Ok, this is a huge tourist and convention hotel in a high demand location. After making allowances for that, this hotel is poorly operated and NOT user friendly. Check-in took over an hour and a half. And despite having requested a feather free room, they did not have it when we arrived. Then, despite promising to “de-feather” it, they couldn’t manage it. The duvet got changed, but they were short of foam pillows, so we ended up with only two pillows. The floor staff tried, but were told they had no more. Our son and his family were on the same floor and ended up with only ONE PILLOW FOR FOUR PEOPLE. We looked for a brochure on hotel services, but there was none. I tried to pull something up on the tv, but again, there was nothing. I finally got someone in operations who simply told me to “look it up on the hotel website.” That was unhelpful, at best. Getting dinner was a nightmare. Because of the long check-in process and the Byzantine room information system, we could not get room service and had to go downstairs to Tapas-one of the few food services still open at 9:00. The food was ok, but the selection was weak. We went through a similar drill for breakfast. I don’t recall ever staying in a major hotel where you I couldn’t hang a room service request on the door. Not being able to figure out room service, i went downstairs to a Starbucks in the next tower over. Fine, but the line there was long, and they were out of most of the pastries we wanted. Trying to call the front desk was another nightmare. First, the cord on the phone was uncomfortably short and the directory on the phone (such as it was) was in non-contrasting colors and virtually illegible. It really didn’t make much difference though since most calls to the desk, housekeeping, etc, ended up in voicemail never to be answered. We requested, and were granted a late checkout. They “granted an extension” from the posted 11 am all the way to 1 pm. Then, interestingly, the a/c to our room went off a bit before noon. I tried to call the front desk, but again got a voicemail. One final note. Since returning home, i have never received a survey asking how we liked our stay. Even roadside Hampton Inns send you those. But not The Hilton Hawaiian Village!!! In a nutshell, this hotel is far too big and run VERY POORLY. It’s a zoo in my opinion. Hilton knows how to run operations like this. I know they do. But they should truly be ashamed of how this one operates. For Hilton Honor customers ( or anyone else for that matter), our stay was definitely NOT “honorable.”
Ianblokes
This Hotel is basically Time Share accommodation with vacant rooms let out when unoccupied. It has an illusion of grandeur and piggy backing off the Hilton brand name. I can only echo the previous comments that have obviously been ignored by management. Despite standard replies that they welcome feedback ect ect! Maybe be if I can reiterate these comments someone from the Hilton umbrella group may realise the brand damage being done. Firstly, there is obviously a cash incentive for staff to upsale, upsale and upsale. Be aware of the $75 early book in fee if you want your room before 4.30pm. A receptionist wearing a Rolex is a bit of clue that this is quite lucrative for staff to achieve! As per other comments. We arrived from an early flight with 2 suitcases and rucksacks. After struggling to find the lobby we walked past several members of bell staff who simply ignored us. We than ran the gauntlet of reception staff telling us we could upgrade at $55 per night plus an early check in of $75. Same story as per other comments. When we declined then our room was magically then available. As for the Resort fee we were aware of this scam before we arrived. Its a trick across the U.S so not just this property. Be aware if you hire a car parking is $62 per day. It gets better... On arriving on our floor we were then met with the stench of Cannabis smoke. This lasted 2 days before it faded away. The room is a standard room but very dated. We stayed on the 21st floor of the Kalia block. They are 3 blocks in total. This being right next to an extremely busy 4 road carriageway with traffic lights. It's been impossible to sit on the balcony due to large cylinder motorcycles speeding away on green lights. Be aware that Breakfast will cost in excess of $30 per person per day. We had no end of drama trying to show management that breakfast had been included in our booking. I don't like giving negative reviews only honest ones. We felt like we were treated like walking wallets in need of emptying. Staff were only helpful if it ended up with them receiving a tip. The resort is full of expensive shops, restaurants and clothes shops. This is a tourist trap trying to sell, sell and sell. We were so looking forward to our trip and experiencing a Hawaiian welcome. I would NOT recommend a visit to Honolulu or this hotel in particular. Its Vagas by the sea without the good bits. I feel sorry for the Social Media personal from this company trying to defend the un-defensible. Having been offered a discount on already over priced luau tickets if we attended a 2hr time share presentation. I couldn't help but laugh out loud! Strangely enough I declined. Over priced, over rated and needs some serious attention. Don't waste your money.
W M
First, huge shout out to Clair at the parking, mail/keys desk area. Our trip was doomed from the start has she’s not helped us out. Unexpected room problems arose. BIG problem. The front desk line was epic. People told us they had been waiting over an hour. We went back to Clair at the parking, keys and mail desk area because she was incredibly nice, patient and helpful earlier; she helped us miraculously. (Thank you, Clair) Thing we enjoyed after a week at this resort: 1. Tropics only for a sunset drink; too expensive and the food isn’t great. Wonderful wait staff, super kind. But they’re understaffed, overworked and exhausted. They can’t give the services you deserve at those prices. 2. Eat at Giovanni Pastrami, lol. It’s great. 3. Pink sails cruise at sunset was awesome. The crew loves their job and then the customer enjoys the ride. The hotel will try to sell their own cruise (obviously). We saw whales. Lots. Turtles. Jumped in the water. Slide on the boat was a blast. Great adventure. Drinks served. Super fun highlight. 4. Surf at canoes beach for beginners. A teacher named Kevin there was incredible with my 10 year old and her mom. Ha! Take a lesson. 5. Adult pool provides a great escape. Must check that out! Best adult pool ever. 6. Waterslides were so fun, but my kids were envious of the water slide at the hotel next door. The water was freezing. Colder than the ocean. Ugh. Tip: they give you only so many towels for the pool. These plastic cards exchange for towels. They’re extra towels if needed to grab at the fitness center and adult pool. (No one who is staying at this place is stealing towels; it’s weird) 7. Stand up paddle boarding rental right to the left of the hotel. Walk out to the water and go left. The first place after the hotel is wonderful and there’s so many turtles out there. I forget his name, but some kid who works there & is from Illinois was very helpful. Ask for the kid from Illinois. He hooked us up! 8. Fireworks. Worth it! You do not need to get there too early. 9. Tip your room maids; they’ll take really good care of you. Friends of ours complained about room stuff and I learned they didn’t tip. Tip;) We loved our maids! 10. Music plays later; live music. So bring good ear plugs or join the fun. (Or ask for a room fat away from it) 11. Do you want a greasy spoon breakfast? Harry’s cafe. It’s a one woman show. 437 Kamakee St, Honolulu, HI 96814 12. Do you want healthy lunch? MW restaurant 888 Kapiolani Blvd ground floor, Honolulu, HI 96813
CharChar24
This was my 3rd time to stay at the resort. My family & I love it there. As Diamond members, we typically receive a free upgraded room. Arriving the day after Christmas meant that the hotel was mostly booked & we weren’t able to get our usual Rainbow Tower room facing Diamondhead. That was disappointing, but the room facing the lagoon was okay. What was disappointing was the heavily stained & ripped carpet. I expected better from such a wonderful hotel. Thankfully, everything else about our stay was wonderful. The staff is always friendly & helpful. I’m particularly amazed by how quickly the valet staff gets cars out, considering the volume. Hats off to them!
Jamie W
My wife was bitten a few times on our first night, Jan 2, 2023, but we assumed it was just a mosquito or spider. On the second night she got a hundred or more bites around her abdomen, arms and ankles. That’s when we realized it was bed bugs. As you can see in the attached photos, this is not the work of a lone bed bug. It looks like an entire colony went to town on her. When we informed the hotel manager, they sent security guards to take photos of my wife’s bites and said they’d begin an investigation that would take 10-15 days. Why it should take so long to investigate something we had photographic evidence of was not explained. They agreed to change our room to another building, but said if their investigation didn’t find any bedbugs they’d charge us for the room change. We asked for help laundering our clothes, to make sure we didn’t take the bed bugs to the new room, but they refused. We spent five hours of our vacation taking all our belongings to a public laundromat, where we put everything we owned, including delicate items, through a hot dryer for 45 minutes. My wife’s bathing suit, wool pashmina, and my business pants were ruined. While we were loading our clothes into one of the dryers, my wife saw a live bed bug crawling out from one of her shirts. We left our baggage in the bed bug infested room so they could be sprayed with pesticide, since they couldn’t go into a dryer. Now they are stained with poison and we are reluctant to touch them, let alone put our clothes in them. The manager, Tomoko Scott, gave us $150 in hotel credit for our troubles. We sent her photos of my wife’s bites and video of the live bed bug, and she confirmed receipt, but didn’t respond to any more emails for the next five days (and counting). We did receive one out-of-the-office auto reply after our third email, but she didn’t tell us she was going on leave and provided no names of anyone else to contact. We checked out of the hotel today, and still haven’t heard anything about the so-called “investigation”. Nobody from Hilton has said anything about the grief or material loss they caused us. The Hilton Waikiki Village Beach Hotel is a fine resort. But room 851 in the Tata building has a very serious bed bug infestation. It probably goes beyond that one room, since bed bugs tend to spread out, but that is just my speculation. I do wonder how many other families have been given that bed bug infested room after we left it. The Hilton management did virtually nothing to address this, and has completely ghosted us when we tried to follow up. I don’t normally post negative reviews like this to the internet. If you look at my review history, they are nearly all 5-star experiences. I wish I could say something positive about the Hilton Waikiki Village Beach resort, but the severity of the bed bug problem and indifference of the management is hard to overlook. It certainly ruined our several thousand dollar vacation, luggage and clothing. Don’t say you weren’t warned. Stay here at your own peril.
833megan
We expected the hotel to be very busy, and knew the room prices were inflated ($6000 for 6 night stay, not including food or incidentals) due to it being the holiday break but besides the large beach area there is nothing nice to say about this hotel. Towels are treated as a precious commodity and you must trade plastic key cards to obtain them and if you lose a card or towel you’ll be charged $20 each. It’s virtually hopeless to try to secure chairs in the pool areas so you’re reduced to renting lounges & umbrellas to sit on the beach. The pools are also very chilly, the ocean in winter was warmer! There isn’t any real room service and the Starbucks line for morning coffee was always a 20-35 min wait. Rooms were okay, I reserved an ocean view and as a lifetime diamond member hoped we’d get an upgrade to oceanfront- however when we arrived we were given ocean view with no balcony, so basically downgraded from what we’d booked. The upsides were being walking distance to downtown Waikiki and a nice bigger beach area than a lot of the other Waikiki hotels. I also noticed many people standing on the small coral reef that is in the hotel’s bay & it made me sad that the hotel doesn’t take any opportunity to educate guests about reef health. Overall this place feels like being on a giant budget cruise ship. We made the best of it but I would definitely never recommend it or return.
Fereti S
I had a great time, all the staff really possess the “aloha spirit”. From the housekeeping team on floor 24 in the Tapa Tower to the valet team who always were attentive and helpful when we requested for our car. The Front Desk Agent, Liz (been with Hilton for 25 years) was especially great with check in speaking to all the hotel amenities and doing so with a smile and love and care. Hilton Hawaiian Village will always be my hotel whenever I am on Waikiki.
Esko77
Paid 480USD per night for an ocean view room and got this city view room as an "upgrade" (see photo). After waiting for one hour in the check-in queue, paid 88USD more for early check-in at 1.30 pm in the afternoon. Some hints to customers considering this hotel (although I cannot recommend it): - Be prepared for some serious hustling at the check in. Although we had paid for an ocean view room, we were still offered an 120USD upgrade per night which we declined, then the 88USD early check-in option which we took. Now I regret paying for that, especially since we got a city view room for the price of an ocean view room. - As mentioned in some other comments, the rooms are in need of renovation and restaurants in the resort are quite expensive (the quality of the food that we have had so far is fine). Some hints to Hilton: - Think twice about this hustle at the check in. While it probably brings Hilton some revenue (we did end up paying 88USD extra), it congests the lines for check in and leaves a very bad impression afterwards. It really feels like enduring a time share unit sales meeting after having waited for a long time in the queue. Many customers arrive at check-in after long flights and so they might make bad decisions which they regret afterwards (as we did). I hate to make negative reviews, this is my first below 5 star review ever written so I try to find something positive in this: the beds are very comfortable!
JLHGRW
Loved it, loved it, loved it! Hilton Hawaiian Village is its own idyllic, little world. It is perfection! We enjoyed the restaurants, bars, shopping, and conference center during our three-night stay. You can't go wrong with this resort!
CT Law
2022/Apr: This is closed. I called the hotel they said have not reopened this. Probably that's why there have been no comment since two years ago.
We stayed one night in the rainbow tower full ocean view and 6 nights in the grand Waikikian. The rainbow tower had an amazing view and it was just breath taking. We then moved to a time share room on the 27th floor with partial ocean view. The view was more city view but the room itself was high , spacious and well kept. The appliances in the 2 bedroom suite was modern and having a kitchen was very beneficial for us having breakfast before we leave for the day. The staff at the village was very courteous and friendly and we never had a problem. The lagoon was perfect for the kids and for novice scuba divers who are afraid of sharks in the real ocean (Like me) the lagoon gets crowed during the day so we usually go early. The beach was a little rough with a lot of rocks It was pretty good though. There are 5 pools an the property with some being adults only but we basically used the one near the gran Waikikian (3 levels with slides ) and the super pool. There are many restaurants nearby and prices are higher at the resort as expected but for the convenience and service it was worth it. We went to tropics twice and tried a few of the other cheaper take away places in the village. We mainly ate at Ala Moana mall food court and bought groceries at the foodland there
Peter Walker
Let me first talk about the staff: they are great, quick, friendly and helpful, they are the best part of this dinner buffet. As for the food: the salad was fresh and has topping options, the shortbread cookies are good. The rest was bad: the beef is way too salty, the cornbread is dry sawdust, the breads in general are dry (hint Hilton: stop storing your bread items in the fridge, it dries them out), the fish was overcooked, the coffee is gritty, the juice is flavorless water, and finally I hope someone from Hilton is reading this: don't call pudding with sugar water on top "creme brûlée"! It's not even close! If this was $20 I wouldn't complain but at $60 a person each for the 7 of us, it was a terrible waste of money. Unless Hilton makes this better I recommend you go spend your money elsewhere and get good food.
Joe Quinthorp
Ate here for buffet dinner on Christmas Eve. Good selection of main courses like prime rib and turkey. Good casual stuff for kids like corn dogs. Wide array of desserts. Free refills on sodas, too, if I remember correctly. Atmosphere-wise it's a big open space, almost like a cafeteria. There are water features lining the open border which are very pleasing. We had strong gusts of wind blow in during dinner (the place is basically open-air) but at least it wasn't a bitter, Midwest, winter wind!
Robert Rogers
I'm giving this place a 4 just because of the price, $39 a person for a breakfast Buffett I think is steep even for Hawaii. With that said the staff is very attentive and the food was extremely good. They have a wide variety of items on the buffet and I didn't leave hungry.
bso54
If you plan to eat here thinking you will enjoy amazing views of Waikiki think again. You will be viewing homeless encampments on the beach.
Ok, this is a huge tourist and convention hotel in a high demand location. After making allowances for that, this hotel is poorly operated and NOT user friendly. Check-in took over an hour and a half. And despite having requested a feather free room, they did not have it when we arrived. Then, despite promising to “de-feather” it, they couldn’t manage it. The duvet got changed, but they were short of foam pillows, so we ended up with only two pillows. The floor staff tried, but were told they had no more. Our son and his family were on the same floor and ended up with only ONE PILLOW FOR FOUR PEOPLE. We looked for a brochure on hotel services, but there was none. I tried to pull something up on the tv, but again, there was nothing. I finally got someone in operations who simply told me to “look it up on the hotel website.” That was unhelpful, at best. Getting dinner was a nightmare. Because of the long check-in process and the Byzantine room information system, we could not get room service and had to go downstairs to Tapas-one of the few food services still open at 9:00. The food was ok, but the selection was weak. We went through a similar drill for breakfast. I don’t recall ever staying in a major hotel where you I couldn’t hang a room service request on the door. Not being able to figure out room service, i went downstairs to a Starbucks in the next tower over. Fine, but the line there was long, and they were out of most of the pastries we wanted. Trying to call the front desk was another nightmare. First, the cord on the phone was uncomfortably short and the directory on the phone (such as it was) was in non-contrasting colors and virtually illegible. It really didn’t make much difference though since most calls to the desk, housekeeping, etc, ended up in voicemail never to be answered. We requested, and were granted a late checkout. They “granted an extension” from the posted 11 am all the way to 1 pm. Then, interestingly, the a/c to our room went off a bit before noon. I tried to call the front desk, but again got a voicemail. One final note. Since returning home, i have never received a survey asking how we liked our stay. Even roadside Hampton Inns send you those. But not The Hilton Hawaiian Village!!! In a nutshell, this hotel is far too big and run VERY POORLY. It’s a zoo in my opinion. Hilton knows how to run operations like this. I know they do. But they should truly be ashamed of how this one operates. For Hilton Honor customers ( or anyone else for that matter), our stay was definitely NOT “honorable.”
This Hotel is basically Time Share accommodation with vacant rooms let out when unoccupied. It has an illusion of grandeur and piggy backing off the Hilton brand name. I can only echo the previous comments that have obviously been ignored by management. Despite standard replies that they welcome feedback ect ect! Maybe be if I can reiterate these comments someone from the Hilton umbrella group may realise the brand damage being done. Firstly, there is obviously a cash incentive for staff to upsale, upsale and upsale. Be aware of the $75 early book in fee if you want your room before 4.30pm. A receptionist wearing a Rolex is a bit of clue that this is quite lucrative for staff to achieve! As per other comments. We arrived from an early flight with 2 suitcases and rucksacks. After struggling to find the lobby we walked past several members of bell staff who simply ignored us. We than ran the gauntlet of reception staff telling us we could upgrade at $55 per night plus an early check in of $75. Same story as per other comments. When we declined then our room was magically then available. As for the Resort fee we were aware of this scam before we arrived. Its a trick across the U.S so not just this property. Be aware if you hire a car parking is $62 per day. It gets better... On arriving on our floor we were then met with the stench of Cannabis smoke. This lasted 2 days before it faded away. The room is a standard room but very dated. We stayed on the 21st floor of the Kalia block. They are 3 blocks in total. This being right next to an extremely busy 4 road carriageway with traffic lights. It's been impossible to sit on the balcony due to large cylinder motorcycles speeding away on green lights. Be aware that Breakfast will cost in excess of $30 per person per day. We had no end of drama trying to show management that breakfast had been included in our booking. I don't like giving negative reviews only honest ones. We felt like we were treated like walking wallets in need of emptying. Staff were only helpful if it ended up with them receiving a tip. The resort is full of expensive shops, restaurants and clothes shops. This is a tourist trap trying to sell, sell and sell. We were so looking forward to our trip and experiencing a Hawaiian welcome. I would NOT recommend a visit to Honolulu or this hotel in particular. Its Vagas by the sea without the good bits. I feel sorry for the Social Media personal from this company trying to defend the un-defensible. Having been offered a discount on already over priced luau tickets if we attended a 2hr time share presentation. I couldn't help but laugh out loud! Strangely enough I declined. Over priced, over rated and needs some serious attention. Don't waste your money.
First, huge shout out to Clair at the parking, mail/keys desk area. Our trip was doomed from the start has she’s not helped us out. Unexpected room problems arose. BIG problem. The front desk line was epic. People told us they had been waiting over an hour. We went back to Clair at the parking, keys and mail desk area because she was incredibly nice, patient and helpful earlier; she helped us miraculously. (Thank you, Clair) Thing we enjoyed after a week at this resort: 1. Tropics only for a sunset drink; too expensive and the food isn’t great. Wonderful wait staff, super kind. But they’re understaffed, overworked and exhausted. They can’t give the services you deserve at those prices. 2. Eat at Giovanni Pastrami, lol. It’s great. 3. Pink sails cruise at sunset was awesome. The crew loves their job and then the customer enjoys the ride. The hotel will try to sell their own cruise (obviously). We saw whales. Lots. Turtles. Jumped in the water. Slide on the boat was a blast. Great adventure. Drinks served. Super fun highlight. 4. Surf at canoes beach for beginners. A teacher named Kevin there was incredible with my 10 year old and her mom. Ha! Take a lesson. 5. Adult pool provides a great escape. Must check that out! Best adult pool ever. 6. Waterslides were so fun, but my kids were envious of the water slide at the hotel next door. The water was freezing. Colder than the ocean. Ugh. Tip: they give you only so many towels for the pool. These plastic cards exchange for towels. They’re extra towels if needed to grab at the fitness center and adult pool. (No one who is staying at this place is stealing towels; it’s weird) 7. Stand up paddle boarding rental right to the left of the hotel. Walk out to the water and go left. The first place after the hotel is wonderful and there’s so many turtles out there. I forget his name, but some kid who works there & is from Illinois was very helpful. Ask for the kid from Illinois. He hooked us up! 8. Fireworks. Worth it! You do not need to get there too early. 9. Tip your room maids; they’ll take really good care of you. Friends of ours complained about room stuff and I learned they didn’t tip. Tip;) We loved our maids! 10. Music plays later; live music. So bring good ear plugs or join the fun. (Or ask for a room fat away from it) 11. Do you want a greasy spoon breakfast? Harry’s cafe. It’s a one woman show. 437 Kamakee St, Honolulu, HI 96814 12. Do you want healthy lunch? MW restaurant 888 Kapiolani Blvd ground floor, Honolulu, HI 96813
This was my 3rd time to stay at the resort. My family & I love it there. As Diamond members, we typically receive a free upgraded room. Arriving the day after Christmas meant that the hotel was mostly booked & we weren’t able to get our usual Rainbow Tower room facing Diamondhead. That was disappointing, but the room facing the lagoon was okay. What was disappointing was the heavily stained & ripped carpet. I expected better from such a wonderful hotel. Thankfully, everything else about our stay was wonderful. The staff is always friendly & helpful. I’m particularly amazed by how quickly the valet staff gets cars out, considering the volume. Hats off to them!
My wife was bitten a few times on our first night, Jan 2, 2023, but we assumed it was just a mosquito or spider. On the second night she got a hundred or more bites around her abdomen, arms and ankles. That’s when we realized it was bed bugs. As you can see in the attached photos, this is not the work of a lone bed bug. It looks like an entire colony went to town on her. When we informed the hotel manager, they sent security guards to take photos of my wife’s bites and said they’d begin an investigation that would take 10-15 days. Why it should take so long to investigate something we had photographic evidence of was not explained. They agreed to change our room to another building, but said if their investigation didn’t find any bedbugs they’d charge us for the room change. We asked for help laundering our clothes, to make sure we didn’t take the bed bugs to the new room, but they refused. We spent five hours of our vacation taking all our belongings to a public laundromat, where we put everything we owned, including delicate items, through a hot dryer for 45 minutes. My wife’s bathing suit, wool pashmina, and my business pants were ruined. While we were loading our clothes into one of the dryers, my wife saw a live bed bug crawling out from one of her shirts. We left our baggage in the bed bug infested room so they could be sprayed with pesticide, since they couldn’t go into a dryer. Now they are stained with poison and we are reluctant to touch them, let alone put our clothes in them. The manager, Tomoko Scott, gave us $150 in hotel credit for our troubles. We sent her photos of my wife’s bites and video of the live bed bug, and she confirmed receipt, but didn’t respond to any more emails for the next five days (and counting). We did receive one out-of-the-office auto reply after our third email, but she didn’t tell us she was going on leave and provided no names of anyone else to contact. We checked out of the hotel today, and still haven’t heard anything about the so-called “investigation”. Nobody from Hilton has said anything about the grief or material loss they caused us. The Hilton Waikiki Village Beach Hotel is a fine resort. But room 851 in the Tata building has a very serious bed bug infestation. It probably goes beyond that one room, since bed bugs tend to spread out, but that is just my speculation. I do wonder how many other families have been given that bed bug infested room after we left it. The Hilton management did virtually nothing to address this, and has completely ghosted us when we tried to follow up. I don’t normally post negative reviews like this to the internet. If you look at my review history, they are nearly all 5-star experiences. I wish I could say something positive about the Hilton Waikiki Village Beach resort, but the severity of the bed bug problem and indifference of the management is hard to overlook. It certainly ruined our several thousand dollar vacation, luggage and clothing. Don’t say you weren’t warned. Stay here at your own peril.
We expected the hotel to be very busy, and knew the room prices were inflated ($6000 for 6 night stay, not including food or incidentals) due to it being the holiday break but besides the large beach area there is nothing nice to say about this hotel. Towels are treated as a precious commodity and you must trade plastic key cards to obtain them and if you lose a card or towel you’ll be charged $20 each. It’s virtually hopeless to try to secure chairs in the pool areas so you’re reduced to renting lounges & umbrellas to sit on the beach. The pools are also very chilly, the ocean in winter was warmer! There isn’t any real room service and the Starbucks line for morning coffee was always a 20-35 min wait. Rooms were okay, I reserved an ocean view and as a lifetime diamond member hoped we’d get an upgrade to oceanfront- however when we arrived we were given ocean view with no balcony, so basically downgraded from what we’d booked. The upsides were being walking distance to downtown Waikiki and a nice bigger beach area than a lot of the other Waikiki hotels. I also noticed many people standing on the small coral reef that is in the hotel’s bay & it made me sad that the hotel doesn’t take any opportunity to educate guests about reef health. Overall this place feels like being on a giant budget cruise ship. We made the best of it but I would definitely never recommend it or return.
I had a great time, all the staff really possess the “aloha spirit”. From the housekeeping team on floor 24 in the Tapa Tower to the valet team who always were attentive and helpful when we requested for our car. The Front Desk Agent, Liz (been with Hilton for 25 years) was especially great with check in speaking to all the hotel amenities and doing so with a smile and love and care. Hilton Hawaiian Village will always be my hotel whenever I am on Waikiki.
Paid 480USD per night for an ocean view room and got this city view room as an "upgrade" (see photo). After waiting for one hour in the check-in queue, paid 88USD more for early check-in at 1.30 pm in the afternoon. Some hints to customers considering this hotel (although I cannot recommend it): - Be prepared for some serious hustling at the check in. Although we had paid for an ocean view room, we were still offered an 120USD upgrade per night which we declined, then the 88USD early check-in option which we took. Now I regret paying for that, especially since we got a city view room for the price of an ocean view room. - As mentioned in some other comments, the rooms are in need of renovation and restaurants in the resort are quite expensive (the quality of the food that we have had so far is fine). Some hints to Hilton: - Think twice about this hustle at the check in. While it probably brings Hilton some revenue (we did end up paying 88USD extra), it congests the lines for check in and leaves a very bad impression afterwards. It really feels like enduring a time share unit sales meeting after having waited for a long time in the queue. Many customers arrive at check-in after long flights and so they might make bad decisions which they regret afterwards (as we did). I hate to make negative reviews, this is my first below 5 star review ever written so I try to find something positive in this: the beds are very comfortable!
Loved it, loved it, loved it! Hilton Hawaiian Village is its own idyllic, little world. It is perfection! We enjoyed the restaurants, bars, shopping, and conference center during our three-night stay. You can't go wrong with this resort!
2022/Apr: This is closed. I called the hotel they said have not reopened this. Probably that's why there have been no comment since two years ago.
Restaurantji Recommends
We stayed one night in the rainbow tower full ocean view and 6 nights in the grand Waikikian. The rainbow tower had an amazing view and it was just breath taking. We then moved to a time share room on the 27th floor with partial ocean view. The view was more city view but the room itself was high , spacious and well kept. The appliances in the 2 bedroom suite was modern and having a kitchen was very beneficial for us having breakfast before we leave for the day. The staff at the village was very courteous and friendly and we never had a problem. The lagoon was perfect for the kids and for novice scuba divers who are afraid of sharks in the real ocean (Like me) the lagoon gets crowed during the day so we usually go early. The beach was a little rough with a lot of rocks It was pretty good though. There are 5 pools an the property with some being adults only but we basically used the one near the gran Waikikian (3 levels with slides ) and the super pool. There are many restaurants nearby and prices are higher at the resort as expected but for the convenience and service it was worth it. We went to tropics twice and tried a few of the other cheaper take away places in the village. We mainly ate at Ala Moana mall food court and bought groceries at the foodland there
Let me first talk about the staff: they are great, quick, friendly and helpful, they are the best part of this dinner buffet. As for the food: the salad was fresh and has topping options, the shortbread cookies are good. The rest was bad: the beef is way too salty, the cornbread is dry sawdust, the breads in general are dry (hint Hilton: stop storing your bread items in the fridge, it dries them out), the fish was overcooked, the coffee is gritty, the juice is flavorless water, and finally I hope someone from Hilton is reading this: don't call pudding with sugar water on top "creme brûlée"! It's not even close! If this was $20 I wouldn't complain but at $60 a person each for the 7 of us, it was a terrible waste of money. Unless Hilton makes this better I recommend you go spend your money elsewhere and get good food.
Ate here for buffet dinner on Christmas Eve. Good selection of main courses like prime rib and turkey. Good casual stuff for kids like corn dogs. Wide array of desserts. Free refills on sodas, too, if I remember correctly. Atmosphere-wise it's a big open space, almost like a cafeteria. There are water features lining the open border which are very pleasing. We had strong gusts of wind blow in during dinner (the place is basically open-air) but at least it wasn't a bitter, Midwest, winter wind!
I'm giving this place a 4 just because of the price, $39 a person for a breakfast Buffett I think is steep even for Hawaii. With that said the staff is very attentive and the food was extremely good. They have a wide variety of items on the buffet and I didn't leave hungry.
If you plan to eat here thinking you will enjoy amazing views of Waikiki think again. You will be viewing homeless encampments on the beach.