The Westin Kaanapali Ocean Resort Villas Reviews & Ratings

We spent spring break with our friends and their 2 kids -- total of 7 people -- in a two bedroom lockoff. The resort is outstanding. The units are large, the Westin heavenly bed is awesome. Can't recommend this enough!

Our visit was in February of 2005. We stayed in a one-bedroom unit on the 6th floor with an ocean view. We had a great view of the whales from our room. The villa was superb with lots of extras. The beach is fantastic with a corral reef about 50 feet offshore. We are going back next year.

Wow, what a place! Stunning Island, wonderful people, and a top class resort as well.

Eat at the poolside bar, relax and explore the island at leisure.

Climate - fabulous - even in November, and plenty to do or not do as you wish.

Rooms - superb.

My husband and I stayed here the last week of 2004. The rooms were beautiful and well equipped. I was able to do my laundry in the room! The resort, while had many families with young children, was very quiet. We felt like we escaped from all the madness of a busy Maui on New year's week. The staff was very accomodating. There was construction going on, but we never heard anything. We only knew it was happening because we would pass by it. Overall, a definite thumbs up!

I took my family for christmas and new year 04. we had a blast. the rooms area very large and well appointed. everything was available in the kitchen. the pool area was always clean and neet. the small restaurant was very tasty and good service. acn't think of anything that need improvement.

We just got back and loved this Resort. We rented a week from an owner. The pool was wonderful and the accommodations in the 1 bdrm that we stayed in were perfect for our family of four. Our 8 month old slept wonderfully in the crib they gave us and my 4 year old loved watching DVDs from the pullout sofa before bedtime. I esp. love the Heavenly Bed & Shower. The service was outstanding from the bellman to the concierge. The construction wasn't much of a bother to us, but what I thought was amazing was the price these timeshares are selling for and how small of a unit you actually get. We've stayed in several timeshares all over the U.S. (our friends are owners) and I've seen so much more for your money. If you plan on buying here, you're paying for the name and service, not the size of the unit, and definitely not for an oceanview. When you book your stay here, I highly recommend asking for "Pool Side" since the other side doesn't have a view of the ocean at all. Seeing that I'm not going to spend the crazy amout of $$$ to buy here, I'd still stay here again by trading for it or renting a week from an owner.

We spent the July 4th week and had great weather. The resort is beautiful and quite. Very relaxing but close enough to enjoy all the area activities. The beach right in front is great for snorkling and scuba diving. We saw lots of turtles and small white tip sharks (safe kind). Only one of three buildings is available for use. Noise was not a problem. They have a very nice gym and also a great game room for the kids and you.

A too-short 3 night stay in November 2003 was fabulous. This resort is the top of the timeshare heap. Beautiful, luxurious.

Snorkeling at the beach right in front of the resort was incredible. Many different fish and lots of sea turtles. The units are spacious and tastefully decorated. The Heavenly bed is truly heavenly.

Construction noise wasn't an issue. The only thing we heard with the windows shut was the occasional back-up beeper. Even outside, the construction noise wasn't overbearing or obnoxious.

This is a most relaxing and wonderful place for swimming in pools or the ocean and snorkling. Great food options and wonderful staff.

I don't see how these compare to marriott lahaina villas. most of them are removed from the beach, the place is sprawling with too many units and views aren't good. i've stayed there twice on timeshare deals and would not recommend them.

We love Westin KOR! We go a few times a year and are always impressed with the staff, the location and the overall experience.

I write this review from the Westin's bar as we prepare to depart from what I would describe as the trip that made me fall out of love with Maui. Bear in mind, I feel supremely lucky that we are even able to take these kinds of vacations, but this is an honest review based on what one would expect to receive for the many many thousands of dollars spent for the privilege of taking a family of four to Hawaii during a high-season week. We have stayed in Hawaii many times, on many different islands, at many different timeshares. This trip was the only such trip to fall far short of expectations. Part of that, I'm sure, were the enormous crowds during a high season week. But most of it was the Westin.

I knew things were off to a bad start when our "ocean view" was of a parking lot. And you should absolutely not expect Westin (or the person you rent your timeshare from) to help you out - they probably receive complaints from every single person staying in the south building of the south villas because the views are such a joke. I heard someone with the exact same complaint as I was loading up to leave.

There were only a few people who provided what I would describe as good service the entire week we were here: (1) Alisha was super friendly as the concierge (but also highly motivated to get you into a timeshare pitch); (2) one of the valets was super friendly; (3) Armadillo (the paddle board guy) was great, although I don't think he is even an employee of Westin; (4) a couple of our servers were very good, particularly at the Nanea property. Other than that I would say the tenor of service was generally somewhere between "meh" and "why do I have to help you?"

Another disappointment was the "spa" which is little more than a locker room and a lanai. probably that's about what one would expect at these timeshare places. But it did not help that the massage therapist I had didn't even bother to try to provide the LomiLomi massage I paid for and also ignored my explicit request that she avoid my right foot as I had an injury.

Finally, on our last evening, we returned to the studio lockoff portion of our 2 bedroom villa smelling like a Las Vegas casino. Someone was clearly smoking in another room and it was wafting in through the vents. And it wasn't a little bit. It was a lot. We moved the kids to the foldout couch in the one bedroom portion of our rental. Glad we had the option because when we called the front desk to let them know, all I got was an assurance that they would let housekeeping know so that we wouldn't be charged for smoking in our room. How courteous.

There were, of course, many positives. The kids loved the pools and the kids club. The rooms were spacious, the place was very clean, and the food was, in my opinion, above average for these kinds of places. Kaanapali is a beautiful beach, the snorkeling in front of the hotel was fair, and we did enjoy ourselves.

However, the disappointments of this particular property were far too many to justify the expense, based on past experiences at other similar properties we've enjoyed on Maui, the Big Island, and Kauai.

The greatest of ironies is that my wife and I were actually considering looking into timeshares before we came. Now I know for sure it's a total scam ripoff that no one should ever do. The perpetual offers we receive from Westin to come hear a pitch in exchange for a cheap stay will continue to find their way to the recycling bin.

On the whole we will not return to this resort, it will be a long while before we'll come to Maui again, and, if we did, I sincerely doubt we'd come back to Kaanapali, I think we'd be inclined to try our luck in Waimea.

Have owned since 2005 - Westin doesn’t monitor nonpaying guests at all, too the point that it has wrecked our stay the last couple of years. Wished we could sell, but stuck with $ 3000 a year dues.

We have owned at the resort since it first opened and it is NO LONGER what it once was unfortunately. We own 2 2-bedroom lock-offs, one in the North (Ocean front) and one in the south. We always do the lock-offs so we can stay for 4 weeks. The last time we stayed, in January and February, it felt as if we had all of the problems of being at home but without the comforts there. We had flooding airconditioners that caused the carpets to be sopping wet and had to deal with blowers to dry them out and then the padding pulled out, broken locking mechanisms on the sliders, screens on the sliders that kept falling off the tracks and worst of all, lumpy mattresses in almost each of the rooms that positively needed replacing.

At both resorts you must make your reservations a year in advance if you care about your room location or view. It is based on the time you make your call. People trading in get the dregs. Since they are always either sold out by owners or owners trading their units, there are usually no rooms available if you have a problem with your room. We had a significant problem with each room in both the north and the south. We complained multiple times to the upper level management but very little was done. We were very dissatisfied with the response and feel that management has very little real control over the situation since the cleaning service has been outsourced and clearly does not answer to the hotel and is certainly unmotivated to provide good service. You would expect that when they see something damaged or broken that it would be reported and repaired, but it does not seem to happen. Mid-week clean ups might as well not happen. Our linens were not even changed. A direct complaint to the general manager was not even acknowledged by an email since he always seemed to be unavailable.

I am quite sorry that we have purchased here. We purchased at a very elevated price at both the north and the south. We love coming to the resort because of it's location and you can sit on the beach and watch the whales breach but Westin needs to get it's act together soon. For a relatively new facility, a lot is going wrong. The "Westin bed" doesn't exist here - hard, lumpy with scratchy sheets. Shame on them.

We love the resort and the location. Actually we love the older resort more than the North for various reasons. We would never sell our units because we have a lot of friends that always come at about the same time that we do. I think that is why it makes me angry at the poor management of the resort. For the incredibly high maintenance fees (possibly one of the highest in the industry), they should be doing a better job. Also, the fees have gone up a great deal over the years while a lot of the services have gone down. The management always points the finger at property assessments and taxes, but I believe that the serious lack of motivation of the staff is a significant problem at this resort. No one seems happy nor seems to have an attitude of what can I do to make your vacation just a little bit better.... If you leave your towels on a beach chair for too long, they will be removed with all of your things. If you drink wine or beer down by the grilling area you can be told to remove it. I even saw a security guard on his Segway take photos of men drinking beer from bottles - not allowed I guess. It was both the taking of the pictures as well as the Segways that bothered me - just too over the top! No warnings, just the photos by security...

i cannot believe the amount of people hammering the marriott i own at both and would sell at the westin to go to the marriott any day of the week. the service at the westin is terrible, the location is terrible and the prices are terrible. just came back yesterday and i will not go back there- anyone want to trade a marriott week for a westin week? the program does not compare to marriott and they sold almost everything on the property as an ocean view- even first floors with a view of the garden- oh yeas marriott calls them garden view. seriously- anyone want to trade ownership of a marriott for this westin i will look at almost any marriott propert (except florida as i already own there.) maybe westin should take a hint from marriott and not have union bartenders- how silly-union bartenders they make 22 an hour all benfits and we tip them- they should be tipping us!!!!

Stayed at Marriott Lahaina Villa first week - 5 stars, excellent. Stayed at the Westin the next week. There is no way we will ever come back. We took the advice of earlier reviewers to call and state a preference for our oceanview one bedroom with lock off room to highest/closest to ocean possible. We even stopped in the prior week to say hello and get acquainted with property. we asked for an early a check-n as possible as we were already close by. We got our room exactly at 4pm, it was nowhere near the ocean. The smell - not as I had heard from the water sewerage plant up the hill - but from the exhaust from the property's very own engineering plant. I tried to change rooms and was told that "somebody has to get these rooms". Even though the weather was cooler and much windier than the previous week, we could not even open our sliding glass window due to the discharge gasses' odor. The pool was closed for aboiut 6 hours on two of the days due to sanitation issues. We could not even arrange for a one hour late check-out. Did I stay the staff was less than aloha? Needless to say we are not buying here and will never stay here again

I stayed at this resort in November 2006 and was very disappointed.Despite being told that we had a room away from the construction when we arrived we were given a room directly facing the noise and mess.We were told throughout the week that no other rooms were available although we knew that was not true.

The only defenders of this place are some of the owners who paid ridiculously high prices to buy their"oceanview"unit although you will see reviews from owners who can never get the unit they expect.There is a very large timeshare operation there which brings in lots of people from outside to gawk at the people lying around the pool.There is no aloha spirit here,just a concrete edifice that could be anywhere.