Princeville Resort: Big Disappointment
Written: Aug 15 '02 (Updated Nov 19 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: nice views from the lobby
Cons: overpriced, bad service, additional parking fee of $15/day whether you self-park or valet
The Bottom Line: The Princeville Resort nickels and dimes you for everything, and service is horrible. The Princeville Resort does not live up to its reputation.
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| leonawong's Full Review: Princeville |
In June 2002, my husband I were married in Hawaii. On the second leg of our weddingmoon, we went to Kauai and stayed at the Princeville Resort.
I had heard raves about the hotel, and I was quite excited. I was looking forward to relaxing in beautiful Kauai with my new husband at a luxury resort. However, our experience proved to be very disappointing.
The hotel was impressive, and the lobby announced its opulence when we arrived. A $100,000 piano tucked in the corner. Marble everywhere. And amazing cliffside views from the lobby.
When we checked in, the front desk upgraded us to a nicer room to congratulate us on our wedding. They also gave us a voucher for a free bottle of champagne from room service. Yippee! (Note to self: On next vacation, pretend to be honeymooners. I wonder how long we can milk it.)
The front-desk also informed us of the additional $15/day parking fee. The fee would be imposed whether we self-parked or used the valet. This bothered me. Kauai does not have much of a public transportation system, and you need a car to get around. I can not imagine that anyone staying at the hotel would not have a car. Why not just add the fee into the hotel rate?
After checking in, we went to our room. Sniff. Sniff. Do you smell that? Although we had reserved a non-smoking room, the front desk upgraded us to a smoking room. Not only was it a smoking room, but the room was dark and dank. The bathroom privacy panel did not work, and the tables had cigarette burns all over them. Yuck. Some upgrade. I called the front desk to ask to get moved back to our original non-smoking room. They informed me the hotel was sold out, and they would not be able to move us until later in the week. Aurgh! I requested they de-ionize the room, but they told me they did not do that. Even Best Western does that. We threw open the windows as wide as possible and made the best of it.
We were pooped from the traveling and decided to hang out at the pool. The pool was lovely, but I was disappointed again. The hotel only had one pool, and it was filled with kids. The pool area did not have nearly enough chairs for everyone, and almost all of them had already been claimed.
After the pool, I took a bath to relax. I love taking baths, and I was happy we had a large tub. The bathroom was all marble, which looked very nice. However, marble gets very slippery when wet. I almost fell several times. By the end of our stay, I had learned to line the floor with all of our towels to keep me from breaking a hip. The housekeeper must have thought I was a nut.
For dinner, we tried the hotel restaurant. It had a nice view, and the menu looked good. The food was very, very good. However, I can not say the same of our waiter. When our waiter came to take our order, he refused to talk to me directly. I don't know if it's because I'm a woman or what. But he only addressed my husband (by my last name). At first, I thought maybe it was just one of those formal things. Some restaurants still expect the man to order for everyone? However, as the meal progressed, I realized the waiter deliberately did not want to speak to me. During the meal, he came to check on my husband's drink and asked if he would like a refill. My glass was clearly empty, too. The waiter did not bother to ask me if I wanted a refill, and I never got my refill. Later, he came back to ask my husband how his meal was. Did he ask me how my meal was? No! I could not believe how rude this person was.
Later during our stay, we visited the concierge desk to inquire about shipping some boxes home. We had gone a little crazy with buying things for family members and did not feel like lugging everything on to the plane. The woman at the desk was reading the newspaper, and she seemed annoyed that we dare interrupt her. She looked up from her newspaper long enough to shove a shipping form at us. When we finished filling out the form, we asked her what we should do with it. Without looking up from her paper, she told us to just leave it on the desk. We waited a day, and the concierge never called us back with tracking numbers or costs. Finally, we called them and got all of the information. I was annoyed that we had to chase them for the information.
Service seemed to be an issue during most of our stay. The staff just seemed very indifferent to everyone, which I found odd considering customer service is such an important aspect of the hotel industry.
In the interest of trying to make this review sound balanced, I will mention that I thought the valet service was great. The valet employees were very friendly and always took the time to give us advice on the local sights and restaurants.
Our stay at the Princeville Resort did not go well. I admit that I set high standards for the place. We had just come from the Kea Lani in Maui, and I expected the Princeville to be as nice or nicer considering we paid so much more to stay there. On our next stay, we will definitely not be staying at the Princeville again.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
leonawong
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Member: leona
Location: Boston, MA
Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 6 members
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