Jul 26, 2010

Where to stay in Waikiki ~ Waikiki Sunset Hotel

Where to stay in Waikiki ~ Waikiki Sunset Hotel 

Waikiki Sunset Hotel General description:

• The Waikiki Sunset Hotel was built in 1979 has 38 floors and is located about 2 blocks (200 yards) form Kuhio beach (Kuhio beach is the real name for Waikiki beach). Like many other buildings in the area, it is a combination of privately owned units and a hotel operation. All apartments are either one or 2 bedrooms and have full kitchens.
• As hotels go and even though is about 30 years old. The hotel project was approved just before a new law took effect greatly limiting the covered square footage allowed to be built in any given parcel within the so called “Waikiki Special District” that is the reason why, most hotels were erected in the seventies and very few were demolished and/or built since then.
• The Waikiki Sunset Hotel features a small lobby with a front desk on the ground floor and a small swimming pool on the 6th floor.
  Even though the Waikiki Sunset Hotel has been maintained regularly, it has not undergone a meaningful renovation for quite some time.
• Parking is quite plentiful but like all other hotels in Waikiki, expensive.
  The hotel has been properly maintained all these years but no major renovation was ever conducted. 

What we like about the Waikiki Sunset Hotel:

• The original design for the Waikiki Sunset Hotel was not for a Hotel but for an apartment building, this resulted in larger units (for Hawaii) and full kitchens.
• The one and two bedrooms in the Waikiki Sunset Hotel  have “real” doors separating the bedrooms from the living room, not sliding separators like many one and two bedroom units have in Waikiki in buildings like the Ilikai and Waikiki Banyan that in essence are big studios separated by sliding doors.
• If you need to be on the far east side of Waikiki, the Waikiki Sunset Hotel is only a block from the Honolulu Zoo and two blocks from the beach.

What you may not like about the Waikiki Sunset Hotel:

• The lack of one and 2 bedroom units in Waikiki results in a disproportionately high rate for this type of units, especially the 2 bedrooms, many times is less expensive to book 2 connecting rooms somewhere else in Waikiki than a 2 bedroom unit at the Waikiki Sunset Hotel.
• If you are planning to go to the beach closest to this hotel, be advised that is not very wide. Nice wide beaches can be found at the Ala Moana beach park, Kailua and Waimanalo but no hotels are available near those beaches.
• Like all hotels in Waikiki, at the Waikiki Sunset Hotel parking is extra.
• The Waikiki Sunset Hotel has been through maintenance type renovations regularly to compensate for the wear and tear of a hotel operation but since nothing meaningful has been done to the property, there are some areas that are starting to show the age.