merbird

We have a "free airfare/pay for hotel" package. On Oahu, choice is Sheraton Princess Kaiulani (cheapest and preferable location), Hilton Hawaiian Village, and JW Marriott Ihilani (most expensive). How is Princess Kaiulani currently?? Sounded pretty bad in 2003,2002?? This package charges $239/night for a Cityview room at Princess Kaiulani, $325 for a Village/Gardenview room at H.H.V., and $329 for a Mountainview room at Ihilani (includes airfare from Detroit). Thanks!!

enjoylife

You can get the Princess Kaiulani through Priceline for $50 a night.
Check biddingfortravel

vivi

$239 a night for the PK is outrageous. I have paid $50 a night via Priceline and gottten the PK the last 6 bids.

If you are willing to spend $239 a night you may want to read biddingfortravel.com very carefully and bid for the best resort Waikiki has to offer!

merbird

To "enjoylife" and "vivi": Thank you for responding! I realize my price is higher for PK- but that is because airfare is included! Please see later message I posted "Oahu Hotel Help!!Choice of 3 Hotels". Can you tell me what the quality of the PK is?? Is it renovated? clean? Would you stay there again?? Thanks one and all!

Cats_Do_Dance

Merbird, could you please tell us more about this "free" airfare/pay for hotel package? I just plugged in dates of August 27-Sept 3 for the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani on the Starwood website and it returned rates as low as $149.00 a night. Are you getting your rates directly from the hotel or are these rates suggested by the package? What sort of dates are you looking at? I don't want to sound skeptical, but I'm wondering just how "free" your airfare really is. If I'm off base, please forgive me in advance.

carolyn

We stayed at the Princess Kaiulani in June as part of a free airfare deal for taking a credit card through my husband's union. The catch was that we had to pay full rack rate for the hotel as well as taxes on the airfare, but it was still a better deal than I could find any other way.

The hotel upgraded us to an ocean view room, unasked, and let our adult daughter stay with us at no additional charge. The room was quite nice. It had a small balcony, nice for sitting out on; and at 2:00 pm at the pool house, they served wonderful pineapple spears for free. It's directly across the street from the Moana, which is fun to tour.

vivi

OK, you will be paying 239 a night at the PK and the airfare from Detroit is "free?" Got it. All of the categories you mentioned (city view/garden view) are the cheapest the hotel offers, hopefully you would get upgraded to an ocean view upon check-in.

The rooms in the rear tower at the PK are small, shabby, and grim. I usually get stuck back there on a 50 dollar Priceline bid. Once I was upgraded to the front tower in a corner room with a wrap-around deck; it was lovely. The rooms and the location/conditions of the rooms can vary wildly at the PK.
Overall, I really do love the location of the PK.

The JW Marriott is about 45 minutes away from town, not a good choice if you want to be in Waikiki. Very luxurious, quiet, with uncrowded manmade lagoons to relax at.

HHV is a city unto itself. A really wonderful resort. It is on the fringes of Waikiki, about a 10-15 minute walk to the center of Waikiki.

I have been to Waikiki about 40-50 times! I always prefer to stay in a central Waikiki location, but I also enjoy big cities. Many people loathe Waikiki and would opt for the JW Marriott and its splendid isolation.

AmandaF

I stayed at the Princess Kaiulani last September and hated it. First, I had reserved a King Size bed and they gave me a double. Second, my room (in the rear tower) looked like a college dorm room and was the size of one too. I was not impressed with Waikiki. It was too "big city" for me. It was not what I'd always pictured Hawaii to look like. However, the other islands were the complete opposite. I would stay at the hotel that's away from the city. If you do stay in Waikiki, be sure to travel to another island (like Kauai) to experience real island life. On the other hand, if you like big cities you will love Waikiki. It just wasn't for me. I hope I don't sound too negative, I just wish someone had better warned me on what to expect.