Grand Wailea, A Waldorf Astoria By Hilton Resort in Wailea, HI

Wow! What a beautiful place to be. There is amazing food, spacious rooms, and lots of beach and pools for fun. Adult pool calming but also had slides, rope swings, lazy river, and other water activities in pool area. Even scuba lessons. Staff was gracious and very helpful. We had a handicap room which was very accessible. Only comment was the bathroom could use a nightlight and more places to hang towels or higher ones for clothes or robes.

First time here, we had a wonderful time at Grand Wailea. We had a king bed room which was quite large and a wonderful ocean view. Grounds are beautiful, we rented cabanas most days at adult pool and by regular pool area or the beach chairs. We were there week of 3/31, a few days we did regular pool chairs, and not a problem to find 3-4 together, seemed to get fairly full by 10:00am. Spa is wonderful, daughter and I had facials, and so relaxing. Spa is renovated and it did not disappoint. Did day trip to Lanai (as we have been to Maui several times and wanted something different), and visited the Cat Sanctuary/town of Lanai City. Yes, everything is expensive, you should know this going in, if coming on a budget, this place might not work then. Only negative for me was resort could use a fresh coat of paint in some areas, ie hallways. We love Maui!

I am currently staying at this resort and as a Hilton diamond member I am beyond disappointed. This is a Waldorf Astoria, world renowned for its elegance and service, and although the room is a decent size it is outdated and the resort does not live up to the Waldorf name. The room- The bathroom gets very hot as there is no fan in it, don't even try to use the toilet without keeping the door open you will sweat your butt off. The shower- the head can not be angled so you are standing against the glass to get clean. Pool- what a disaster. We vacation in tropical areas all the time in peak season and have never experienced anything like this. By 7 am there are no chairs at the pool. There is Noone to help you find chairs, and nobody policing to remove towels from chairs from people who reserve a ton and aren't even there all day. There are not enough chairs and they need someone to regulate the usage. I'm on vacation, I get up early anyways, but to have to stand in line for towels and fight over chairs is not relaxing. Price- we paid a small fortune to stay here and find out to get a chair and umbrella on the beach it would cost an additional $600 a day for our family of four or if you want a cabana at the pool they are $1500 a day! All I want to do is sit by the pool all day, in my chair, in the sun. I cannot do that here. Even though there are several chairs with no occupancy all day. There are too many cabanas, several unused as only crazy people would pay that. Do I have the money to get one? Yes, but I am at the Waldorf astoria I shouldn't have to be constantly dipping in my pockets at every turn. We did get Tommy Bahama beach chairs for free, but you have to return them by 3:30 or…guess what? You are charged a $100. Restaurants- extremely overpriced, expect 500-600 for dinner, $30 for cocktails. Mall next door has great, reasonably priced restaurants. I am sure I will enjoy my stay, as I am in hawaii and spending time with my family. But, this will be my first and last visit to this resort.

We had a truly 5 star stay at the Grand Wailea this week. This was our first time to this resort, and it’s safe to say I will compare every resort I stay at to this place. It is grand, filled with local art, and the grounds are stunning. The pools and pristine beach kept our kids busy for 6 days. We snorkled with turtles like 20 ft off the beach, took a spontaneous shore scuba refresher lesson, took a beach yoga class, and enjoyed meals at both Botero lounge (with lovely live music) and Humuhumu, where the ambience can’t be beat. We were worried about chairs at the pool, but had no issues with this at all. Staff warned us that we needed to revisit our chairs hourly or our things would be cleared, and we saw active enforcement of this. Every staff member we encountered was pleasant, even the life guards as they corrected rowdy kids on the slides. Olivia at the front desk was a stand out, helping us get a spectacular room with our Hilton gold status. GM Wendel Lescher and front office employee Beau took exceptional care of us when they heard we were there celebrating. Thank you, Grand Wailea, for beautiful core memories for our family on our trip to Maui. You have our business for life!

As a 5 star my expectations are high for a $1100+ rate. On first arrival the drop area is nice, a bellman takes the luggage, no direction to the checking desk. Front desk is friendly, no welcome drink, cold towel or lei. Find your own room, beautiful view of the ocean, room is spotless but not impressive. We have the deluxe room…. Room has convenient plugs etc. We are excited to go to the buffet breakfast. No prices are listed and we got the bill for $70 per person for breakfast. The buffet was totally unimpressive. Basic food that you would find in a three star motel. Don’t expect anything like smoothies or? Wouldn’t take much to make this spectacular. Again, the staff are so friendly. The pools are very delightful however they’ve taken up most of the prime spots with little cabanas on most days when we visited. The cabanas are about a quarter full, which you must rent. The chair space feels like you are stacked in like cord wood. Again a three star motel place experience. They have underutilized the property many spaces that do not create opportunity for the guest. Over abundance of towels though. The adult pool is very crowded again multiple layers of lounge chairs. The swimming area for families and children seems to be spectacular fun slides yet we’re very outdated. Beware of some hazards there’s a sprinkler head on the entrance to the beach in the slide area. There are raw electrical wires. Many of the lights do not work on the paths so be careful at night. There is a beautiful chapel in the middle of the property that is very spectacular. However, you cannot get in it to do prayers, etc. it was not use the entire seven days that we are there seems like a waste of space. This could easily be another swimming pool area. This area is very beautiful to look at, but not functional for the bulk of the guests. It’s hard not to be jealous of the Marriott next-door, which has amazing spaces and infinity pools. Plenty of lounge chairs on multiple levels This hotel is not been updated in over 37 years since we visited. There is a big Lawn that has lounge chairs, however, no umbrellas.. to rent two chairs and an umbrella on the beach cost $150. The spa has a set up on or near the beach. This is an “up sale” spot. They get you in there and then charge you for extras -which they don’t inform you about. $410 for one 30 minute massage and a foot massage! Everything at this hotel is about getting more money out of you. Hilton is capitalizing on you for a ton of upgrades. It’s very obvious that Hilton corporate has provided excellent benefits for the staff and they do a marvelous job maintaining. They have opened a new restaurant this week while we’re here, unfortunately we made reservations 7 weeks out but were told that it would not be ready in time that our reservation was canceled. Thankfully, there is a market up at the Square, which has delightful food at a quarter of the cost of the hotel. Don’t count on any shuttles to or from local spots. I overheard a guest from another property call and asked for a shuttle from the market back to their hotel. Here, no options as far as shuttles go from the airport to this hotel you have to book a taxi, Uber or Lyft. Those five star hotels have a concierge service that books that for you, not here. I recommend that you eat outside of the hotel. There are some really great places around. Use OpenTable to make reservations. I gave this property a four star overall, compared to other 5 star properties. 2 star for affordability for cost of services. At one time this hotel was the gem in Wailea, unfortunately it has dropped down with the new hotels that are now spotlighting the shoreline.