Hilton Waikoloa Village - DO NOT USE

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

11058 reviews

• 

  Makai Lagoon Tower As Bad As It Was Good

  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. (We’ve given free room nights away for things as small as leaks in the ceiling, or people thinking the shampoo housekeeping missed was the last guests cum). So a $55 charge that hadn’t even gone through on my card seems silly for such a serious issue. 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!

  Feb 17, 2025
• 

  Best part of three island vacation!

  OMG!!! My wife and I visited this resort on our first trip to Waikoloa. I have been to Kona before, but never Waikoloa, and she had never been to Hawaii at all! What a resort! Between the pools, the cabanas, KPC, and just the overall vibe it was the best part of our three island vacation. So much so, that we’ve already booked our trip for next year, but this time we’re staying longer because of how much of a good time and experience we had at this resort. We stayed right next to the dolphin pool and our room was excellent. Love this place.

  Feb 15, 2025
• 

  Great service and enjoyable stay

  Annie gave us the warmest welcome at the front desk. My trip is not over yet - we check out in 5 days, but I had to write this review. She made my daughter feel welcome, understood our needs right away, and got us to our room as fast as possible. Smooth check in, fast/efficient, and overall top notch customer service - all with a warm aloha smile. Thanks Annie for the welcome at front desk and for making the start of our trip on the big island so memorable.

  Feb 14, 2025
• 

  Not great

  Unfortunately, we didn't have the best time. What we hated: 1. Outdated. Everything including mattresses, bedding, decor, ac units, and plumbing; Its all several decades old and it's painfully oppressive on your experience. (I.e. noisy AC at night gave us a headache and little sleep, broken plumbing was unhygenic, and the uncomfortable mattresses will give me back problems for weeks, 2. Fees for everything and just general expense of resort food ($60-$200/plate) which is crazy. 3. Walking from parking to hotel is easily 15min. (We waited for/in the tram car for an hour once). There are local restaurants (6min to 30min) for much better prices ($20-$30) but super annoying to spend so much time walking in and out of park. Lastly, what's with the creepy Buddhist statues at every corner?

  Feb 08, 2025
• 

  Good for family activities, tiny bathroom in the newly renovated Palace Tower Grand room

  Our second time staying at this location. We stayed at Makai tower last trip and this time, I used Hilton points to stay at the Palace tower. I believe our room was the newly renovated palace tower grand room since there was drilling noise right next to our room and we could see construction going outside near the tower. Since there were already many reviews on the distance to the lobby from this tower and AC not functioning in the train, this review is not going to repeat that and I’d focus on the room itself. The room we stayed at was a standard double bed resort view, the room was spacious, beds were pretty comfortable, new carpet and furniture. But who decided to keep the small bathroom without giving it any update?! The bathroom was so tiny that we were worried that we would not be able to close the bathroom door while using the toilet. And to be fair, I am 5”4.

  Jan 24, 2025