Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa

The grounds were great, but we suffered some really bad discrimination, plus they defrauded me with false advertising. Here is what happened. I stayed at the hotel for 10 nights last April. (At 700 per night) I was in Lahaina at night and came back around midnight thirty. I checked the close self park and it was full, so I tried to Valet the car, which they advertise. I pulled up, and the Valet told me he didn't feel like valeting hotel guests, only ones going to the nightclub in the hotel. He made us drive to the far end of the grounds and I was forced to walk 15 acres back to my room at 1:00AM. No big deal right? Well I am disabled and it was VERY challenging. I had to cross a bridge that had no handrails and my legs gave out. I fell off the bridge and into the duck pond. My knees are stilled messed up a year later. I still might sue. When I complained the next morning, the only thing thing the lobby was willing to do was to give me FREE VALET!. Can you believe it. BTW I am not cheap. I spent over easily $1500 on food at the hotel, plus my normal room charge. The whole trip was nearly $10,000 and was ruined because this happened the first night I was there. So unless you don't mind being discriminated against, lied to, and having people violate the Disabliaty Act, go head and stay so you can see the penguins

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Here I am in the hotel on our last day wishing things had been better. I booked (3) rooms for my family and hoped for a wonderful experience based on all of the great reviews.

The hotel is building a new restaurant adjacent to the pool. The work is just now in the demolition stage with jack hammers and tractors working and looks like it will be at least 6 to 9 months of work going on. The hotel plays some music real loud trying to mask the construction noise.

This is not only loud and distracting by the pool but it took another restaurant out of service so all of the people that got the breakfast included with their stay have to go to a single restaurant causing long waiting lines. (Like 30 to 45 minutes starting at 7:30 AM)

We are staying in the Atrium towers and the elevators have been having trouble all week. Nearly every day one or two of the elevators have been out of service. This puts a lot of traffic on the other elevator so there is always a line waiting to get on. To make it worse they make this Crack, Crack, Crack noise as they come to a stop on the bottom floor. I mentioned this to one of the maintenance crew and they acknowledge that this is normal. Yikes!! The elevator company service trucks have been at the back door all week and they only are able to rotate which elevator is working.

The remaining elevator doesn't seam to know to stop on the way down, so you must call the elevator to go up and get on and ride up a floor or two so you can ride down to your destination.

OK, so this morning the elevator doors sticks in the half open position and we are stuck in the elevator (8 of us) until I forcefully open the doors by pressing my body against them. My wife and I have been taking the stairs now (89 to the first floor yes we counted)

I called and reported the elevators and took the time to complain to the hotel manager about our disappointing stay. They offered to comp the hotel resort fee and apologized. I asked them to reevaluate the comp so they offered $600 total. I have just spent $16,000 in room fees and found this a little disappointing.

We would not have come if we new of the construction in advance I hope you are able to save a few travelers the full price this hotel charges even as it is under construction.

Sincerely,

Mike Miller

We stayed at the Hyatt as a "last resort" as it were, by buying a cheap deal through Hotwire. We actually only paid $275 a night, which sounds a lot, but I think rooms usually go for $400+. We prefer small boutique hotels and B&Bs but they were sold out across the island. This was an interesting departure from the norm.

Parking was fine, we found the self-park lot easily, guided by the valet guy. Checking in was pleasant and brisk, we were personally introduced to a few of the hotel's features on the way to our room. We even negotiated a good room, with garden access. Speaking of which, the room was wonderful; large, elegantly furnished in "high-end polynesia" meaning lots of mid-toned wood and heavy duty carvings. Walk-in closet, iHome iPod player etc, lots of nice touches. Linens seemed like they were a very high thread count, the bed was a king and pretty much perfect. I would have preferred a view though, but you can't have both that and a door onto the garden ;-)

The hotel is right on the beach, although there isn't much beach to speak of right there, it's tiny and unusable. It's a short quarter mile to the Marriot where a good sandy point is to be found. Nice if you don't mind mingling with lots of other hotel's guests, it's the perfect spot for sunbathing and boogie boarding.

These days we don't spend much time just hanging around the pool, but the Hyatt has to have the best hotel pool I've ever swam in. It's got many sections; a large bulging main section and a powerful waterfall leading to a grotto, with a bar. You can swim under rocks and right through to another torrent and continue through tropical pools to more rocky falls. Very well designed and gorgeous just to hang about. We did our swimming in the evening, in the dark and we pretty much had the pool to ourselves!

The sushi bar and Sonz with the Swans were two wonderful restaurants and Sonz isn't all that pricey, wine-wise (about 2x retail, not bad). Of course drinks and food are 50% more expensive that you'd expect back on the mainland but comparable to other resorts and restaurants.

Other highlights: the penguins, the cranes, the flamingos, the gardens in general, the open-air atrium (fun when it rains!)

Negatives: where is the water slide and what is the point of selling that to adults? Need beach/pool towels in the room on day 1, good when you arrive late and want a swim!

While we enjoyed our stay, the room, the amenities and the food at this hotel for 6 days, the parking situation at this hotel leaves a lot to be desired. I'm not even sure where self-parking is for this hotel. The one real thing that leaves me sour about this hotel is the valet situation and I probably wouldn't stay at this hotel again for this reason alone.

Consider that we would valet park our rental car in the evening and then pick it up sometime the next day. Each day, the car would get progressively dirtier and dirtier. Apparently, the valets would park them under some kind of tree that sheds sap, branches, seed pods, and various other tree garbage. As a result, on our final checkout day, the car was so entirely covered with sap that I could barely see out to drive it. The sap wouldn't even breakdown with the cleanser from the washer fluid. So, I ended up having to wipe down the window with Windex by hand. As a result of having to lean against the car to clean the window, I ended up ruining a very expensive shirt (as I didn't have time to wait for the valet to get less busy to do this). The valets should have done this without even thinking, especially since they were directly responsible for this situation.

Since it was a rental vehicle, I wasn't worried about getting it washed. But, had it been my own vehicle, I would have been extremely dissatisfied with this situation. So, if you plan an extended stay at this resort during May/June, you may want to be cautious of where the valets choose to park your vehicle.

That said, we did enjoy the pool, the beach front and the breakfast buffet. Overall, the hotel stay itself was excellent. The valet situation is what soured the entire trip, especially on the checkout day.

My husband and I have been coming to Maui for the last 25 years. We were sad to hear about the Swan Court change, but were delighted with the changes!

Back in November of 2005, the Hyatt welcomed a new, privately owned restaurant by the name of Son'z at Swan Court! It is in the same location as Swan Court, and the hotel still serves a brunch there, but each and every night, it turns into a sexy, romantic place to have dinner. There are swans, music, waterfalls and a terrific staff. Son'z is now owned by the same owner of Nick's Fish Market in Wailea and Sarento's on the Beach in Keihi.

This truly was fine dining at its best. When we entered, we were greeted by smiles at the hostess stand. They then escorted us to a lovely table, on the water, in front of the swimming swans. We were in early and were able to watch the sunset and the stars come out.

Our server got us started on cocktails, and then went through the menu with us, helping us to plan a perfect dinner, matched with the perfect wines! We dined on Hawaiian Opakapaka Picatta, and Lobster, Cashew Crusted New Zealand Mussles, Tomato salads, and dessert! The Bananas Foster were to die for. (I ended up ordering another one to take up to my room for later)

I have to mention their wine collection. Son'z has the largest collection in the state of Hawaii and host a gorgeous wine room you are more than welcome to tour through. It is filled with an impressive collection, something to see and enjoy!

We enjoyed our evenings so much there, we hardly went back to visit any other restaurants on the island. We were here for two weeks this last visit and ate at Son'z 7 times! This is not a restaurant to miss. The food is out of this world fantastic, almost every ingredient is local, so it is always fresh tasting. They have a bar/lounge area to enjoy after dinner drinks, or appetizers if you aren't in the mood to go to a table. There are views all around you!

Do not miss this restaurant!