The Royal Hawaiian a Luxury Collection Resort Waikiki

We stayed at The Royal Hawaiian Hotel and had a lovely time. It’s a beautiful hotel with a long history, and the pink colour makes it truly unique. The location is perfect — right by the beach, with stunning views of the ocean. The room was a bit old but had a classic charm. The bed was comfortable, and we really liked the shampoo and shower products — they had a fresh mango scent that was so nice. The staff were excellent and very welcoming. When we arrived, they greeted us with a flower lei, which was a lovely touch. Breakfast was excellent. We paid a little extra to try the steak, and it was delicious. We also had their signature pink pancake — so pretty and tasty! The hotel isn’t perfect and shows its age in some areas, but it has a lot of charm. We truly enjoyed our stay and would love to come back again.

We had the best time here- I highly recommend it for your stay in Honolulu. The rooms were lovely and clean. The staff were all AMAZINGLY friendly and helpful. The banter had water for us every time we got the car and provided wonderful tips for our day trips. The housekeeping staff had small toys for our kids and put their stuffies in fun positions when they did turn down service. The pools were lovely and the beach was beautiful. Highly recommend a stay here!!

I have mixed feelings about our stay at the Royal Hawaiian hotel. On arrival it was very overwhelming and busy around the hotel/ hotel beach bar and Waikiki beach itself. Initially we had a bad room by the lift and with very noisy neighbours and the room smelt like damp. We did complain to the front desk and they moved us to a new room the same day which was really kind and this really enhanced our experience as the room felt slightly bigger and the balcony had a sofa on. The hotel itself inside is really light and airy and has a real tropical feel to it that we really liked and the staff at the reception/ bakery/ maid service were all really friendly. The ocean view room in the new build offers a stunning view of Waikiki beach so I definitely recommend these rooms. The location of the hotel is a huge positive too right in the centre of Waikiki walking distance to all the restaurants and right on the beach. Our issues with the hotel are the facilities offered. They just don’t meet up to a 5star hotel standard. The pool is so small and depressing and has a small amount of sun loungers crammed next to each other that if you want to ‘reserve’ you need to set your alarm for 6:45am and head down to put your towel down. A lot of guests did this and then would go and have breakfast/ go back to bed and just hold the sunbeds until it suited them and this seemed to be allowed. There were some additional ‘premium’ sunbeds which you also had to pay for to reserve. The beach sun loungers were also the same you needed to queue for the crack of dawn and pay for the pleasure of it - ranged from around $70-$100 per day. It just seems crazy to me that when staying at a 5star hotel you can’t use the facilities for free or even at the very least with ease. The gym was small considering the size of the hotel. If you wanted to go pre breakfast then good luck finding a space to workout. Breakfast was also chaotic you would arrive to find a queue and usually around a 20 -25 min wait. We only waited for one of the days as we had some hotel credit otherwise would have just gone elsewhere. The day we did wait we then sat down to be told their signature ‘pink palace’ pancakes would be a further 20 minute wait if we ordered those. Also beware there are many other costs on arrival - daily resort fees, valet/parking, sunbeds (as discussed) these really add up if staying for a while. I think overall if you wanted to use the hotel as a base and spend time on your ocean view balcony but generally spend your days elsewhere on the island exploring then this is a great choice. However, if you are looking for a relaxing holiday with days of chilling round the pool or on the beach then this hotel is not the right choice. If you do choose to stay here, be sure to ask for a room not by the lift!