Hilo Hawaiian Hotel

We arrived a couple hours early and were allowed to check in early which was much appreciated as our daughter was not feeling well with an ear infection. They honored their best rate guarantee. I found a lower price on another site and a quick phone call to HHH and the rate was matched. As part of the best rate guarantee they also honored the 2pm late check out. We did not receive coffee or new cups our second day but our beds were made up and towels replaced. You must go for an ocean view room it is worth it. We were on the 4^th floor. Overall the hotel and room were clean. Grounds well maintained and the area around the hotel is gorgeous and so nice to stroll through during the evening. We will be back.

I brought the family here to Hilo for 5 nights and chose Hilo Hawaiian along with an Ocean view suite. The parking is free and ample with basement parking too. The front office staff are helpful and pleasant.
Free Wi-​Fi in hotel lobby and restaurants but NOT Free in room, $ 9.85 per night or $ 39.95 per week. If you have LTE on your phone and a 2GB plan that should be sufficient. You can do your Facebook photo or video uploads from the lobby!
We stayed in room 750, all lower seven floors are non smoking the top 8^th floor is smoking. I did not smell any smoke, place was clean. They do supply a hairdryer, iron and ironing board.
Housekeeping does a great job with towels, sheets, vacuum, replenish soap, conditioner, shampoo, lotion supplies. The 2 beds are comfortable, in room AC/​heater worked. Ample storage for clothes and hangars.
We had a small kitchenette in living room which included electric two burner stove, microwave with range hood, sink, small refrigerator with tiny freezer. They do supply plates, cups, silverware, can opener, one pot, frying pan, 2 slice toaster, coffee maker. Pantry like storage shelves near bathroom. Bathroom sink is outside so one of you can brush while the other is on the loo or showering.
They do have an average size outdoor swimming pool and supply towels. They just don’t let you take their towels to the beach or coconut island. Fear of losing them I suppose
Pros
Central to mostly everything within 1 hour drive to Volcano, National parks, Zip lining, Spelunking, Beaches, Hilo Airport only 10 mins away.
–Stores 10 min drive away (Target, Walmart, Safeway, Walgreens, etc).
–Tesoro is cheapest gas station on Hili side
–Coconut island is right outside along with Liluokalini gardens if you want an evening stroll
–There is also a Kaiser clinic here should you need something or be seen
Cons
–No in room Wi-​Fi
–Really small refrigerator and freezer door does not latch which ends up freezing items (½ gallon milk and small orange juice cartons) on door and shelf below
–You will hear coqui frogs at night, if your a light sleeper could be an issue
–You will get some bugs and moths in room, there is a gap under front door and sliding doors to lanai (balcony) have a tiny gap in them and don’t actually lock but no one can climb in
Overall 4 stars, worth staying as a couple or family. See pros and cons to see if it meets your requirements.
Hilo is a rain forest it does rain at night, some mornings, some evenings and sometimes sprinkles all day. So bring an umbrella, mosquito spray and a hat!

Stayed the previous 4 nights at another Castle Resort that was terrible. We were happily surprised with the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel! Friendly staff, clean (and renovated) rooms! We stayed in a 1-​bedroom unit and it was comfortable for 3 adults and 2 kids. Small pool, but enough to satisfy my 12 y/​o! Convenient location and FREE parking!!!

If you’re looking for a weekend getaway in Hilo and want a place to stay that is central to everything, then Hilo Hawaiian is the place. It’s not the most luxurious hotel, but it’s definitely worth staying at if you primarily just need a place to sleep. My family and I stayed here for the weekend (we’re from Oahu) and we very much enjoyed ourselves. We had a 2 bed room and it was good for the 4 of us. The pool was ok. There were obvious signs of wear/​tear (missing tiles), but we still managed to enjoy ourselves relaxing in the pool, and you get a nice view of people jumping off coconut island. My favorite about Hilo Hawaiian was the buffet restaurant at Queen’s Court in the main lobby (delicious buttery warm snow crab, prime rib, & more).
PROS:
–Free parking
–Rooms are clean, up-​to-​date (room service do their job well)
–Close proximity to popular restaurants (Hilo Bay Café & Suisan)
–Quick 5 minute drive to Edith Kanakaole Stadium (Merry Monarch location)
CONS:
–Pool was a little dirty with little leaves

I loved my stay at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel. It was my first time visiting Hilo and so this hotel was a pretty good location adjacent to coconut island as well as the beautiful Queen Liliuokalani gardens. Walking distance to a few local restaurants and just a quick perhaps 5 – 10 min drive to the town and close to the airport.
The staff here were very friendly and the rooms clean and spacious. We didn’t have a view of the ocean but of the garden which was still nice. You do hear the sound of the coqui frogs and birds from your room and so it might be an issue if you are a light sleeper.
If I come visit Hilo again I would stay here again. Free parking. No resort fees. There is only free wifi in the lobby area which is a little inconvenient but we made it work. Prices were reasonable. I did pay quite a lot for a latte at the café but what do you expect being on vacation and all. Did not try their restaurant at the hotel but they are known for their weekend seafood buffet! Recommend others to stay here too!

A very nice hotel just outside Hilo town, and close to the airport. Very accommodating staff and an open air lobby with a bar and a resteraunt. The rooms were roomy and had plenty of storage and a nice balcony.
Parking was easy and free with underground option so your car will stay cooler out of the sun. A private beach area with a park next to the hotel, very serene. The bed was very comfortable and had plenty of pillows. They had Hawaiian coffee waiting for typy every morning in the room with you own machine for brewing.
I would say the best option for hotels in Hilo, not many options but this hotel ups the game for the area. Buisness trip and this made it a little easier every night. Cost is not bad for what you’re getting, I recommend giving them a try. The only drawback was wifi is a charge and not complimentary.

We stayed for two night in mid February 2016. The last time I had stayed at this hotel must have been 10 years ago and I was pleasantly surprised that it looked renovated, clean and easy to find.
The check in was quick and easy. We had hoped to get an ADA room because my mom is 91 years old, but the only ADA room was on the ground level and the front desk girl said that trees would be blocking our ocean view. We accepted her suggestion of a room on the 6^th floor and near the elevator and was so happy that we did.
The view from our lanai of Hilo bay was spectacular. We were just high enough to see Coconut Island and to see kids jumping into the water from the point. We had a side view of the pool area which always looked empty except for one or two people during the days we were there.
Each morning we made coffee and sat on the lanai and watched the rain roll. One morning we even saw the Pride of America cruise ship entering the bay. The air was always so cool and breezy that we never really needed to use our a/​c.
On the day that we checked in we found tons of parking on the lobby level but when we returned to the hotel after being out all night, we could not find any parking on the lobby level and luckily there was one parking spot left on the lower level. Parking on the lower level was very convenient as you are able to walk directly to the elevators and up to your room without getting rained on should it be raining (which is the norm for Hilo). The lower level is also where you will find the room with the coin operated washers and dryers. The only problem is that that level does not have any chairs to sit on while you wait for your laundry or while you wait for your ride to come and pick you up.
Throughout the night you could hear this chirping sound. At first I had no clue what it was but came to realize that it’s the coqui frogs singing. The sounds that the frogs made was not annoyingly loud.
The front desk was very helpful when I called to ask for a shower chair for my mom even though it was late, it was amazing how quickly someone came to drop one off to us. The only problem was it was too big to fit into the tub without facing sideways so we had to have 2 of it’s legs sitting outside the tub causing the water to continually splash out because there was no hand shower but only a shower head.
On the second night it was disappointing to find that the maid didn’t leave a bath mat for the floor just as we were ready to take a bath and she also didn’t clean out the used grinds from the coffee maker, but she did remember to leave a new coffee packet. The cups left to use for coffee are rather thin paper cups and would get wobbly and soft during use.

Awesome stay! The staff was super friendly and the room was very nice. It more pricey than the other hotels in hilo but in my opinion it was worth it. Everything was very clean and it wasnt crowded so we had a lot of privacy. Beds were so comfortable, everytime i laid down ended up falling asleep. This is probably going to be my go to hotel everytime i go.
Mahalo nui!

Pros: Front desk was efficient. Parking is free. Room we got was a good size. Air-​conditioning unit works and not too loud. Room was generally comfortable.
Cons: The façade of the hotel has seen better days. The doors squeak. The hallway smells musky. The cleaning crew did not do a thorough job– there were hairs on the floors.

The Hilo Hawaiian Hotel is a good place to stay and rest your head. The room is spacious great view from the balcony. I love the sounds of the coqui frog singing you to sleep. I loved the smell of bacon (the restaurant prepares) wafting through my room in the morning. What a great way to wake up. The staff are all nice and courteous.
Cons– saw two baby roaches crawling around the sink area. No free wifi.

3 Unilocal Star Average?!
I think the problem with hotel reviews, on any website in general, is that everyone seems to expect a 4 – 5 Star luxury hotel experience no matter how much they actually paid. For $ 150/​night on Easter weekend, I was more than satisfied. I think it was recently renovated.
PROs:
–Clean
–Big spacious room
–Comfy King sized bed
–coffee maker, hair dryer, fridge
–easy and plentiful parking
–lanai
–Friendly staff all around, especially the cleaning ladies.
–free live entertainment nightly in the bar.
–the sweet birds and frogs sing you to sleep every night (some of you might hate this)
CONs:
–paper cups only… weird, but at least you know its clean?
-$ 10/​day for in room wifi… but you’re in HAWAII, WTF are you doing just hanging out in your hotel room? I suppose this is a real $$$ problem if you have smartphone-​addicted children.
Conclusion: I would definitely stay here again. I didn’t eat at the restaurant, but I never eat at hotel restaurants. There are plenty of restaurants a short drive away.

I can tell this hotel used to be great. The best part of the room was the balcony that looked out over the ocean. I have to admit the view is absolutely gorgeous. At $ 190 a night plus tax the gorgeous ocean view minus the moldy room and the seedy experience just isn’t worth all that money! I would have been happier with my stay if I paid $ 75 a night. At $ 190 I expect a more comfortable experience. Let me just add before I go on, the wifi is an additional $ 10 a day and the buffet is $ 50 per person! Way over priced!
To start off with the room is shabby, and the first thing I noticed is the lack of common amenities like glass drinking glasses in the room (paper cups are provided, but if you use them you font get new ones), beach towels (nope), or even just bath towels. Off white dingy hand towel sized towels were provided as bath towels. Ours were dirty and crunchy. Don’t ask. Everything in room is outdated. Think brown and not trendy Earthy brown. Thrift store brown. The room even has a moldy thrift store musk to it. If you don’t like the smell of mold this hotel isn’t for you.
I also noticed right off that the maid never fully cleaned our room. Dirty towels were left, counters didn’t get wiped, floor didn’t get vacuumed, etc. She just made the bed and emptied the trash. Again Id be ok with this if I were paying way less money. We didn’t even get clean towels after day one.
Like most of Hawaii there are cats. However in this hotel, the grounds are crawling with feral cats and it smells like cat everywhere. Cats and mold., When we walked to the car park we had to pass by a gang of hotel staff outside smoking cigarettes. So there is the cigarette odor too. It just feels more like a slightly crappy motel than a nice $ 190 a night vacation hotel. I wish it was just the hotel room that was expensive. I paid 5.20 for a 12 oz latte in the lobby. Suffice to say it tasted like something you’d get at 7 – 11 for 1.99. I already mentioned the price of wifi and the buffet. Over priced.
On a walk down the street you will see beautiful banyan trees, a nice Asian garden park and a lot of urban blight. Right next to the hotel is an abandoned restaurant building that is boarded up and covered in graffiti. The area is run down and the sad this is all the trash floating around. I picked up garbage every morning on my walk. However, I left the needles and baggies, because gross. You get the picture.
However, I think the worst most unfortunate thing about the hotel is the people hanging out around outside the hotel. I pulled up in front of the hotel so my husband could load our bags and a woman came screeching up in a car behind me and started banging on my window accusing me of cutting her off. I didn’t. I had literally just pulled out of the car park and into the loading zone. She was obviously on drugs (Ice?). She would not go away so I just locked myself and my kids in the car until my husband came out and she finished frothing at the mouth and got in her car and zoomed away. She made sure to use plenty of expletives and said tourists aren’t welcome. Clearly.
I wish this was my only experience in this area. I went out for an evening walk and a kindly elderly Japanese man stopped me and said the area isn’t safe after dark. He was adamant so we went back inside. Another day, I went to the park with my kids and some crazy mentally ill old lady came up to me and started yelling at me. Then she followed us until we left the park. It was pretty traumatizing and embarrassing for everyone.
I’m just going to finish by saying this area wasn’t always like this. I stayed in the hotel next door in 1997, 2002, 2006, and 2011. It’s being remodeled this year I guess. We had a much more relaxing and elegant experience then. However the area has definitely changed. It’s a shame because the location, the banyon trees, the ocean front, etc are so lovely. I’m kicking myself for spending so much on this hotel.
On the other hand, if you like paying top dollar to smell cigarette smoke, mold, and diseased cats, and you don’t like a clean room, clean towels, polite staff or good coffee at an affordable price then this is the place for you.
I’ve read other reviews that say this is the best place there is in Hilo. My advice would be try Airbnb or stay in one of the neighboring communities? I can’t imagine this is the best the city had to offer. Sad.

We went there for the Hawaiian buffet… as a local though it would be good… food was terrible desserts where not at all great I would rather go to a sit-​down restaurant…

MARIAN the desk concierge is one of the most wonderful people you will ever meet. I had the very draining day when we checked into the hotel and her conversation and vibe was just so uplifting and it made my day! Her service was very good and the rest of the staff was very friendly and helpful too.
The hotel it self is quite good too. The rooms were clean and the frequent room service was very helpful.
The location is very central to Hilo too.
Would definitely go back.

My partner and I landed from a 10 hour flight from Sydney to find out that we could not hire a rental car because of our licenses and on top of that, we checked-​in into a disgusting accommodation that has not been cleaned. We were having the worse first day ever in Big Island and I was about to give up on having a good day. Luckily, we found Hilo Hawaiian Hotel online and was served by a lady named Marian when we got there. She was so lovely and friendly to us, she was helpful and she really made our day! (like 1000x better)
We could not be more happier staying in this hotel– the service was great, the room was clean, staff were helpful and easy parking was a bonus. As for the price, we thought it was another bonus because the view we had in our room was just breathtaking :)

In dire need of renovations!!! The only pro for me was the location. The Hilo Hawaiian Hotel is located on Banyan Drive, adjacent to Lili’uokalani Gardens and fronts the beautiful Moku“ola (Coconut Island). The hotel is alright but way over priced. The staff is friendly so that’s a pro as well. I can’t really think of any other pros. This hotel was competent but made me yearn for more. There is a restaurant on site however, if you’re trying to feed a family and you’re on a budget, you might not wanna step foot into queens court as it does get pricey really quick. Also, there aren’t many amenities that most of us would normally associate with a quality hotel such as; laundry room, gym, jacuzzi etc…
The food scene here has been updated. I do enjoy a good buffet and every Friday and Saturday they put on a pretty good one. It is a bit pricey but we all deserve a little treat every now and then don’t we? The restaurant and bar also has a really nice selection/​variety of beverages to compliment your meal and accommodate your mood lol. All in all, I do enjoy the food scene here. It is pricey but for me it’s all worth it.
In conclusion, I think this hotel is just OK. I don’t really know what to say about this place. I find it mentally painful to try so I’m gonna stop.

I love this hotel. The staff and the entire feel of this hotel makes you know you are in Hawaii and the real Hawaiian feel. Aloha.

My family and I are leaving and we enjoyed our stay here! Every staff we encountered was friendly. No complaints regarding our room. Everything we asked for was provided.
Looks like they’re in the middle of some renovations. Can’t wait to see this place done! I will be back again if I’m in the area.
I like how easy parking here as a guest is!

The only true issue I had is the cost of the WiFi. Its around $ 10 a day which is kinda high. They do have free WiFi in the café area, unfortunately I didn’t have time to verify that. The hotel staff were friendly for the most part.
The important stuff is this…
— all of the rooms have a balcony
— one side of the hotel has all ocean views
— there is a park with an amazing trail for jogging (if that’s your thing)

Wifi situation is unfortunate because it’s $ 10 USD per device. I ended doing some work in the hotel lobby since they offer free wifi there — thankfully connection there is solid.
I also want to point out the gorgeous view of the coconut island and Hilo Bay from the room — just wow!!!
Oh, I am a big fan of the coqui frogs’ who chirp and serenade throughout the night. I know they’re a pest but really their croaking is so soothingggggggg *sigh*
The location of the hotel is a really convenient walking distance (literally across the bridge from coconut island). Highly recommend this hotel to people who are looking for a place to stay.