5-Star Grounds / Motel-6 rooms
Written: Jan 04 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Grounds
Cons: Rooms
The Bottom Line: Stay for the grounds, not the rooms.
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| qualmod's Full Review: Wailea Marriott, an Outrigger Resort |
Epinion Review: Marriott Wailea:
I stayed here from Sat. 12/11-12/15, 2004. I was traveling alone for an "R&R" vacation. I wanted a less expensive hotel, but also wanted an ocean view. I travel 100K miles per year on average for business and stay at a lot of hotels, both Int’l and domestic. Here is my take:
The grounds are beautiful at this hotel. You do have the rocky coastline, instead of beach, directly in front of the hotel, but I liked this as it added privacy (no huge crowd of beached sunbathers constantly in front of your hotel). You can simply walk a few yards to one of the 2 beaches on either side of the rocks, or to any of the beautiful beaches just up or down the Wailea walk-way. The chaise-lounge seats set up on the grassy lawns, slopping toward and overlooking the rocky coastline to view the sea/whales/sunset were wonderful! There was practically no one else there and I felt as if I had my own private grounds as I sat there reading my book, eating Macadamias and drinking my daily Blue-Hawaii (made by the super friendly bartender at the pool-side bar).
The pool looked ok – medium-sized, better than the Renaissance’s down the beach. I prefer to swim in the ocean – especially since the pools were typically used by folks with small kids – this includes the hot-tubs.
The rooms were tacky, worn-out and falling apart. The room décor is “motel-6-meets-“lost-in-las-vegas”-meets-salvation-army.” Actually, I don’t think even the Salvation Army would take any of the furniture, particularly the lamps – humongous, tan-colored, hideous monstrosities (they would win an ugly lamp contest)! I recommend you not stay here if you want a room that is a pleasure to stay in and feels clean. I booked an Ocean view room (the best rooms are the ‘Deluxe’ ocean views). Suggestion to Marriott: Go to Pottery Barn or even Wal-Mart and pick up a couple of nice new décor items like a new bedspread and lamps. Go ahead. Splurge a little, cheapskates.
I did have a partial view of the ocean. I also had a view of the side of the building next to me and the room was facing north-east – but the room was dark and gloomy all day long. Dank and dark. You get used to the ‘dank’ smell after you are in it for a while. I know that most tropical places have rooms that are a bit damp and smell damp, so this was not a big deal to me. The screen door was old and rusty, and fell off the track when I was there. The screen door lock was broken. The grout in the bathroom floor is dirty. The “air-conditioner” looks/sounds like something out of the movie ‘Brazil’ – old, loud and the rattling engine could wake the dead. I would have left the sliding door open for air instead, but since the lock on the screen was broken I couldn’t. One of the lamps had a nasty fluorescent bulb in it. One of the lamp’s switches was broken – felt like I could have been electrocuted by touching it. I called maintenance and they replace both the door (still with a non-working lock) and the bulb quickly. They temporarily fixed the broken lamp switch (by jiggling it and shoving it back into to hole). They said the air conditioning made that noise “because I had it up too high” – Hello! I can’t use the high-setting on an air conditioner while in Hawaii???
Also, there is no high-speed Internet or wireless in the rooms. Bring your dial-up # if you wish to check email / Web in-room. As part of the ‘Resort Activity Passport’ you get to use the office computers (a conference room with 2 computers in it or a DSL line to hook up to your laptop). In the busy season or if a conference is going on, you may have to wait to get online. I am self-employed so it was important to be “wired” (and not just from the Kona coffee ;o).
The ‘Resort Activity Passport’ is worth the $15 daily fee. You get: Valet/self parking, Unlimited local phone calls (good if you are dialing u p the Internet from your room), Unlimited high speed Internet (from the conference room), Sunset Appetizer (good – I had Poke one day, empanadas the next, etc.), Mask/snorkel 2-for-1 (I was alone so I got them at half price @ $9), Intro Scuba dive (looks like they were doing this in the pool), 20% discount off the luau (didn’t go but saw it – looked like your “typical’ luau), 2 kids eat free from kids menu at the Hula Moons restaurant (for every paying adult). By the way, the salads are great.
The bell-person confirmed that they would start renovation in Feb. 2005 to the rooms near the pool are first (buildings 1 & 2). There is already construction going on in the neighboring lot (near the rooms facing the kids’ pool). Don’t know if it was loud or not as I was on the other side of the building.
Also, the spa: Nice treatments/relaxing, but beware of the “service fee” (I think it was about 20% - very high) that they tag on and don’t tell you about – it was NOT the tip – they specified this after I asked. It was just a random, expensive fee.
Nevertheless, for the $260 per night – I got an ocean-view room, with a patio/balcony, which is way more than I would have gotten down the beach at the Grand Wailea or Four Seasons for the same price (actually, I don’t even think they have rooms for this low a price). I was a bit disappointed, with the hotel being so empty; I would have thought they might upgrade me to a nicer-view room. I would stay here again, but only for the nice, private, grassy grounds and during the slower seasons.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
qualmod
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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