The Modern Honolulu

It didn’t seem “luxury” but I’d stay there again. The entire staff was friendly and attentive. They do need to do small upgrades to the room: mirror, carpeting and curtains. The food was amazing at their restaurant and beautiful, calm dining room. I’d recommend it.

On the last night of our stay, November 1, 2024, at 11 p.m., we returned to the hotel after dinner and found that there were no available parking spots, despite having prepaid for parking. When we approached the front desk for assistance, the staff were rude and unhelpful, refusing to provide any information regarding the parking situation. We were forced to park at a nearby McDonald’s and walk back to the hotel late at night, which felt unsafe and frightening as we were a group of three women. Extremely disappointed with our experience at Hilton.

This will be the very first review I have ever written for a hotel. I have stayed in many hotels over the course of my life, from a Ritz-Carlton and a Waldorf Astoria, to a Motel 6, and have generally been satisfied with value for money. Every Hilton hotel I have every stayed in has met or exceeded my expectations. Not this one. I have made 24 trips to Hawaii over the past 20+ years, and this is the absolute worst hotel I have ever seen in the islands. The room smells musty, the carpet is thin, worn and dingy. There are no drinking glasses, just two paper coffee cups. The bathroom has louvered windows between it and the bedroom, meaning there is no privacy in the bathroom. The bed is about 18 inches off the floor, on a wooden platform that extends beyond the mattress. The paint is peeling on the lanai, and the outdoor furniture is dirty. We booked this with a promotional rate. We could have gotten a much nicer room next door at the Ilikai (which I have stayed in before, and found to be wonderful) for less money. However, neither the manager nor Hilton Grand Vacations could refund our money, so we're stuck. I cannot believe that Hilton puts its name on a place like this. It's a dump.

Staff are very friendly but the facility is old and dilapidated, the beds are awful, linens are scratchy and stained, bathroom door doesn’t close, elevator noise is all day, bathroom fan doesn’t work, the list goes on. They only clean every 4 days and won’t pick up overflowing garbage cans from their tiny garbage cans. No room service either so if you were hoping for that don’t expect it. The staff must know as they were very kind and did all they could to be accommodating but the facility is not what one would expect of a Hilton in one of the prime places of real estate in Honolulu. The view was great but the staff and view are about the only positives in this stay.

I selected this property as a Hilton diamond member and I was surprised that many of diamond benefits apparently don’t apply at this property. We selected a partial ocean view room with the hope of an upgrade upon arrival that wasn’t entertained by the front desk. The normal $15 daily allowance doesn’t apparently apply as well at this location. The overall appearance of the room was clean and comfortable and the view was still pretty good. However if you select the partial ocean view rooms they are directly beside the high speed elevators so you will have listen to the whine of the elevators till about midnight. The location is near a few good eating spots and you can watch the surfers in the morning with sailboats. We did 5 days here and went to Kona for a second 5 days at the Hilton Waikoloa Village and it was truly amazing and will be our go to in the future. The bar staff were exceptional and the highlight of our stay. Also if you are over 6 ft tall duck in the upstairs parking, low hanging pipes every where.