property, one is the Marriot, and you can unfortunately hear the noise from your room. So forget a peaceful sunset on you’d balcony unless it’s not a luau night. It reminded me of going to Sam’s or Costco. There was a young child with a longsleeve swimsuit on and the lifeguard made her roll up her suit to show her wristband before she let her do the Tarzan swing. Lines everywhere and if you somehow lose your (sharp edged) wristband prepare to pay $150 for a replacement. We were very fortunate to be able to move to the Four Seasons after one night and the moment we walked in, the service and attention to detail were wonderful! We are so happy to be here! I honestly thought all of the recent bad review of this place were being dramatic but they are unfortunately accurate. If most reviews say the same thing, fixing the problem should be a priority. I’m sure I will get the generic response from the manager, and I do feel sorry for that person having to deal with all these bad reviews because I don’t think some of these things are easy fixes. We ended up staying at 4 hotels on our trip because my husband likes to explore and drive around the entire island we are visiting and we didn’t want to drive back after doing the road to hana, and my ranking would be: 1. montage Kapalua bay 2. four seasons Maui 3. Hāna Maui 4. Grand Wailea