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Notice the chair against the bed

Ala Moana Hotel in Honolulu review

For the last 2 months, I’ve had to travel to Honolulu, Hawaii 4 times. 10 years ago, I stayed at the Ala Moana Hotel so I decided to stay there again. Unfortunately, the entire hotel has been changed to a condo based hotel, remodeled and completely different from 10 years ago.

This hotel is located within walking distance from the new convention center and the Ala Moana shopping center. So if those 2 things are of interest to you, and you are just going to sleep in the room while you do business in Honolulu, then the location is perfect.

The pricing can vary from $90 (special rates from Expedia) to $170 (regular rates) depending on the deal you can get. There are 2 towers (Waikiki and Kona) and the rooms are basically a very small room with a bed (except the 1 bedroom suites) and only vary according to your view out the window. The Waikiki tower has balconies, the elevators are closer to the lobby, and the elevator stops directly on the 2nd floor where you can walk to the mall without having to come down to the lobby. However, usually the Kona tower rooms are cheaper (but not always).

Notice the chair against the bed

A few (not all) of the regular rooms are smaller than normal, as you can see above. Out of the 4 times, I got one of these small rooms once. The width is so tight that the chair at the desk will not come out far enough for you to be able to sit down. The bed will get in the way of the chair and it’s hard to even walk past it. It looks like the width was somehow made too short (either by accident or design) and you can see below that the closet door (when closed) covers the light switch panel. It doesn’t block the actual switch but you can see the design is very strange.

The closet door covering part of the light switch

This room size reminds me of a hotel I stayed in many years ago in Billund Denmark where the closet sized room was so small, the bathroom door opened out into the room because there was no room inside the bathroom for the door to open into. The entire room was about the size of a large walk in closet.

But I digress.

There’s a Chinese restaurant on the 3rd floor and The Plantation Cafe on the ground floor, but is only open to 10am, so if you’re like me and get up late, forget about getting brunch there.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is, the service is acceptable and problems that I had in the rooms were quickly solved and the rooms are clean and relatively new looking.

You also get free Internet in the room (cabled so bring your own WiFi), and there is WiFi in the lobby but you have to pay.

There’s a business center with computers, swimming pool, fitness center, electronic safe, refrigerator, hair dryer,  microwave oven, coffee maker, and iron (and board).  If you’re into HDTV, you’re out of luck but they do have basic cable, as well as TV checkout (which seems to be down a lot).

So if you’re in Honolulu for business, and need to be near the convention center and/or Ala Moana shopping center, and don’t really care about the view or size of your room, this might be the place for you. If you want to be right next to the beach or you’re on your honeymoon, this is definitely not the right one for you.

Ala Moana Hotel
410 Atkinson Drive
Honolulu, Hawaii 96814
808-955-4811
alamoanahotel.com