The Modern Honolulu in Honolulu, HI

Me and my wife decided to come to Hawaii 5 months before we get married and booked this hotel. Honestly I would’ve booked a fancier hotel if I knew this would turn into our honeymoon. But not I’m so glad that we came here because the staff were just so friendly and sweet. Before my arrival, I reached out to the hotel manager and informed them that this will be my honeymoon trip and I would secretly surprise my wife with a ring since I never bought her one. When we arrive, the front desk agent was super nice and sweet. She was very professional and didn’t tell my wife anything about the surprise. We booked the most basic room but they upgraded us complementarily into a studio suite with ocean and port view on a high floor. On the second day I was gonna ask for some flower arrangements in the room but they told me that they just turned from a hotel into a time share, as a hotelier myself I know that means they couldn’t do any room amenities. But two agents (Lena and Courtney) were super proactive and helpful, informed me that if I can buy the flower they can ask a manager to set the room up. The manager Jao set up the room so beautifully that my wife completely loved it when we came back and gave us a free bottle of sparkling wine. The whole experience was just unbelievable. I came from a Forbes background and I think the service I’ve experienced was definitely at least a Forbes 4-stars. I hope they can thrive and stay in the business till my next visit :)

We stayed 2 weeks during Thanksgiving. Prior to arriving a read some negative reviews and. was concerned about the upcoming stay. It was the exact opposite this is such a well run hotel. Staff are extremely friendly and cannot do enough to ensure your stay is pleasant. Restaurant is excellent we ate breakfast several times and had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal in a beautiful location at poolside. It is by far our favourite location in Waikiki and look forward to returning in the near future.. Mahalo!

What a complete disappointment this experience was. It was the first day of our honeymoon and we had notated upon our booking in prior months that it was our honeymoon... Upon checkin - we informed them that it was our honeymoon and I said that I would be happy to upgrade the room. Instead of upgrading us - they put us on the third floor in a handicapped-friendly room overlooking the parking structure... Once we checked in to the room - I quickly called on the manager seeking other arrangements. Without going into gory details - I ended up speaking with three different associates who informed me that an upgrade was not possible .... while there were still several rooms available in a different “tier” (which I said I was willing to pay for). I was informed that if there was a cancelation of one of the preferred rooms that they would let me know. Aka - on your honeymoon, we’re going to give you a nice room - only if a member cancels their room. We had booked months in advance with notification that we are on our honeymoon - the Modern and it’s entire staff prioritize status over the common customer up to and including if you are on your honeymoon... What is another day for a preferred guest trumps the most memorable weekend for the common booking. What a sad story and what a mistake we made by booking our honeymoon with them.

I have read bad reviews for the Modern due to timeshare issues but the staff were very friendly and professional and we weren’t subjected to the timeshare sales pitch. It was interesting to watch the sales staff talk to prospective buyers seated near us while we had breakfast. Our room on the 6th floor was very nice and big, we had an issue with the fridge’s thermostat (freezing our drinks) but it was fixed in a timely manner. The motel is about a 20 min walk to Ala Moana Shopping Centre and there are plenty of buses you can catch to go to other parts of the island.

We stayed here for 4 nights this past week. Had an issue with the first room where the door to the stairs was slamming constantly and literally shaking our room so had to switch it. Then the room we switched to was cold. Really cold. We turned off the AC hours ago to try and heat it up. We called the front desk to get some blankets and they said they would bring them up. We called again 50 minutes later, and nothing. Around an hour and 15 minutes later they were brought up. I spoke to an on duty manager who I have to say was pretty nice about the situation which made it feel a little bit better. Aside from those issues.... the hotel doesn’t have room service. Apparently they removed their restaurant and made it into a time share presentation area. Our stay had nothing to do with time shares I didn’t even know this place was going to be timeshares in the future but we still got solicited daily by people trying to sell us a timeshare. They are super super aggressive with it. I ordered a meal to go from the tiny beachside restaurant they have left. 45 minutes later I ask them about it at the bar and they told me the kitchen said they didn’t have the main ingredient. I asked like when were they going to tell you this? They said ya that’s a little crazy. 15 minutes later I got something else. Also there were employees striking for hours with a megaphone at the pool and we could hear it very loud from our room on the 11th floor. I can only imagine what the people in the pool had to go through. The day we were leaving we called for two new towels and no one came. 6 hours after that call we checked out. The guy checking us out acted like he didn’t care about us or his job. Valet was great. Like 5 star superb service every time we needed our car. It’s like maybe they were trained by someone else? I don’t know but they were on top of it! If I had to guess I would say that there have been people working at the hotel for a while like the valet and the managers and then diamond resorts hired a bunch of terrible employees. So it could be good but it’s just not.