My wife and I have spent a fair amount of time traipsing throughout the Hawaiian Islands over the past 20+ years, as the vast majority of her family lives there. These days, if we’re not camping, we primarily use Wyndham points for Vacasa vacation rentals on most islands, unless we’re staying with family. However, during a trip at the end of 2024, we had a couple of days to fill in on Kauai, and two Marriott 85K certificates were staring us in the face. As a result, we decided to try Koloa Landing, an Autograph Collection property that Greg had previously spent some time at in 2019.
Koloa Landing Bottom Line Review
First off, there’s very little to NOT like about this property. All the rooms are condo-style suites and are in excellent shape. They have well-equipped kitchens, washers and dryers in the units, and parking is included in the resort fee, something that’s unusual for Hawai’i Marriott properties. The grounds are beautiful and well-kept; the multi-level pool that you’ll repeatedly hear was once voted “best in US” is large and has plenty of space to keep the kids occupied. However, I probably wouldn’t return.
The property isn’t oceanfront, and there’s a strip of residential housing and a road between the back end and the water…not to mention that the nearest sandy beach is a half-mile away. There are available Vacasa vacation rentals right around the corner for around half the cash price (or less) of Koloa Landing, some of which are on the water and closer to the beaches. You can book several of them through Wyndham for 30K points/night, even in high season. For families that will spend most of their time in the pools, I could see Koloa Landing being a pleasant, roomy option. Otherwise, I think there are better choices given the price. One thumb up, one thumb down
- Price: ~168,000 Marriott Bonvoy points for a two-night stay, but we used two Marriott 85K free night certificates instead. The cash price was ~$820/night.
- Value: When we were there, the value was good at over ~1 cents per point (we value the average redemption of Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.76 cents each).
- Location: Located in the Poipu-Koloa resort area in Southern Kauai. It’s towards the west end of the resort strip, so relatively quiet (not that much in Kauai could be described as “noisy”). It’s within easy reach of the various restaurants and shops in Poipu and Koloa. The resort is NOT oceanfront; there are some houses and a road between it and the waterside black rock (although there is a direct path). The closest sandy beach is about a half-mile walk (~10-15 minutes).
- Room: We booked a standard room, applied Nightly Upgrade Awards, and were confirmed into the 1400 sqft, top-floor 2-bedroom Coastline View Villa. The room was a very nice, condo-style unit that was in excellent condition. There were individual lanais off of each of the bedrooms, two bathrooms, a spacious, water-view living room, and a well-equipped kitchen. It also had an in-room washer and dryer, which we appreciated.
- Parking: Self and valet parking is included in the resort fee, although it can be a decent walk to some of the units from where you park.
- Resort/Destination Fee: $40+tax/night.
- Internet: Good throughout most of the property. It completely tanked in the fitness area for some reason.
- Service: Service was adequate if unexceptional, more or less like what you might find at a typical vacation club property.
- Turndown service: None.
- Dining:
- Holoholo Grill: Unusual for a property of this size, there’s only one bar/restaurant, located towards the lower end of the pool area. The breakfasts were fine, if unexceptional, and the daily food and beverage credits effectively made it similar in cost to an off-property breakfast. There are some decent happy hour drink specials, although we never tried them out. Open daily for breakfast, lunch, and dinner from 7 am-9 pm, with drinks served until 10 pm some nights.
- Spa: There’s a full spa on the lobby level, open daily 9 am – 5 pm with the usual menu of treatments.
- Fitness Room: The fitness area is well-equipped and located next to the spa on the lobby level. It has enough equipment to do full cardio and resistance workouts.
- Marriott Titanium Benefits:
- Room Upgrade: We booked a standard room, applied Marriott Nightly Upgrade Awards for a confirmed upgrade into a 2-bedroom Coastline View Villa.
- Free Breakfast: $30 per room elite breakfast credit good at the Holoholo Grill. That was enough to cover about 1/2 of the cost, once drinks and tip were included.
- Club Lounge: None.
- Late Checkout: Upon asking, we were given a 1 pm checkout.
- Welcome Amenity: Three boxes of local candy, a tote bag, four bottles of water, and a bottle of sparkling wine. I believe that much of this is given to all guests as part of the resort fee.
- Would I stay again? Probably not. Given the price, I’d prefer the Grand Hyatt Kauai or one of the many vacation rentals in the area.
Pros
- All rooms are condo-style suites
- Parking is included in the resort fee, unlike many Hawai’i Marriotts, where you have to pay for both
- Rooms are in excellent condition, and the property is well-maintained
- In-room washers and dryers
- Well-equipped fitness area
- Marvelous mult-tiered pool area
- Grounds are lovely
Cons
- Around double the cash or points (with Vacasa) price of many area vacation rentals
- Not oceanfront, nearest sandy beach is around a half-mile away
- Food and beverage credit offered per room, and only covered around 1/2 of breakfast for two
Image Gallery
Koloa Landing 2-bedroom Suite
Welcome Amenity
Koloa Landing Pool and Grounds
Fitness Area
Holoholo Grill Restaurant
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Hey Tim, thank you for the review. I’ve stayed at several Vacasa properties on most of the Hawaiian islands. In Oahu, I’ve stayed up in turtle Bay. In Maui I’ve stayed in Kaanapali and Kihei. On Kauai we’ve stayed in Princeville and Poipu. We haven’t stayed at a Vacasa on the big island. Are there any other of Vacasa locations you recommend on the Hawaiian islands that I should check out for my next visit?
Stayed here for part of my honeymoon in 2022 and agree with you for the most part. My wife and I aren’t huge people beach people and were content to hang out at the excellent adult pool and also didn’t mind the walk to the beach to see the turtles at night.
The thing that perturbed me the most about this property (though it is Marriott so perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised) is that Autograph Collection hotels are supposed to provide breakfast to Platinum Elites and above, but this hotel only provides a F&B coverage that does *not* cover the price of breakfast at Holoholo Grill. This property is also not listed on the arbitrary exception list to Marriott’s breakfast policy. I was fully expecting breakfast to be included at this hotel per explicit policy, so this was a very annoying surprise. I complained to the hotel about this and they doubled the F&B credit for us and also provided a very nice gift basket for our honeymoon, but it shouldn’t require complaining to the hotel to get them to honor explicit Bonvoy policy.
I would have invoked the $100 compensation for not offering a breakfast choice that included the actual cost of breakfast.
Also, if the resort fee included WiFi then they were required to offer a replacement benefit since all Bonvoy members, even non-elites, get free WiFi.