This place is NOT what I would describe as “elegant” or “luxury” and it certainly did not “match the Five Star appeal” of the surrounding hotels. We were enticed by the views of the place, but living here was disappointing for the price we paid. The building and the penthouse is old and not exactly the cleanest. There was dust along the walls, and sand under the sofa bed when I rearranged it.
First off, we had trouble with leaving our luggage at the front desk before our check in. A week before our check in date, I received a message on Airbnb, saying that the front desk had my reservation. Usually hotels have a luggage storage for guests to leave their belongings before and/or after they check in/out, but when I told the hotel that we have a reservation for the penthouse, they said that there was nothing in the system and therefore, I cannot leave our belongings in the storage. I told them the confirmation number and they said that it was probably a scam, which shocked and scared me. I went back to my Airbnb booking and messages and showed them my reservation. It took a while for the front desk to finally confirm that we did have a reservation that day, so it was bad communication within the staff on their part.
A small inconvenience in the hotel was that only one elevator goes all the way up to the 27th floor. For those who don’t mind some more exercise, that’s totally fine, but because we have elderly people in the group, walking up another flight of stairs before encountering the ones from 27th to 28th floor is already a workout for them. So sometimes, it took a while to wait for that specific elevator to come.
On with the penthouse itself. The full bathroom looked nice, but there were some more inconveniences. There is no exhaust fan to ventilate the bathroom, so it was extremely humid and stuffy after a shower or bath. There was a fan in there, but unless you open the door, you can’t ventilate the bathroom. The bathtub also had problems with the draining switch which wasn’t completely fixed even when we were still there. Unlike the descriptions and pictures of the shower area, it did not “offer spectacular views” since the windows were plastered with frosted window stickers for privacy. The bathroom door also doesn’t have a lock; (shouldn’t that be a basic for bathrooms?). It was also hard closing and opening the bathroom door because the curtain right outside the door was blocking, making it inconvenient.
The Airbnb description said that there’s central AC, but there is none. Instead, each room had a portable AC unit. At least there was free Wifi.
The balcony doors were hard to lock, or didn’t lock at all. In the living room, the portable AC unit had an expandable vent hose that extended to the outside balcony, so we couldn’t close the door since the hose was blocking the door from shutting.
The lights in the kitchen and living room were dim. There were a lot of light switches in the living room, but they either didn't work or weren't attached to any illuminations.
There is a washer and dryer, but it was broken. We told the front desk and they said they’ll have someone fix it sometime next week, but we would be gone by then, so no working washer and dryer for us. They said that we could pay to use the laundry machines on the 2nd floor. It would have been nice if they offered to cover the cost to do our laundry since we paid to have a working washer/dryer in our Airbnb unit. Pretty bad service if you ask me.
For parking, because we rented a car, the company said we weren’t allowed to let anyone else drive it. The hotel only offers valet parking and when we asked a staff if we could park the car ourselves, he rudely said no. We tried asking if there were any other options around the area, but he just ignored us. I asked Rick and he gave us an option that was close by, but it was extremely expensive. Eventually, we found a parking structure that on the small street on the left, right before you approach the hotel. It would have been nice if the staff knew about this place (or other parking places) and could give the guests other options of parking in the area.
There are a lot of restaurants and designer shops close to the area. The beach is a little further down, around a 5-10 minute walk.
Rick was quick to respond to the messages, but some of the issues we had in the penthouse wasn’t fixed as quickly as we would have liked (like the tub drain and the washer/dryer issue).
In short, staying here was NOT worth the price due to the lack of maintenance in the penthouse and bad service. My family and I were thoroughly disappointed in this place. For this price, and even less, there are other much better places to stay at (believe me, we stayed at better places in Waikiki that was worth less).