Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort in Honolulu, HI

The resort is hugh and very nice hardworking staff members. There is a lot of shopping in the area, example: Louis Vitton is on the property as you pass from restaurant to pools. It’s centrally located between the beach and a main walking strip. The beach is like a public beach that you can walk directly to right outside of the hotel property (safe for the kids because no streets needed to be crossed, etc. to get to the sandy beach. There is another entrance from the harbor area, which gives you a spectacular view of the sunset backdrop. Note: Parking is terrible and expensive. Not the hotel’s total fault, because the whole area is total stop and go traffic around 5pm. But, there are plenty of valet parking attendants to get you in and out at about $78.00 daily. Regular parking is only $10.00 cheaper, so why not go for the convenience and help the attendants out a little w/ a few tips!

The hotel was wonderful, clean, friendly, and covenant. However, be aware that the tours and activity service is not a free service the the patrons. When in fact, they add a whopping 40% fee for booking anything for you. Being a hiltons honor member for years, this was disappointing and embarrassing when I was telling others about the trip and the cost to find out I paid $20 more and to add insult to injury, i tipped the person who booked me!

A total of 10 of us saved money all year long to go on this once in a lifetime trip to Hawaii for my daughter's 40th bday on Oct 3-7, 2024. This trip could be compared to National Lampoon's Family Vacation! The worse experience ever!!!!!! Most of the resort employees were on strike the entire time we were there. We did not know this till the day before our trip. Checking in took 1 1/2 hours! Only 1 registration desk and 2 people to check in all the people staying at their different towers (separate buildings) of their property. It was insane! Then, we were all so disappointed in our rooms. They were outdated, small bathrooms, bird poop all over the lanai and railings, carpet was so worn, and walls in need of new paint. We also find out there will be no maid service. Everyone is instructed that they need to get their own towels, toilet paper, and trash bags daily. The resort would supply each tower with what floor to pick up these necessities. That there would be a table where everyone for each tower is to come to. Well good luck with that! Everytime we would go to the floor they were always out of something, especially the bath towels! We called down to the front desk and had to wait 45 mins for somebody to answer the phone, just to be told that room service would bring up more supplies to that particular floor sometime during the next few hours. Keep in mind, that table of supplies needed to supply all those people in each tower. People were hoarding supplies therefore depleting supplies for the rest of us. This was so inconvenient and so frustrating! Trash bags were piling up by the elevators as that is where people would bring their trash out to so that they can be disposed of. Family members staying in their room had problems with their shower knob. It was stuck on hot water only. They tried calling down to the front desk and nobody picked up. They walked down to the front desk and had to wait an hour just to request a maintenance man to come up and fix their shower. The front desk told them that most of their maintenance people were striking. This was on day 1. Nobody ever came to fix their shower the entire stay. They had to take very fast showers as not to scold their skin off. Then you have the constant shouting and chanting and drums beating and loud speakers from 7am till 10pm every day, every part of the resort. Even at the beach where you want to relax and hear the waves. This was impossible. The striking employees wanted to be heard and seen. Boy were they! There was no sleeping in and no sitting out on your lanai to enjoy the peaceful ocean views. No calmness at the beach. All you heard all day was the noise! Noise! Shouting! More noise! This was a total nightmare. So other family members staying in a different tower had no water on Thursday Oct. 3rd for a few hours. That means no using the restroom and no showering. You talk about inconvenient. The saddest part for us was the luau we scheduled there at the resort to celebrate my daughter's 40th birthday. It was supposed to be on Friday evening out on their private beach with fireworks and buffet. The true luau experience with good food and a show. Well because of the strike the resort called me a day before our trip to tell me it was cancelled. They could reschedule us to the Thursday luau. But this Thursday luau is on the roof top (so no beach atmosphere), no fireworks, and the longest wait ever for our table (which was the very last table) to be able to come up and get our food. Well guess what? They ran out of food!!!!! None of us at that last table were able to get anything of substanance! It was all scraps!!!!! We find out the kitchen staff did not make enough food. I cried with disappointment. So here we are at a "buffet" that you would hope to get some delicious food and second helpings but we didn't even get first helpings!!!!! I had to fight with a manager to refund us 1/2 the money! They would not give the full refund! That is unprofessional, unfair, unpleasant, upsetting, and unbelievable! Shame on Hilton!!! It was just one problem after another with the strike going on at this resort! You couldn't complain unless you wanted to wait another 2 hours at the front desk because they were short handed and couldn't do anything about it anyway! On the day of check out, the registration desk had signs everywhere that they will not check anyone out at the desk. They had to check out on-line or by the phone only! They did not have enough people to handle all the complaints people would want to express when checking out! This just made things worse! Well I stood in line for the 2 hours to make sure my voice was heard. I did not want them to charge me the resort fee for the trouble we experienced and especially since there was no house keeping and no comfortable quiet stay. I knew once I got back to my state that it would be hard for me to fight the Hilton to get a refund of any kind. I made the manager take off the resort fee right then and there before leaving. When we all got home, all of us sent Hilton our reviews and dissatisfaction via email. It took weeks for them to respond. We all asked for a refund or at least honor points. If we didn't constantly complain and keep sending emails, we would never have gotten anything. I think this is terrible on Hilton's part. They darn well knew about the strike and all the problems it caused this resort. They just didn't want to compensate their customers for their problems! We did not get a full refund. We were able to get a few Hilton Honors points which I still feel was not enough. We saved and saved all year long for this trip. Our first time there and to experience such a horrible time was not good business practices at all for Hilton! I understand the workers needed more money to survive and I don't blame them for striking. But I do blame the Hilton for not getting in help from any other way they possibly could. This was just so inconvenient and unsettling! It spoiled our entire trip! Regardless of the strike I still feel the resort was less than expected. Like I said, it had very outdated rooms. Such a disappointment all the way around!

I don’t know where to start!!!!!!! Upon arrival they were an HOUR past check in time for us. They had the audacity to say it was our fault due to having conjoining rooms( that we had booked months in advance). Instead of telling us that there was a strike on. It wasn’t until the following day arriving back into our rooms we found out there was absolutely no cleaning or amenities. Imagine paying more for a hotel knowing that that’s what you’d be paying for being lied to and not getting it. We had ants in our room and we noticed disgusting marks on the conjoining doors We had to request sheets to make our own beds and go down to get our own coffee tea and towels toilet paperetc… which were always empty. The fridges in both our rooms were broken and destroyed $300 plus American (we’re Canadian) in food we need to have snacks for our 4 kids from freezing it all. With no help and my husband trying to fix it. Not to benching the striking all you would hear is yelling and screaming all day long. A striker actually scared my children at one pint he was so angry. The food all around was mostly sub par or disgusting. To top it all off after contacting and speaking with someone who comped some of the days that we were there, they OVERCHARGED US more than double!! And I’m still in talks fighting for a refund. We were given “2 nights free” to use at their hotel for a room with 2 people which literally expires in August… we booked 2 rooms and have 7 total family members. There’s no way to would be able to make travel that soon work for us making it useless. I’ve never been more disgusted in an experience in my life. This was our family vacation we had dreamed about for years. And to boot the way they treated staff that literally help make the place roll. Hilton.. you have work to do.

We have visited the Hilton Hawaiian Village many times and it is always wonderful. A lengthy strike of the hotel workers had just ended days prior to our arrival, but everything was as it always has been - they haven’t missed a beat. We worked with Dean at check-in. He is so guest-oriented - friendly, accommodating and professional as well as personable. We always look forward to seeing Dean, Amelia, Kevin and the rest of the staff at Ali’i Tower. Dean and Amelia always make us feel so especially welcomed and valued. We always enjoy eating at Tropics where we had two exceptional servers, Thomas and Lois. They are long-time employees at HHV and know how to take care of their guests. The highlight of our visit was visiting with David Means, director of rooms. He does a fantastic job taking care of such a large resort. The grounds and beach were beautiful and well kept, as always. We can’t say enough good things about this resort. It is one of our very favorites anywhere. We can’t wait to return.