Marriott’s Waikoloa Ocean Club

Even dealing with potential hurricane weather events, our stay was great! Staff is friendly, and helpful. The site is very convenient for shopping good and fun!

We are long time Marriott. Vacation Club members at the Chairman level as well as Titanium Elite Bonvoy members. This facility, as many other Marriotts is a commercial hotel and a vacation club. The problem here is that there are two separate departments being managed by one entity. Check in for both hotel and vacation handled by hotel. Requests for late check out (plane leaves at 1030pm) not handled by vacation club, but hotel, who wants to sell you use of a day room for $299 for 6 hours and price varies daily. The price of the day room is higher for vacation club members than hotel guests! There is no vacation club lounge, so you are on your own with your luggage for 6-10 hrs before your plane leaves. (The Kauai Marriott has a comfortable lounge). Most planes heading to mainland leave late due to 3 hr time difference. Couples can manage this but is terribly inconvenient for people with children. The only choice would be to spend points and book an extra day IF they have the availability and next time book the extra day when you originally book. Also be advised there is NO shuttle from hotel to airport. Too bad the checkout experience leaves such a bad taste to an otherwise nice week. We will likely not be back because of this.

We have owned a Marriott Vacation Club Timeshare since 2008 and have been very pleased with the services provided at many Marriott facilities worldwide. However, we just returned from a 10-day trip to Marriott’s Waikoloa Ocean Club on the Big Island of Hawaii that changed that perspective. We booked the trip in January 2024 and received confirmation from Marriott that stated in the Summary of Charges that: • 10 nights at $0.0 USD per night per room (using 4.050 Destination points) • Taxes $ Fees (per night per room and Estimated Government Taxes & Fees INCLUDED On September 1, 2024 (ten days before we were to arrive in Hawaii), we received an email from Marriott saying that there would be a daily charge of $23.60 for Hawaii State Occupancy Tax—a total of $236.00 for our stay, and that many of Marriott’s Bonvoy benefits would NOT apply--classic BAIT and SWITCH! As Marriott Rules and Regulations concerning trip cancelation within 60 days of arrival puts a severe restriction on re-using the points (in this case 4,050 points) allocated for the stay, changing our minds was not an option given that we would have to use the points before the end of 2024! On our arrival at Marriott’s Waikoloa Ocean Club, I contacted the Resort Manager to inform him how upset we were with this chain of communications. His response was that it was out of his control--he did give us a $50 resort credit! My response was that I would be cancelling the 2025 family trip to his resort for 10 members of our family that I had just booked! While we have visited Hawaii many times, and I actually lived and worked in Hawaii for ten years, we hadn’t been to Hawaii since before Covid. It was a shock to find that a Happy Hour Pina Colada at the Marriott runs $19 plus tip, making it approximately a $25 drink (with very little alcohol). The property itself has seen better days and food and service in the restaurant was mediocre. We will not return

I have been wanting to come back to Waikoloa for 20 years and we finally made it back. It is a beautiful older resort. Loved the refurbished rooms. We had a pool view room but were pleasantly surprised with a pool/oceanview room. Love A-Bay beach and how secluded it is. Thought we could snorkel but it was pretty murky. We felt the history of the kings ponds and loved the trail by the queens shops. Definitely will be back!

We stopped in the restaurant because there was “live music” but the music was above the restaurant and advertised incorrectly. It said listen to live music with dinner. We could not hear the music at all, and the dinner was not worth it. The menu was blah and way over priced. The space and amenities were gorgeous. People were kind, but not worth is to go to that restaurant and spend that kind of money.

I really don't understand the negative reviews. We had a great stay. Our room was great -- we got the 1 BR, ocean view, clean, everything was in working condition, bed was comfortable, staff were friendly and helpful. Our room has no full kitchen --- but why do major cooking chore when on vacation?! It does have microwave, full size refrigerator, instapot, kettle, toaster, etc. There's a nice in-house restaurant and some great restaurants across the street at Kings Shops. And if on a budget, Queens Marketplace is a short walk from the resort. The Waikola Beach is a short walk from the hotel premises, is in a cove and kept the water calm even on windy days. Water is not that clear though during my visit, but we spotted some turtles while snorkeling. A great beach to watch the sunset. There's a petroglyph reserve also within walking distance. It's a great base to explore the Kona side of the Big Island. Now if you want to explore the Hilo side of the island, you may need to plan more time; there was a reason this was called the Big Island.