Hawaii Prince Hotel Waikiki

Off of Waikiki and closer to Ala Moana shopping center and beach having a more local flavor and s favorite spot for Japanese tourists. Not elegant but comfortable settings with the Waikiki yacht club and the Ala Wai marninna in the background. Beautiful. I love staying here on July 4 th to get a great view of the fireworks.

Recently spent a few nights here with the family on a mini staycation.
+ Great location. On the fringe of Waikiki, so you don’t have to drive through Waikiki traffic to get there. Ala Moana Shopping Center (I think the hotel provides a shuttle there) and beach park nearby. If you really need to go to Waikiki beach, the hotel has a shuttle there, too.
+ Great amenities. Very nice restaurants/​buffets located in the hotel. Otherwise, more moderately priced/​causal dining options are nearby too (Outback, Red Lobster, Buffalo Wild Wings), as well as fast food options (McDonalds, Subway). Pool and hot tub (well, more warm than hot, but still nice nonetheless) on the 5^th floor. Pool is 3.5 feet, making it perfect for little ones.
+ Great view of the ocean/​harbor. From the Ala Moana tower (18^th floor) we also had a great view of the Friday evening Hilton fireworks.
+ Pleasant staff. Very accommodating.
+/​-​Resort fee. I really don’t like resort fees even through I know it’s a standard hotel practice. The resort fee here includes parking and wifi, but I think hotels should be upfront with their prices.
— Older hotel and it’s starting to show. In immediate need of renovation. Mostly cosmetic stuff (cracked tiles, scuffed and dinged doors/​walls, etc.) Unfortunately, this is the reason for a 3 star review instead of 4 stars. A hotel’s aesthetic and ambiance is a large part of one’s overall experience. If I’m paying about $ 200/​night, I shouldn’t be walking on cracked tiles, having to deal with a broken shower head, etc.

This is a typical Hotel. For a Honolulu hotel, it’s pretty terrible because it’s 15 – 20 minutes from the heart of Waikiki Beach and though we had a breathtaking view… of a marina… from our 20-​something floor window, it wasn’t as good as staying at Waikiki proper.
If you opt for the resort package, you get parking and bottled water, and perhaps WiFi, but don’t even dream about getting breakfast. Overall, this is a rather mediocre, poorly-​located hotel. I should also add that I am sick and tired of Hawaiian hotels treating Japanese tourists like first class and everyone else like second-​class citizens.

Huge suites for decent price. This hotel caters to Japanese and provided standard service (although valets/​bellman were excellent).
Never ate at in house restaurants due to poor advertising of what they had to offer and jumbled guest book that had printing in Korean/​Japanese and English and frankly gave me a headache.
I did order in room dining, Burger was great, put pizza was average.
Biggest problem was terrible location at the far outskirts of downtown. Walking to anywhere you want to go is impossible, so you will have to cab it. Not many good restaurants nearby unless you consider Outback/​Red Lobster/McDonald’s delicious.
Loved the gift shop and the huge size of our room. Couldn’t get the free-​wifi regularly so instead used mobile hotspot. Huge suites, ok service (valets/​bellman were excellent), good in room dining, but terrible location unless you are ready to cab it everywhere. Loved the gift shop and the huge size of our room.

For the first time I actually attended a wedding reception at the Hawaii Prince hotel’s Mauna Kea ballroom. I enjoyed the celebration of my friends marriage. I enjoyed the food! How can you go wrong with a «table of plenty» buffet line with prime rib. The desserts were very yummy and I particularly like the tart with the macadamia nuts. One thing that was off to me about the dinner service was that when our table was done with dinner and dessert, our plates remained on the table for the longest time. We had plates just waiting around for the servers to pick up. Another gripe we had was with the parking. When we first pulled up to the hotel we went to the parking garage entrance and there was a man standing in front of the driveway next to a sign pointing to the valet service at the entrance to the hotel. When I rolled my window down to ask about parking, he didn’t get off the phone briefly to answer me; he just nodded his head when I asked if it was just valet parking. When my husband validated our parking ticket at the reception table by the ballroom, we had to fork over a whopping $ 11. Later on in the night, we heard someone worrying about paying for parking and they said they parked in the hotel’s garage. We were puzzled why some guests got to park in the garage while we were forced to do valet. If we were told the parking garage was full, we would understand that valet was the only option but we weren’t informed. The other guests said self-​parking was $ 8. Then when we got our car back from the valet, we of course gave a customary tip, but the cost for parking really was more expensive than other hotel parking garages we’ve been to. Still tables littered with plates and expensive parking fees were minimal issues and we still enjoyed our time at the wedding reception celebration for two good friends. We’re honored and grateful that we were invited guests to such a milestone event in their lives and the Hawaii Prince’s Mauna Kea ballroom was a nice place to host such a celebration.

Cyndy’s Bottom Line: Good location but in need of renovations.
This will be the last time staying at the Hawaii Prince because it is in need of a renovation. The rooms are good size wise but there is a musky, weathered scent in the room.
*Great location which is at the edge of
Waikiki.
*Service is very good.
*Large pool with nice seating.

The Hawaii Prince Hotel was built in 1990, and unfortunately has not had a major renovation since. My husband and I spent three nights at the Hawaii Prince on our honeymoon in November. We knew it was near the harbor, and not on the main strip of Waikiki. We don’t mind the walk to the strip, and we planned to spend time by the pool.
This hotel caters to Japanese travelers who are in Waikiki for shopping vacations, and they spend very little time at the hotel. Many of the amenities they indicate on their website are not actually operating or open regularly. The pool restaurant and bar were closed the entire time we were at the «resort». The hotel bar is a tiny room off the front lobby and opens at 4pm every day. I am not a lush, but occasionally when I am on vacation I like a nice cocktail in the afternoon.
The rooms are completely outdated and not very clean. Our shower had hair on the walls when we checked-​in, and I promise you it was not ours. The walls, tile floors and baseboards in the room and around the hotel are dirty and in need of repair.
If you want to spend uninterrupted time time by the pool this is the place for you. We spent a few hours by the pool each day, and we only saw 5 other guests. The hotel was also built so one of the towers blocks the sun from the pool for most of the day, which is probably great in the summer but not in November. It was also pretty windy by the pool, but that could have been due to the time of year.
We got stuck on the 23^rd floor because the elevator was broken. We used the courtesy phone twice to try and get assistance regarding the elevator. The second time we called for assistance we told the hotel employee the elevator was not working. Her response was, «Is it broken or is it just stuck?». After waiting 10 minutes a nice member of the cleaning staff showed us the service elevator and we escaped.
The «gym» is nonexistent. It is two hotel rooms with an adjoining door. It includes three cardio machines and a few weights. The room is also carpeted so it smells like sweat and old carpet.
Lastly, the hotel spa is right near the lobby elevators and it regularly smells like hair coloring and perm products, which is not very appealing.
We checked out after our three nights and headed to Turtle Bay where we enjoyed an extremely relaxing and enjoyable end to our honeymoon. In closing I recommend you skip the Hawaii Prince Hotel.

Out of all the hotels to stay at in Honolulu, and at Waikiki, this one was a very poor choice on my part!
Most likely the worst hotel experience I have ever had, and we travel often.
First, I did not read the ‘small print’ on my
booking sheet, and upon check in we were advised of a $ 31.00 per night Hospitality Fee, added on to the room price at checkout time. They also charge extra for Wi-​Fi.
The front desk staff was ill-​equipped to handle customer satisfaction issues IMO. My appeals to the staff and then a manager were met with a response of… this is the way it is pal!
Note: this appears to be standard practice with Hawaii hotels, but many are not this high, the fee varies from hotel to hotel.
The room was clean, but it was very dated and plain-​wrap; and while there was a good view of the water, there was no balcony.
It was quite rainy during our stay, and the elevator had a leak in the overhead and they had a bucket in the elevator to catch the water leaking through the ceiling… very tacky.
The hotel buffet is just so-​so as compared to many other hotel buffets throughout the US and the world. The breakfast is expensive, and they did not have any bacon. I asked, and the server said this is not an item on their menu. I then realized that this is not an American managed hotel, it is a Japanese corporation, and most of the staffing is Japanese.
Likewise, the dinner buffet was not at all spectacular, as at other hotels or resorts. The choices were limited and were oriented to he taste and culture of the Japanese guests.
There is a period in the afternoon, where both the restaurant and the lounge are closed at the same time. So between 1:30 and 4:00 you cannot get a beer or some decent snack food.
I called for room service and the phone rang and rang unanswered, wherein after about a full three minutes I just hung up.
After being out all morning shopping, we returned to our room at about 3:30 to take a nap, as we had a luau to attend later that night. After dozing off, at about 4:00 I was awakened by a rapping on the room door. I was too tired to answer the door, and there was a second knock. Then suddenly, I could hear the door being opened and someone entering the room. I yelled out who is it… what are you doing?! The male voice answered, «Oh sorry», and then the person closed our door. I picked up the phone to call the front desk to ask what was going on; however, the phone rang for over three minutes unanswered and then finally a person came on the line and said «please hold» and without time for me to respond, placed the call on hold. Again, I hung up.
At check out time, I asked about all of this and why we were awakened/​startled in the late afternoon? The clerk was basically clueless. Furthermore, they had lost our credit card info in the system, and she had to rerun the card at checkout.
All in all, the most annoying hotel stay we have had, and it took away some of the enjoyment of our short Hawaii vacation.
Next time, we visit Hawaii, we will ensure we book with a US managed hotel and where English is the primary language of the staff.

We recently had our wedding here and we had such a great experience with this hotel… from the catering department for the ballroom, to the hotel concierge, to the actual hotel rooms.
First off– the hotel rooms. My bridal party and I stayed in a 2-​bedroom suite in the Ala Moana Tower. It was amazing! It was huge! When you walk in there’s like a small room good for storing things that’ll connect to one bedroom and also the living room. The living room further connects to the other bedroom. One bedroom had 2 full beds, and the other had the king bed. The living room had a couch that pulled open into a bed. The view was almost like 180 degrees of the marina. The toilets were those fancy bidets, that was a treat. The décor in the room is a little dated, but it was fine for us. For being a 2-​bedroom suite, I was hoping there would be like a full fridge or something, but it only had the small fridges. We also had a 1-​bedroom suite booked that was a good size too. However, if you have a lot of people getting ready or partying, I don’t think the 1-​bedroom suite would be a good size.
The catering department was a pleasure to work with! They are very patient and make sure all aspects of your event is in order. I actually had one banquet coordinator in the beginning who ended up leaving the hotel. At first I was very anxious about who’d take over my event, but the person taking over, was great! She helped me with entrée decisions, parking options, and all the good (free) stuff! :) If you are looking to book a wedding here, it is really the best bang for your buck! the food is honestly the best hotel food I’ve had for a wedding. and you get a huge spread for the price you pay! There are so many things that were included in our package because of how big our wedding was– parking passes, hotel rooms/​suites, cake, breakfast the next morning. all worth it! So go see our girl, Cara!
All the staff here, the valet guys, the people who come to our room to help us with our bags, they were great! super friendly and patient. and with a wedding on our plates, we really appreciated all the hospitality the hotel had to offer!

I loved staying at this hotel for my first time in Hawaii! It’s a hidden gem in the Marina area of Waikiki Beach. The rooms facing the water have these large windows that open up. The view is just breathtaking! It’s a quieter hotel so I really enjoyed being away from the hustle of Waikiki. There is a great park next door that is fun to walk to in the morning with coffee.
The only thing I wish they had was a pool bar! It was very hard to get drinks at the pool and took them an hour to get anything up to you. You have to call from this phone by the entrance area of the pool. A pool guest had to tell us about the phone so we could at least order some drinks. Another downside is the lounge bar is only open for limited hours starting at 4:00 pm down in the lobby. But the bartender does make a fantastic Mai Thai! I will probably stay in more of the heart of Waikiki Beach next time but this hotel does have it perks being in the Marina area.

BEWARE families with teens or young children!!!
Worst Hawaiian experience I’ve ever had.
We arrived early to check in and as expected our room wasn’t ready. We reserved a non-​smoking king room and clarified that is what we would get. Front desk confirmed.
When we came back that evening to check in we were given a room on a high floor. When we went in It was clearly a smoking room with two doubles. It was fixed by the distracted and clearly agitated front desk attendant.
After getting off the elevator walking in the hallway is like hitting a wall of humidity as they are not air conditioned. The room was small and very outdated. Our king was two twins pushed together disguised as a king.
The bathroom had nice marble floors with brushed glass shower and commode doors straight out of the 70’s.
No balcony, and the windows which overlooked the beautiful harbor opened all the way up causing an open invitation for a young child to flirt with. VERY DANGEROUS.

Hotel is very outdated — no balconies — not on the beach. Staff is friendly which has been the only good part.

It was last month and we were celebrating again-​haha! We paid $ 22 for self-​parking with in/​out privileges. At first we got a room on 11^th floor and it was a corner room. I went down to the front desk to ask for change of the room since I don’t feel comfortable with corner room. Service was good. They change the room immediately and our room was on the 27^th floor. The view was great! Everything is good. Now when I think about it I regret that we didn’t stay in the room for much time. We went clubbing at night and came back drunk at 4 in the morning but we had to check out at noon. Early in the morning I went to the front desk again to ask if we can stay one more night but they said all the room were completely booked. I guess this hotel is really popular.

I’ve been to the buffet many times but I’ve never actually stayed at this hotel.
My mom was coming to Oahu for my birthday and wanted to get a room somewhere. This was the best Kama’aina rate I could find!
My mom loved being on the outskirts of Waikiki. She walked Magic Island and watched the surfers near Hilton Hawaiian Village for hours.
We self parked with no problem for 50% off ($ 11).
Since I was recently injured we changed to a handicap room no problem. The room was so spacious and clean. The bathroom was huge for obvious reasons!
It was such a hot and humid day I was really depressed about going home. I called the front desk to inquire about a late check out. I guess the availability for that day was good because after the standard 12:00 check out, you could stay for $ 10 an hour until 5:00. To me this was totally worth it!
I laid out by the pool and had great service and a great lunch.
I will surely stay at the Hawaii Prince again! It was clean and had great hospitality!

Well this is only based so far on my experience with offing food pool side.
The place has a sign up and the guy isn’t here. Ok got it, so I pick up the phone as the sign states to call in my order and am told to wait for the guy. The guy then shows up and tells me he is busy and like the sign says will be back soon. Are you serious!!!
I expect more from a 200 dollar a night hotel, but then again it’s Hawaii and customer service consists of Aloha; give me your money with attitude.

We were originally placed on the 31^st floor. However, with my fear of heights I could not do it. I called the front desk to ask for a room change, which they were able to oblige. The front desk sent someone to give us key cards to the new room on the 11^th floor. Though, when we arrived at the room and opened the door, there was someone already in the room and she was changing!!! Not okay. They apologized but honestly that is something that should NEVER happen. I hope they comped that woman something. What if she wasn’t there, and it was someone who was dishonest coming in and stole something?!
When we arrived at our new room. The bathroom was fantastic and my favorite spot in the room. Very spacious and clean. The room itself was sort of dated with the wallpaper peeling in many spots with some spots peeling in the bathroom. Some areas appeared to be patched and that really hurt the look. I appreciated the free bottles of water in the refrigerator, came in handy in the middle of the night.
Overall the customer service was excellent. The employees were very friendly. However, one star was docked for the peeling wallpaper, while the second star was for assigning two guests to the same room.

Hotel isn’t the newest and most modern, but it’s a nice place to stay. The location was nice, it wasn’t on Waikiki Beach where it’s really crowded, but a little ways away from it in front of a marina. Housekeeping did a good job making up the rooms each day which was nice. The room was a bit dated, with the wallpaper peeling, basic amenities, broken dresser doors, and a strange out of place black massage chair. The hotel does need some work in updating these little things, I think it would make a big difference. The rooms had no balconies, but at least the windows opened up all the way so you could get fresh air and take unobstructed photos of the boats outside. It sucked that the ice machine was on the 19^th floor, and not on every floor, so I did get lazy to go get ice (don’t forget your room key, you need it to get into the ice room). The gym was tiny and kinda strange, it was pretty much two regular hotel rooms that were emptied out with a few basic equipment put in. Wish this place included free wi-​fi. We booked a deal that offered free parking or free wi-​fi and opted for the free parking since we had our own rental car. I do wish they had offered free wi-​fi anyway. The front desk does offer towels for the beach which was also helpful each day. The hotel is situated near, convenience stores, restaurants and shopping. So although it was bit away from the main tourist area, it was still in a pretty convenient location.

Great hotel and location! They provide a free shuttle that goes to three different shopping locations with plenty of restaurants. It runs from 12:00pm to 10:00pm. The drivers are very nice. Dan was our favorite.
The reef lounge serves great drinks. The workers are very nice. The downside of it was that the pool and jacuzzi area closes at 8pm.

Perfect spot for an anniversary stay-​cation! Romantic, gorgeous views and away from a lot of the hustle and bustle of Waikiki but close to all the things we enjoy. We had a perfect view of the Friday night fireworks, we were steps away from a romantic dinner at Sarento’s, a $ 4 cab ride to dancing at the Irish Rose, then crab benedicts for breakfast at the Harbor Pub, strolling around the hotel and hanging on the pool deck and then pupus and drinks at Chart House and well, that’s as far as we got before we needed to go back for an evening nap. Next day, we enjoyed the Hilton lagoon just steps from the hotel and then walked down the beach to the Moana Surfrider for lunch and their famous Mai Tai (take a cab back as the Mai Tai will make you feel like you’re floating).
The staff at this hotel were so, so nice and always greeted us with Aloha and a smile and opened doors for us. The view was absolutely fantastic and love the location. We could have also dined at the Prince Court as the buffet looked fantastic, but we ended up skipping dinner on our second night after having too many pupus at the Chart House, and then opting for room service for breakfast instead of their Sunday brunch. We will definitely come back and enjoy the restaurants in the hotel. Also, the Toto toilet was something to enjoy. It is generally very quiet — no sounds from other rooms but there was a roof fan noise coming from a few floors below, which wasn’t loud enough to bother us. It wasn’t loud enough to drown out the ocean sound if we had been closer to the waves but I doubt we would have been able to hear ocean waves from the 31^st floor since the waves are on the other side of the harbor from the hotel. We enjoyed watching the sail boats sailing around and all the boats coming and going from the harbor. The fact that they do have smoking rooms available (no worries for you non-​smokers as they keep us separate and only on the higher floors) as well as a great Kamaaina deal made this our first choice. With the location, nice rooms, gorgeous views and wonderful staff — we will definitely be back.

I have to say, I was trying to find things I didn’t like about the Hawaii Prince, but I ended up really enjoying my stay here!
For starters, I felt like I was back in Japan again– this hotel obviously caters very strongly to the influx of Japanese tourists, and I’m ok with that. Although I didn’t get a chance to eat at Hakone, I hear their buffet is legendary (for 54 bucks it had better be), but I’m always glad to know there is quality food right in my own resting place.
As for the room, I loved it. (
)
The windows open left to right to give you a stunning view of Waikiki and the marina, and you can rest your elbows and lean out into happiness. Most of the time in my room revolved around how I could hover as close to the windows as possible. It was the best part of going to sleep and waking up in the morning.
That being said, the bed was a close second. The bed was soft, and everything was perfectly maintained. The bathroom was also pretty solid as well. Hover keycards made it so I never even had to take the key out of my wallet (I tried to lift my leg up against the door with my wallet still in my pocket for extreme laziness but epic failed).
Location is perfect– a mere block for ala moana, yet far enough away from the COMPOUND that it feels secluded (the compound being the plethora of hotels all adjacent to each other like a tourist jungle).
There was a lot of renovation happening, so it was pretty ugly to look at from the outside, the interior seems a little dated, and the pool wasn’t really anything special (you should be at the beach anyway).
Customer service was great all the way through, and everyone was very helpful with whatever questions I had about the area. They didn’t try to hard sell me trips either, which was nice.
Lastly, they want $ 11.95/day for wifi. That’s an automatic loss in star. Is this 2014? Or is it just because you know you can screw the Japanese tourists who will pay anything? That was probably my biggest downside.
All in all I was very impressed, and would definitely stay here again.
⁴⁄₅ Stars