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Hawaii continues to be one of my favorite destinations in the world. And Kauai, in particular, is my favorite island. It’s simply drop-dead gorgeous everywhere you look.
Now, here’s a tip from a reader that will especially appeal to those with 25K Marriott free night certificates or category 1-4 travel package certificates. There is a 25K per night property in Kauai that is awful at the moment, but may be great (or at least pretty good) by the time you check in.
Update 10/23/19: The property has been rebranded as a Sheraton and has been moved to category 5 sooner than I predicted. Category 5 rates are: 30K (off-peak), 35K (standard), 40K (peak). The good news is that 35K certificates can still be used on all but peak dates. Thanks go to usernamechuck for spotting the change.
The Courtyard Kauai at Coconut Beach: Awful now
The Courtyard Kauai at Coconut Beach: Awful now
This Courtyard by Marriott hotel currently gets awful reviews by those who have stayed recently. The reason? It is undergoing massive renovations. Recent reviews describe giant machinery everywhere, constant construction noise, a giant pit of dirt where the pool should be, etc. It sounds perfectly awful.
The only good news for current guests is that all of the guest room renovations are already complete. As you can see in the photo above (from the hotel’s website), the rooms appear to be decent: certainly not luxurious, but not bad.
I called the hotel to ask when the renovations would be completed. That’s when I learned that the guestrooms are already done. And I was told that they’re hoping to be completely done with renovations by September. I wouldn’t count on that. Construction always takes longer than expected. That said, you might be safe if you plan to go in December or January.
Soon to be a Sheraton: maybe pretty good?
When construction is complete, the Courtyard hotel will be rebranded as a Sheraton resort. This is good news for those with Marriott Platinum Elite status, or higher: It means free breakfast one way or another (Courtyard hotels only offer up to $20 per day in food & beverage credits). If the Sheraton has a lounge, you’ll get access. If not, you’ll be able to choose free daily breakfast for two as your welcome gift choice. Additionally, the Sheraton is expected to offer suites so you may get a free upgrade to a suite if you’re lucky. It may also be a great use of your Suite Night Awards if you have any (details here).
There’s no way to know how good the Sheraton resort will be. In my experience, the Sheraton brand is all over the map in terms of quality. That said, for only 25K points per night, it will probably be good enough. Plus, the resort is in a great location on the east side of the island. There, you’ll have easy access to rugged Princeville to the north, the airport in Lihue, and sunny Poipu on the south end of the island. The only downside I see is that it’s nearly an hour drive to the entrance to Waimea Canyon. It’s worth the drive though. Trust me.
Lock in 25K plus ocean view today
As I write this, free nights are widely available even over Christmas break (a time that usually books up full in many Hawaii resorts). Even better, they’re allowing ocean view rooms to be booked at the same price.
If you’re considering booking this resort (ideally for December or later when construction will likely be complete), I’d recommend doing so now. If you don’t have enough points you can book it as a points-advance. If you do book this prospectively, make sure to set yourself a reminder to cancel no later than 7 days before the stay.
Prediction: the award rate will increase in March 2020
Each March Marriott updates hotel category assignments. Some go down a category, but more properties usually go up. I expect that this one will go up to category 5 in March (35K points per night standard). That’s still not bad, but if you’re sitting on 25K free night certificates it’s definitely worth booking before this happens.
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[…] slow increase compared to the Sheraton Kauai Resort. We first wrote about it in June 2019 when it was still a Courtyard property charging 25K points per night because we had heard that it was under renovation to become a Sheraton. Then in October 2019, it […]
I have an upcoming reservation here, and it looks like they increased the resort fee to $32/day (from $20). If I booked it at $20 should that still apply for my reservation?
They should charge $20. Most likely they’ll charge $32 and you’ll have to tell them at checkout to adjust it.
Recently stay at this hotel. Amazing value. Everything is new. They still need to finish the landscape, but the branding is done
Stayed at this hotel a week before they said they were switching over to Sheraton. All of the branding was already there. It was a beautiful hotel! Amazing pool area, rooms updated nicely. Right on the ocean so you can sit or lounge there but the water is too rough for swimming. We got an ocean view room and sunrises were beautiful.
We were there in July and it was fine, not awful by any means. Rooms were nice and we had a good view of the ocean. Balconies are super small. The restaurant opened while we were there and tried it on our last day.
We’re not pool people so didn’t care about that. You can use the neighboring pool if you’d like. They waived all resort fees for us. Paid $149 per night.
Stayed here last week. Still a POS hotel. Literally sewage backed up in pool restroom, grounds are still ripped up, pool overcrowded, and exposure to winds and rain make it a horrible experience in inclement weather.
FYI this has now increased to a cat 5 – didn’t even wait for March!
Thanks! Updated post.
Looks like TPG stole your idea! Where’s the hat tip?
https://thepointsguy.com/news/marriott-courtyard-kauai-coconut-beach/
And the 5th night is free. We just booked 5 nights in January for 100,000 points.
Unless you live on the west coast, flights into Lihue are connecting which makes for a long day. This is a perfect get off-the-plane-&-rest stop before moving on to a nicer property. I usually book the Hilton Garden Inn nearby for this same purpose, but for 25k points this is a better deal. Thx for a great tip, Greg!
My family and I stayed here this past October. The rooms were hit and miss, we made them move us to another room when we checked it. Glad to hear they updated it. Location overall was pretty good. The beach here is terrible though, definitely not a swimming/snorkeling beach. But for 25k, that’s a steal. We used our Marriott travel package to stay for the week. Overall we were happy with it.
I also stayed at this hotel for one night. I don’t think I would want to stay a whole week here, although at least if it’s a Sheraton, the breakfasts would be included and there *might* be a lounge which would make the time at the hotel a little nicer.
Why travel all the way to Kauai and not stay at the Hyatt…..IT IS FAB U LOUS…….The Marriott/Sheraton you speak of is not in the best location, too congested over there……Hyatt or go north
Abulla I agree Hyatt is the BEST hotel, south side of the island is dryer and sunnier too. The Coconut Beach area is one big traffic S N A F U, and worth visiting if you like gift shops. North Shore is beautiful and very wet, worth a day trip though. But East side of the Island is like visiting times Square of Kauai. Ritz Carlton up north very, very nice but again, they get more clouds and rain than South shore.
Yep, the Grand Hyatt is the ONLY place I’ll stay on Kauai! Now if we could just move it over to Maui we’d be all set.
My wife and I stayed at this hotel when we were in Kauai a few years ago. I remember the rooms being poorly maintained and specifically lots of those little ants everywhere (including in the room). In fact this was our fallback after an even worse experience at the Marriott Resort on the island (they even told us at the front desk “Sorry Marriott.com booked you in the timeshare side of the property and we don’t maintain that very well”).
I’m hopeful they are improving maintenance in addition to the quality of the rooms, but I’m not sure I would be able to convince myself to give another Marriott property a chance on Kauai.
Worth noting we had a fantastic experience at the Marriott property on Maui and have generally had great experiences with various Marriott’s across the US, so I feel pretty safe that I’m being objective here – we’re not one of those “never happy with the stay” couples 😉