Hilton Waikoloa Village

My daughters and I had an amazing time at Hilton Waikoloa Village! This resort is absolutely stunning, with breathtaking views and so much to do. We especially loved the private lagoon, perfect for snorkeling and kayaking, and the variety of activities available kept us entertained the entire trip. The grounds are beautifully maintained, and the entire atmosphere feels like a tropical paradise. Whether relaxing by the water or exploring the resort, every moment was fun and memorable. We had a blast and can’t wait to come back! Highly recommend!

(Would give 2.5 if I could, but they don’t deserve the round-up.) You know that feeling when you arrive at a resort and think, "Wow, they’ve thought of everything?" Yeah… this is not that. The Hilton Waikoloa is a stunningly located property that somehow manages to fumble nearly every aspect of the guest experience. It’s as if they built a gorgeous playground and then decided, "Eh, that’s good enough." The Good (Because I’m Fair) • Location: It’s in a beautiful spot. No actual beach, but the lagoon is great for kids and a good intro to snorkeling. • Pools & Slides: Genuinely fun and well-designed. If you’re traveling with kids, they’ll love it—and the resort knows it, which is why they put in minimal effort elsewhere. • Dolphins (Neutral Zone): My kids were horrified by the captive dolphins, but if you enjoy watching them from afar, it’s kind of neat. Just don’t pay for the actual experience unless you enjoy dropping a small fortune for what amounts to a blink-and-it’s-over encounter. The Bad (Brace Yourself) • Service? What Service? With rare exceptions, the staff ranged from indifferent to outright rude. Had issues with our room (dead power outlets, burned-out light bulbs, general wear and tear), and not only did they not fix them, but they made me feel like a nuisance for following up. Because, you know, nothing says vacation like project-managing basic maintenance. • Price Gouging at Its Finest: The resort fee is just the cover charge for the real fleecing. Everything—food, activities, even parking—comes at an insultingly high markup. • Food Options = Culinary Stockholm Syndrome: • Dinner? Hope You Like Overpaying. After 5 p.m., your choices are: • A fancy ocean-view restaurant where the food was so bad it would have been offensive at any price, let alone what they charge. (Best thing we ate? The kids’ chicken nuggets. And they were aggressively average.) • An Italian place that was okay but priced like a Michelin-starred Manhattan restaurant. • Lunch? Hope You Like Mediocrity. A handful of overpriced, forgettable options that exist purely to drain your wallet. The Ugly • Labyrinth of Inconvenience: The layout of this place is comically bad. Everything is far. Forget something in your room? You’re either committing to a trek or just going without. This is especially delightful when traveling with kids, who are guaranteed to forget something crucial. • No Actual Beach: For the price, you’d think they’d have ocean access. They don’t. We rented a car (and paid their $50 per night parking fee) just to escape to real beaches. • Worn-Out & Neglected: The whole place looks like it peaked a couple decades ago and has been coasting ever since. Maintenance seems to be more of a concept than a practice. • Zero Aloha Vibes: With very few exceptions, the staff couldn’t care less. The whole place operates on a one-and-done model—trick you into coming once, squeeze you for every dollar, and make no effort to earn your return visit. Final Verdict Disappointing. If your goal is to burn money while being mildly irritated, this is the place for you. Otherwise, there are so many better options. We won’t be back.

This is NOT a 5 star resort! We visit at least one of the Hawaiian islands every year and stay in beautiful resorts and this was NOT one of them! From the 6 hour excursion to get into the actual room that we booked after being scammed by an “upgrade “ and being put into an ocean view NOT an ocean FRONT…. When we finally got into our ocean front at 8pm the bathroom was covered in mold, the fridge wasn’t working, the soap dispensers were COMPLETELY empty and the room was genuinely filthy and hadn’t been updated since the 70s. On day 2 we got switched to another ocean front in the same tower one floor higher because it would be “cleaner” which it was, however it was still beyond outdated and the customer service was below standard (for a Holiday Inn Express). Do NOT spend that kind of money on “ocean front” unless you like the 70s and mold!

We stayed in Room 6313 February 2025 to celebrate our daughter’s 1st birthday and our only parting gift from the hotel was how sick my whole family got from the mold toxicity in this room. Do yourself a favor and search the term “mold” in reviews and you will quickly see we are not alone in our experience and you will absolutely regret not heeding this advice and the advice of others to avoid this tower until they completely replace the HVAC units in all of the rooms. For context, we have stayed at Hilton Waikoloa Village on a few occasions and have loved our experience here up to this point. We have recommended it to many friends and family who have also stayed and loved their experience too so I know the first experience we had for this stay was not up to their standards, and unfortunately, how they “made it right” was not up to mine either so here we are. On this particular day, only one of the trams was running so the wait to get from the lobby pick up to the Makai tower drop off was incredibly long if it wasn’t timed just perfectly, and it never seemed to be, so this became incredibly frustrating to us since the only access point to our room was 6 flights of stairs or an elevator at the furthest most point of the hotel. While inconvenient, the view from the room itself completely makes up for what some would consider this to be a minor setback. Upon entering our room, it smelt very strongly of damp, mold/mildew. I am very sensitive to smells and clean my own home with non-toxic ingredients so I understand at times how overpowering some cleaning supplies can be and thought that maybe they cleaned the room with pinesol or something similar. We planned to spend the rest of our day at the pool and figured the potency would die down by the time we came back. While the smell definitely was still there when we came back to our room that evening, it didn’t seem to be as strong and once we were in the room, it became tolerable. And then…. We turned on the AC. It was very obvious in that moment that the AC was the biggest culprit of the smell. My biggest regret as a mom on this trip was letting our jet lag win over the inconvenience of calling the front desk to change rooms. We had been traveling since 4am our time with a 2 hour time zone difference and a toddler who fought every nap and was overtired to the max. I certainly didn’t think a little musty smell would be as harmful as it proved to be. My husband and I both woke up with severe headaches and head congestion, a tell tale sign of mold poisoning. Yikes. We just got home a week later are still suffering the complications of the grave mistake to stay and power through the smell. I did contact the front desk to address my concerns regarding our stay, and spoke with management, who told me this is the first time they have heard of the issue (LIES!), and that they could have done more to make it right had I mentioned it during our stay versus after checking out. I was not by any means looking for a free night, or a full refund, because we did thoroughly enjoy the rest of our stay and the other amenities we used ( We were upset the boats weren’t operating but we’ll table that complaint for now). I did want some kind of compensation, and while they took off our $55 valet fee, I didn’t feel like that was a fair compensation for the mold poisoning we got from staying in a room that had clear signs (pictured the day we checked out) of mold growth. (I’m terrified of what the HVAC would have looked like inside and if we could reach it safely I would have checked myself) I asked if they could issue points for a future stay or what else they could do to make it right… and was then offered points in lieu of the valet charge being removed but was told that the value of the points they would issue wouldn’t amount to the $55 valet charge. So it was either a “refund” of the $55 OR points that monetarily amounted to less than that. And that was their limit! As a former employee of Embassy and Doubletree by Hilton hotels, I know this was a complete joke of their make it right policy. All this to say, like many others have mentioned, I will probably get a copy and paste reply on here from management expressing how sorry they are this stay didn’t meet Hilton standards but I’m hoping that Hilton Honors will take me more seriously when I bring it to their attention. More importantly, I hope that if you’re reading this, you will heed the advice to forego the Makai tower and stay elsewhere on the property until they have properly addressed the HVAC issue that is clearly not only a problem in this specific room. We were sick our whole vacation, and learn from my mistake, that it’s never worth the beautiful view, or waking an overtired child to move rooms!

Water’s Edge breakfast buffet: $57.59!! (Per person). And it sucked. The best food items that I could find: toast and oranges. Nothing else tasted quite right. The selection was limited. The Omlette “station” was closed (but the waiter would take Omlette orders). There is no price listed when you arrive (I should have asked!). This is a $12 buffet charging $60. NOT WORTH IT. GORGEOUS location. FANTASTIC facility. BYOB (breakfast).