Wailea Beach Resort - Marriott, Maui

Although we enjoyed our stay for a family reunion in early August, my wedding ring was stolen from my room. We left our valuables at the safe, but since I was wearing my ring off and on throughout the trip, I left it in a drawer under my clothes whenever I took it off to go to the pool or beach. I spoke with TJ at security and they couldn’t find it, but was told I would hear back from the claims staff at the hotel. This has not happened. I would not be surprised that valuables get stolen from this hotel all the time! It’s unacceptable that the hotel has not contacted me yet!

Lovely stay in Wailea. This resort is a bit of a catch-all, catering to both families and couples alike. We saw a healthy mix of both during our stay. The primary infinity pool is stunning, and service at the pool is quick and consistent. The resort does a good job of keeping children under 18 to two other pools on site, so I never felt like were were staying at a huge "family" resort. The rooms are modern and updated. Hallways felt like they could use a little TLC. My one complaint, and I am not sure how much the hotel can really do about this, but the lobby bar is only open until 10pm. This is by far the earliest I have ever seen at a hotel, and was frustrating some nights when we wanted a nightcap after dinner. Our reservation included the breakfast buffet, and by the 4th day I was tired of the offerings. The selection is somewhat limited, and if you are staying more than a few days you will begin to see repeats. Convenient access to the shops at Wailea, an easy 5-10 minute walk. Also walkable to restaurants/coffee shops across the street. My one gripe is that we were here during Hurricane Lala and had to stay 3 extra nights due to our flight being cancelled. The hotel didn't care to offer any type of discount or deal seeing that so many guests were in the same situation, completely out of our control. This seems a bit callous to me, but I try not to let it color my entire stay. Overall, good things to say about this property.

Wailea Beach Resort is a beautiful property in a fantastic location. The grounds are impressive, the views are wonderful, and the resort offers excellent amenities. Overall, we enjoyed many aspects of our stay. Unfortunately, we experienced a recurring noise issue while staying in Room 5411. At approximately 8:30 every morning, employees spoke very loudly and yelled to one another across the hallways near the guest rooms. This happened daily and made it difficult to sleep in or enjoy a peaceful morning. We understand that employees need to communicate while working, but shouting near guest rooms early in the morning is poor hospitality etiquette—especially at a resort of this caliber. Management should remind staff to keep their voices down and communicate professionally in guest areas. This is a great property with a lot to offer, but the morning noise negatively affected our overall experience.

I don’t usually leave negative reviews, but this stay was too frustrating not to share. From the moment we checked in, things went downhill. The front desk told us our reservation had been canceled. It wasn’t. We booked through American Express Travel, and after spending over an hour on the phone with Amex, they confirmed our reservation was active the entire time. The mistake was on the hotel’s end. Instead of starting our vacation, we spent our first hour trying to fix something that wasn’t our fault. To make up for it, they moved us from our two queen ocean view room to an oceanfront king. The view was beautiful, but for a family of four, it wasn’t an upgrade. One of us ended up sleeping on a pullout sofa for five nights because we no longer had two beds. That wasn’t doing us a favor. It was trying to fix a mistake. What really bothered me was how it was handled afterward. Terrence at the front desk told my wife that the hotel had “done us a favor” by upgrading us. That comment completely missed the point. We weren’t asking for anything extra. We just wanted the room we booked. Saying they did us a favor instead of simply owning the mistake was disappointing and honestly disrespectful. The problems didn’t stop there. The Marriott app never worked correctly during our stay, they blocked us out of our room and day 4 and had us go back and remake new keys which probably had to do with the mistakes they made at check-in. We also believed breakfast was included through our American Express booking which is why we ate there each morning, but no one explained otherwise. On our fourth morning, we sat down for a simple breakfast with our kids and were surprised with a bill for almost $200, including an automatic 20% gratuity on a buffet breakfast which is unheard of. At checkout, we were also told they couldn’t honor the late checkout benefits tied to our reservation or my Marriott Bonvoy status. After everything else that happened, it was just one more disappointment. The only bright spot was housekeeping. They were amazing. They were friendly, our room was always spotless, and they were the only team that consistently delivered great service. Also, the pool situation is frustrating since they seemed understaffed the guests would leave towels on chairs for hours and the one staff lady couldn’t keep track and wouldn’t clear them so we ended up standing two of the days for majority of the time while our kids were in the pool because we couldn’t get to a chair. I’ve stayed more than 40 nights at Marriott properties this year, and this was, without question, the worst customer service I’ve experienced. The resort itself is beautiful, but great views don’t make up for poor service. Sadly, because of the way we were treated, we won’t be coming back. I hope management reads this because this resort has so much potential, but the guest experience did not match what Marriott promises .

Blinnk Photo made our vacation! Our photographer, Jen, was amazing. Not only was she incredibly nice but the photos she took turned out to be fantastic. We especially loved the video she secretly prepared! We highly recommend Blinnk to anyone wanting a visual memory of their heavenly stay in Maui.