The Lotus At Diamond Head, Honolulu

I booked my room online while waiting to board the plane in Anchorage. I called to confirm and they moved us up a few floors and we had several ocean views from our balconies and a view of Diamond Head. The room was great, pillows and bed were very comfortable and maid service came 2x a day. It's was the best hotel room I've stayed at in years. Every member of the staff was wonderful and very friendly.

I liked the bed fine, but it didn't matter because every time i wanted to take a nap, the gardener would fire up his leaf blower. What gives? You can't use these damn things in my home city, why would i want to come on vacation to hear how loud they are?

I should have known by our first bad experiece the year before. We were staying at the Royal Hawaiin, several times and just wanted a change. We were told by the Starwood people to "drop by and have a look at the rooms and grounds. So after dinner one evening we did just that. We were dressed nicely and I was in a jacket having just come from a theater perfomance downtown. At the front door, there was a long noisy line of young kids some thugish looking all clammering to get inside, and they had the door roped off. I told the door man that we wanted to go inside to talk to the front desk....he basically gave us a hard time I suppose thinking that we (early 40s) were just trying to get by the velvet rope and crash the exciting adolescent scene of screeching music and partying kids in polyester clothing! I finally got through basically by going through ignoring him with my wife in tow and made my way to the front desk where he gave up the chase when he realized I was serious about going to the front desk. At the front desk was a smiley cute girl, with absolutely no other customers, anywhere around. I explained to her that I was a Starwood Plat memeber and we were staying at the Royal Hawaiin and we were told to come by and look at the hotel. You would have thought we were there to case and rob the joint. A whole slew of questions ensued, making me feel very uncomfortable as if I was lying to her or something. She said she would be back and went in the back room for at least 10 minutes and I could hear her trying to verify with the Royal Hawaiin that I was actually a guest!!! Finally she came back and told me she would arrange to show me a room, but that I could not go to the lounge or the beach area, and that to go to the room, I would have to wait for a security person to escort us! I guess she thought we were dropping by the hotel on the way home to make out! This really peaved me, so I told her "I stay all over the US in W hotels and I just came back from Manhatten where I stayed at the W on Lexington and NEVER at any W hotel as a Starwood member was I denied access to the lounge ESPECIALLY to just LOOK AT IT!!! She was firm on this and said she could not allow that. At that point I had heard enough and looking at the types of people that were coming and going from the lounge I knew this was NOT your average W and would not be where I would want to stay. This past winter we stayed at the Royal again, but I did have an opportunity to meet a friend who was staying at the W. We visited them at the hotel and I can tell you that I was glad we never booked there. As so many others have commented ABSOLUTELY nothing special, and with all the noise from the bar and the types hanging out at night, this is certainly not the W that you would know from other cities, especially with the extremely poor customer service! Incidently the W in Seattle is one of the nicest and has the most wonderful staff you will ever come across. The W Honollulu is horrible in comparison!

the best place ive been in my life the service was great the design like being in heaven even my kids loved it it was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i recomend it to every one its very cheap.

I enjoyed the wonderful dinner,at the resturant, the staff was excellent..Trevor was so plesant and friendly, he really made our dining experience wonderful.. Thank you, Kathy Williams

This hotel is very fancy looking and the hotel staff is great but paying such an expensive price for a bed to sleep in is ridiculous. They don't have a pool, the view from the rooms is of other motels that have oceanside rooms. You have no choice but to have your car valet parked for $15 a night for the valet people to walk 10 feet to your car. The beach beside the hotel is very small and crowded. Instead of having a stereo that is not useful there should be a microwave to heat up food. Having only one ice machine for the entire building was ridiculous along with the size of the ice buckets. The only working elevator in teh entire place takes forever so getting ice is a 15 minute process. The "club" in the hotel is very loud on the weekends. For this much money you hope for a good night's sleep not to hear the booming of base and drunk people screaming. This hotel is "dog friendly" but you have to cross 2 crowded streets to walk the dogs and are charged an additional fee per dog per night which makes it even more expensive and not worth the money. If you are looking for a nice quiet hotel this is not the hotel for you. There are plenty of nicer hotels near Diamond Head that are cheaper with a nicer view.

Strip away the W name and you have a VERY ordinary hote. Sandwiched inbetween many other hotels and privat residences, youll be accoseted by the noise of gabage trucks, garden blowers, delivery trucks and whatever else is in the neighborhood servicing all of the buildings. Here's a sample of what you can expect: no bar (until 5:30 pm) no pool, no fun, no people, no service (except smiley faces at the desk), $10 for a bottle of water, $10 a day for internet access, $31 a day for taxes (give me a freakin break), $2 per phone call ... oh and did I mention, $400 freakin dollars per day? You'd think that a call or two would be free. Free internet as they advertise .. NO. The livingroom - boring. But they do have a very active night club if you like disco and can stand the loudness up until at least the 7th floor. If you're considering the W hotel as a place to stay in Waikiki, stay at the motel 6.

I have stayed at the W Diamond Head at least once per year since 2000, and will be returning there this week for another stay. What I have always enjoyed about this hotel is the low key, stylish and relaxing ambience, the very fine restaurant, the small size (no more than 5 rooms per floor) and location (close to, but not within, Waikiki and with spectacular views of Diamond Head). I have found the staff to be consistently friendly and helpful. The W is not for those interested in the large resort experience. While the hotel doesn't offer much in terms of amenities (no tennis court or pool), free passes to 24 Hour Fitness are provided to guests upon request. The Waikiki branch of 24 Hour Fitness is about a 15 minute walk from the W (and it's a delightful walk, with Waikiki Beach on one side and Kapiolani Park on the other). While the W may not be directly on the beach, it is located on the beach side of the street---and in any event the beach is a few steps away from the hotel. Although I am a big fan of the W Diamond Head, there are two negatives. The hotel is expensive and rates have risen noticeably in the past two to three years (for example, valet parking jumped from $9.95 to $14.95 per day). And anyone staying on the lower floors has good reason to be dissatisfied over the noise from the nightclub on Friday and Saturday nights. The lowest floor I have stayed on is the sixth floor; I couldn't hear the nightclub from that level.

We belong to a vacation-ownership program that owns the W at Diamond Head, and after watching Sam Brown's Great Hotels on the Travel Channel; we decided to spend our first trip to Oahu, Hawaii, at this hotel. The boutique hotel was as shown in the pictures on the hotel's website and on TV. And our 3rd floor room was clean and pleasant... Until the second night... We had had a long day shopping and beachcombing, when the music came on at about 10 pm - pulsating through the walls and floors. We went to bed and tried to sleep, thinking that at midnight, it would stop. But nope, it went on and on, louder than ever, from the lounge on the 2nd floor. The next day we went to the front desk to request for a room on a higher floor. Being in the hospitality business ourselves, we explained our problem in a friendly and diplomatic manner. We were flatly told the hotel was full and our request was on hold until a room became available. Even then they did not "promise anything". Needless to say, that night happened to fall on a Saturday, and we spent another sleepless night having to bear with the 'noise' vibrating through the walls and floor. Other gripes in short: - Not ON the beach as the hotel claims, with no amenities; - It is a 20-min brisk walk to get to the shopping strip, not that we minded walking. But you may be interested to know that there are several hotels on the strip with amenities - OCEAN view, pool, restaurants, lounges, spa - for similar rates; - Hotel staff: polite but not warm. They did not seem genuinely interested in our situation with the noise. - Emailed our vacation ownership office about the noise problem and it seems that from reading other reviews on this page - the situation has not been corrected or improved. - Our room faced a double-deck carpark. The weather being so beautiful, we left our balconey/lanai doors open to enjoy the fresh air. If you're trying to sleep in, cars and motorcycles from the carpark, revving their engines between 6 to 7 am is something to put up with. We won't return or recommend this hotel to anyone. Thankfully, this is the only one we have had to gripe about in our many years of globetrotting.

On my recent trip spent 7 days at the W Hotel, the room was impeccable, service superb, and the location - well with a view of the park and Diamond Head along with warm tradewinds, what more can you ask.