Wailea Beach Resort - Marriott Maui

This resort was such a wonderful experience! It is not inexpensive, but the grounds, the amenities, the staff, and the rooms are truly worth every penny. We have not been to Maui for over 15 years, and from the moment we arrived, the staff made us feel the magic of Maui again. We arrived a bit later than planned thanks to a delay at the airport, and the wonderful man at checkout (I don’t know his name!) ushered us straight to the lobby bar to have a mai tai and enjoy the sunset. Our room was perfection, the food we ate on the property was excellent, and the service everywhere on property was exceptional. The attention to detail (sunscreen and cooling lotion located at all pools, water fillers throughout the property, friendly and helpful staff everywhere you might need them) is what truly sets the resort apart. We had originally planned to leave the resort a bit more, but enjoyed it so much we decided to spend a large portion of our two day stay on the property. Though it was a short visit, this hotel stands out as one of the best experiences I’ve had anywhere in the world and we will be back! Read less

Our group stayed at the Wailea Beach Resort (WBR) for about a week between late July / early August as part of our first extended family trip in almost two decades. This is my immediate family's second time staying at WBR - We love Maui as we've made many fond memories on the island, and have stayed at a number of resorts in the Wailea area in the past. Our first time staying at WBR was back in December 2022 right when things were opening up post pandemic, the staff across the board as well as on-site 3rd party vendors were kind and accommodating at the time, and the premise / location was great for our growing family. So this time around we invited our extended family over to stay at WBR and we were hoping to create more memorable moments as a bigger group. Unfortunately, we did not have a good experience this time. To be fair, there are staff members that were great to us which I will give quick shout-outs to towards the end of the review. The premise itself, despite some issues with our suites which required several middle-of-the-day technician visits, was largely well maintained with some upgrades. There were a few perks that were available during my 2022 visit (i.e. one complimentary outrigger canoe experience per room, and their keiki / kids club) which are not available this time around. These are issues & circumstances that we can work around and still enjoy a good time. What turned out to be devastating for our stay and left a very bitter taste for all were treatment / encounters with specific staff members in basic areas where we would have never expected to feel so unwelcomed. I will highlight the two bad offenders here: - Daily Breakfast @ Humble Market Kitchin, from 6:30-10:30am- Our suites come with daily complimentary breakfasts for 2 adults per room which was advertised when I was booking our stay at Marriott.com, which as a big group with kids we expected to take full advantage of given the convenience (less so for the food quality).  When we visited on Day 1 (7/30, 10:15am), we were greeted by two very nonchalant (to put it nicely) younger hostesses who for whatever reason didn't seem to want to do our business, did not greet us and when we mentioned our room numbers it took them a while to figure out who should go figure out which table to offer us, when it looks to an regular eye that there are plenty of open tables that can fit us. It took one of the wait staff members to step in, pointed at a table to the hostesses, and then personally came out to bring us to the table. To be clear, the wait staff overall was welcoming and professional for each of our visits. The wait staff member also told us that each kid can eat at a discounted price with each of the adults, and we were billed that way. That gave us enough motivation to plan on visiting the next morning as well and we did not think much about the earlier encounter with the hostesses, assuming it'd be a one-off. However this apparently is where the "fun" begins On Day 2, (7/31, 10:15am), one of the two hostesses from Day 1 was there with another hostess that we have not met in Day 1. The "new" hostess greeted us and asked for our room number while Unwelcoming hostess A from Day 1 sat on the side and never looked at us or greeted us. As the new hostess was about to check on the tables, one member from my party just casually asked both hostesses about / wanted to confirm the discounted child arrangement the Day 1 wait staff member mentioned to us. All of a sudden, Unwelcoming hostess A who have yet to acknowledge our existence up til this point decided to speak up loudly saying "I have never heard of that before", and then looked away. When I then asked if she thinks we made this up, the new hostess, who was far more professional and sensed the uncalled for uneasiness that was introduced by her colleague, addressed us and said she will confirm with the wait staff quickly, and meanwhile invited us to take our table. In the end, the wait staff and the new hostess did confirm the child discount. But honestly, even if hypothetically we made up that rule, there are many infinitely more courteous ways to address the customer and get to an amicable outcome. Unwelcoming hostess A was on brand with her Day 1 self, and managed to take the most unwelcoming approach possible. We left the restaurant with more than a sour taste at this point, but with majority of the trip still ahead of us, we decided to give breakfast here one more chance. On Day 3, (8/1, 10:30am), we arrived at the restaurant on the late end of their breakfast hours. We did recall from Days 1 & 2 that the wait staff told us even though restaurant hours end at 10:30, it's totally understandable if we arrive late given our group size and kids / toddlers in tow as long as we understand last call for food is 11am. Given our agenda for the day, it made sense for us to eat at the resort before venturing out, and so we did. When we arrived at the front desk, we saw the other Unwelcoming hostess from Day 1 that we did not see on Day 2, along with one other hostess. The other hostess greeted us and asked us to just give them a minute to confirm they can take us but that it should be no problem. Out of common courtesy, we thanked her and said "sorry for running a little bit late, we know it's around 10:30 already and thanks for finding a way to take us in". Well surprise surprise, Unwelcoming hostess B decided to come up with something unwelcoming to say - she looks at her phone, and said "it's 10:32 right now". Very on brand, and even if I try my hardest to be mean and unwelcoming, I would not have come up with that as the thing to say. We were eventually sat and got our food.  By that point we have completely given up on the restaurant - we came to Maui / the resort for a positive experience and a good time, we weren't asking for an world class experience, just wanted some common courtesy and kindness. But clearly we were more than not welcomed at this restaurant. So even though we paid full price for the resort stay which included this breakfast, we had to give up on the next few days of breakfast here, and we'd rather go out of our way for food elsewhere outside of the resort (which by the way, were low-key but authentic and just a much more welcoming set of experiences overall). - Resort Parking / Complimentary Car Service - I'll keep this one brief as it doesn't have the multi-day fiasco storyline that the restaurant had. But this specific encounter with one of the parking staff members was equally unwelcoming and unacceptable. Right after we arrived and checked in to our rooms, we did not yet have our rental car ready and we decide to go to a nearby restaurant instead. The front desk as well as the customer experience staff confirmed over email in the past that we are more than welcomed to leverage the resort's complimentary car service to get to local restaurants if needed. So we asked for one - and after we waited for a bit, a male member of the crew (one of the more senior members, but not Sam and not the gray hair gentleman whose name starts with a G - I did not see the full name tag) parked the car, yelled for us to head to him, and we walked over. Our group has a baby that requires us an extra minute to install the carseat, as well as a senior who needed some assistance getting into the car. The driver, perhaps already impatient upon seeing our group's potential needs, did not come over to help with the door, did not offer any assistance or even helping us figure out how to slide the seats to a car that we have never been on so that we are better set up to be successful in getting on the car. We took 2 minutes but finally got everyone on. The car ride to the restaurant itself was 2 minutes. And when we arrived, we also did not get any assistance with the stroller or opening of door. After we helped ourselves off the car and gotten everything offloaded, out of courtesy (and clearly not because the driver was worthy of it) I mustered up a bit of cash that I have in my pocket as we were scrambling a bit to check in and deal with the kids and I left most of my cash in the hotel room (also let's be real here, I pretty much exclusively use digital payment means in my everyday lives at this point so I just don't have cash hanging around my pocket all the time), and thanked the driver with it. The driver did not respond, and instead he turned around and made visible facial expressions obvious to other members of my group that was belittling us and the small tip that we gave. Then he said "well if you REALLY need us, you know where to find us" and left with the car. At the end of our trip, our family enjoyed the precious times we have created with each other, but we all agreed that this stay at WBR and in Maui was hugely hampered by the way it started as detailed above. Our relatives understood our love for Maui and our want to support it, but at the end they have already suggested that we go elsewhere for our next family reunion, which was an understandable sentiment given what they were put through and also paying the time and money that they had. I guess here's a reminder for all staff members - yes this is a job at the end of the day, but you are also a representative of the hotel hospitality industry and play a part in representing the image of Maui. If you are not willing to bring basic courtesy and/or empathy for your customer, then let others who are willing and want to leave a good impression for the visitors take your job. Speaking of those who are willing - I wanted to give a few shout-outs at WBR that were kind / great to us: - Mary Grace at Housekeeping - thanks for brightening up our day every morning with a smile and kindness, and helping take care of our rooms full of kids - Flo at Technician / Engineering - thanks for showing up promptly to address issues at our room to ensure our family can rest well and early - Romel and Larry at Parking / Bell Desk - Thanks for bringing great energy and attitude everyday, and Romel for even remembering me from our last stay! - Tammy at Activities Concierge - Thanks for working with us on last minute notice after our original activity got canceled to ensure our group had a productive day - Brianne at Nalu Pool - Thanks for caring and going above and beyond to anticipate our group's needs Read less

The good: Hotel property is beautiful. Landscaped gardens, beautiful ocean front property that covers 20 acres. Ocean view king room was nice and recently renovated. Staff was very helpful and friendly. Lots of different pools to try, each one very nice including the adults only pool. Really close to the Wailea shopping center with shops and restaurants. The not so good: Room AC (at least in Hale 7) was sub par. It was definitely running but not great, might have been the door itself which seemed unsealed and constantly blowing in hot air. They had us switch rooms and eventually just brought us some fans. On property restaurants and bars were unimpressive but still expensive. However great restaurants at nearby properties and at the shopping center a short walk from property. The Overall: Just didn’t feel like a great value for the $$. It’s a premium priced property, (820 a night with taxes and resort fee) if it was a better value $$ I would give it 4-5 stars, but at the price paid it felt lacking. Still beautiful just not all the way there. I think next time I’ll book the Andaz. Also I wouldn’t pay out of pocket for the buffet (50 per person, but if you pre pay it and get the 20 rate we thought it was worth it), if you are going to pay 50 for breakfast go to the 4 seasons where the buffet is incredible. Read less

Elite Marriott member who spends 100+ nights a year as a business and leisure traveler. The property and staff were all absolutely top notch. 5/5 recommend. The staff, location and property itself really makes this an exceptional place to stay! First, I want to mention and thank a couple staff members by name. Rooms operations manager Adriana Narea Happe was absolutely exceptional. She deftly resolved an issue for us, and was kind enough to quickly assist. Also I cannot forget to thank the staff at the pool and beach. Also, the bartender at lobby bar was 10/10. Thank you! We visited in early August. Checkin was a breeze, and staff happily brought us more toiletries, extra towels, etc. Clean, spacious junior suite with an incredible view. The bathroom was exceptional. The food was superb. We had room service, food poolside and in the lobby. Everything was perfect. The pool, the lounging chairs, the sand, the service were all on point. All are perfect. Just the little things. Or a picky drink order - wanted a goose cocktail with soda water and splash of lemonade and fruit. It came out 100% correct every time. Thank your wonderful staff and we are very grateful. Kudos to the management for running this resort so well!!! We will see you again! Read less