I see that I am not alone with my recent experience at the Aqua Palms and Spa. After traveling for 16 hours and arriving at the hotel for check in, I was told that I had been chosen for an "upgrade," however, the "upgrade" was to a sister property on the other side of the island. I had chosen the Aqua Palms and Spa for its close proximity to the Hawaii Convention Center, where I would be all week, so I said thank you for the offer, but I made my reservations here and will be staying at the Aqua Palms and Spa. The front desk clerk then spent over 5 minutes trying to convince me that the other hotel was better, but I still insisted that I wasn’t interested...finally the truth came out! I was informed that the hotel was overbooked and that I had no choice but to move to the other hotel. I told the clerk that this was unacceptable and that I had made my reservations 4 months ahead of time and received a confirmation number the week of my trip and I was never contacted or informed that the hotel was overbooked.
Finally, I asked to speak to the Manager, and waited several minutes before he came out to talk to me. He also began his speech about why the sister property hotel would be much better and when I tried to tell him that...I see that I am not alone with my recent experience at the Aqua Palms and Spa. After traveling for 16 hours and arriving at the hotel for check in, I was told that I had been chosen for an "upgrade," however, the "upgrade" was to a sister property on the other side of the island. I had chosen the Aqua Palms and Spa for its close proximity to the Hawaii Convention Center, where I would be all week, so I said thank you for the offer, but I made my reservations here and will be staying at the Aqua Palms and Spa. The front desk clerk then spent over 5 minutes trying to convince me that the other hotel was better, but I still insisted that I wasn’t interested...finally the truth came out! I was informed that the hotel was overbooked and that I had no choice but to move to the other hotel. I told the clerk that this was unacceptable and that I had made my reservations 4 months ahead of time and received a confirmation number the week of my trip and I was never contacted or informed that the hotel was overbooked.
Finally, I asked to speak to the Manager, and waited several minutes before he came out to talk to me. He also began his speech about why the sister property hotel would be much better and when I tried to tell him that I was not interested in changing hotels he told me to "be quiet so he can finish" and that I “need to listen." Finally after another 15 minutes of telling the Manager that I was not leaving and that it is unacceptable to send me to another hotel, the manger finally said "okay, we will let someone else have this great opportunity."
My room wasn't ready until later in the evening, and for the rest of the week, the front desk staff gave me rude looks when I walked through the lobby. Also, I was surprised by the behavior of the front desk clerk and the manager, never once did they try to apoligize for the overbooking, they were only forceful and demeaning during my check in and tried to mislead me by telling me I was “upgraded.”
Overall, the actual hotel was adequate but nothing fancy. As mentioned by other reviews, the elevators are very slow, the free breakfast is pretty much just muffins and fruit and the pool is very small. Also, the rooms were clean but look much smaller than the pictures from the Aqua Palms and Spa website make them appear to be. Try to avoid rooms on the Ala Moana Blvd side of the hotel, there is traffic noise all through the night.
Final suggestion, stay at the Hilton across the street, my other colleagues who stayed there had a great experience!More
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