Just finished a two night stay (A Thursday and a Friday) here.
Overall, it is a terrific value and the location near the zoo across the street and a mere block from the beach is fantastic. Tons of restaurants, shops and such are nearby within easy walking distance.
The one thing you need to be clear about is if you are okay with noise from the bar/club downstairs. This unit is literally located on the floor above the bar/club. On Thursday nite, it wasn’t too bad. On Friday nite, it was super loud. I would advise keeping the AC on as a white noise counterpart and some ear plugs. Mercifully, around 1am, the music stopped on Friday nite, and even earlier on Thursday nite.
Okay, now the good stuff!
1. The area location cannot be beat. Despite the aforementioned bar downstairs, this part of Waikiki is my favorite because it is generally quieter because it’s away from all the hustle and bustle that occurs in the middle of Waikiki.
2. I highly recommend morning walks on the beach area next to the park. Simply walk towards the beach and then make a left. Especially fun, is to buy bread from the ABC convenience stores (there are two of them nearby the hotel), walk onto the jetty and feed the fish and the birds that will appear after you start feeding the fish. I learned this from an older resident lady on a previous trip.
3. You can sit on your balcony and see both the beach (which is a block away) and Diamond head crater. However, if you take the elevator to the 10th floor, the view of the Diamond head and the beach is just spectacular!
4. I was concerned about the amount of towels that would be there and even considered bringing my own towels. DONT! The hostess stocked the room with 4 white bath towels, 2 beach layout towels and 2 thick beach towels for drying yourself off.
5. The AC looks newer and blows really cold so don’t worry about that. I didn’t even use the ceiling fan.
6. The room is super spotless. And well stocked. You won’t really need to buy anything other than what you want to eat or snack or drink.
7. The hostess’ tips on parking were spot on. There is free street parking on Monserrat Ave (5 minute walk). Zoo parking across the street is $1.50 an hour and you can enter your cell phone number into the parking machine so that you get a text msg when your time is about to expire and you can re-up from your phone. I never needed to use the hotel’s parking option of $25ish a day.
All in all, my stay was fantastic and I would recommend staying there. Just be okay with dealing with the bar/club noise from downstairs.
Aloha and Mahalo!
PS (The front desk does want you to check in with them. Even though you are an air b&b guest, they want you to sign in with them and show them your ID for security purposes. This was only necessary when I first got there. I didn’t have to do it for the rest of my stay.)