While the Banyan (heritage) wing has it's charm, the standard room sizes range from tiny to tinier.
The Tower wing's room size and layout are more typical, albeit with less character (but I think you'll agree having room to place a crib is more important.) It's unfortunate you can't have both, since I was really excited to stay at this hotel precisely for it's heritage and architecture.
The pros
- design gives a sense of the authentic in the middle of an otherwise heavily commercialized strip
- location on the beach and resulting views are unbeatable (and yes, you pay the premium for it)
- service is excellent, service correction (needing to switch rooms) handled to expectations
The cons
- would not have had a service issue if we were just assigned the room type I had requested to begin with
- main restaurant closed between 11am and noon (not good for late risers)
- food at Beach Bar was ridiculously over-salted (and I like salt)
- very 'modestly' sized pool that gets quite crowded
- valet parking requires 20 min advance notification and the small porte cochere area can get really congested
- multiple valet attendants did not offer to help with stroller (not part of job description??)
I expected our stay to result in a "I will never stay anywhere else!" feeling, instead, we will definitely look to stay at other resort the next time we're back in Waikiki.