What I Learned From hotelchatter.com’s $254 Waikiki Parc Deal.
Even after traveling extensively for decades, I keep learning.
Hotel Chatter’s post:
In this situation, Hotel Chatter had a Waikiki Parc offer that at first glance looked like something worth pursuing. In my opinion, however, it was not.
Here’s the purported deal:
$254/night average price for 4 nights including breakfast and parking. Deluxe ocean view category.
Just after my first glance, my travel shopping intuition said “NO DEAL.”
Here’s what I found:
I Googled Waikiki Parc deals. In less than 5 minutes I saw deals that seemed better to me, by forgoing their breakfast.
This might not be a bad idea, since as one Tripadvisor reviewer stated, “Get breakfast elsewhere. There’s a Denny’s right next door and numerous coffee places very close. The breakfast was expensive and didn’t offer many choices.” (We’ve been to that Denny’s and liked it. Or just stop at the nearest ABC store and buy yourself some cereal).
Without breakfast, the same deluxe ocean view category including parking will cost you $218/night, with no minimum stay. That will leave you $144 for breakfast over four days. Also available at $198 is the ocean view prime category, or ocean view at $179. I easily found these rates on Travelocity.
Here’s what I learned:
- Never believe that the deal offered is the best deal. Always spend a few minutes checking around to see if you can do better, in one way or another. In today’s economy, often nothing works better than a call to the property to ask about a better deal. Beyond that remember that there are times when you might do best by bidding on Priceline.
- Don’t forget to have a look for yourself and see what other people are saying, before you jump. As for Waikiki Parc, while Hotel Chatter talked it up nicely, some reviewers at Tripadvisor seemed to be saying something else.
- Lastly, you might want to consider mapping a hotel’s location. In this instance, the Waikiki Parc is not as oceanfront as the photos might lead you to believe. The hotel is in fact located in quite a noisy and congested area, and has a street and other hotels between it and the beach. Here’s the satellite map:
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I find that most visitors to the islands go the hotel route. I just can’t bring myself to spend the extra money and be so confined to the hotel districts.
We have stayed at a variety of rentals found through vrbo.com. Our last two stays as well as the upcoming visit in Jan/Feb will be at the same rental home.
Like Jeff is stating in the article you want to check directly with the property owner/hotel for discounts. I always pay less than $100/day, inclusive of taxes and fees. We stay on the north shore in a very nice two-bedroom home…full kitchen, 2 tv’s, wireless high speed internet, 1,000 s.f. lanai, view of the ocean and all the usual toys and frills that you would expect.
I don’t want to give away my “spot” completely or negatively effect the property owner’s revenue so I am not identifying the property but this one and many others I have found are very reasonable…much cheaper and much better than a hotel. All this plus the North Shore! Right On Bruddah!
Below is the email I sent to the property owner to negotiate our stay last fall. Not only did the property owner complement me on my sales style she said she would have to try the approach herself on her next vacation. Always remember, money is tight not just for us as vacationers but also for the property owners.
Take a look at the email and you’ll see how I get discounts so deep we can go three times in 12 months (the free frequent flier tickets help too).
Aloha. We enjoyed our stay at your property this past May and would like to return. My wife and I are planning another trip to Oahu this September to celebrate our anniversary. I see your calendar is open for most of the month. With the late booking and open schedule I am hoping that you are open to a return-guest, low-season, late booking discount/offer. I will finalize our airline tickets tonight or tomorrow (after hearing back from you). We are looking at three possible date ranges. Below is what I would like offer for the rental for each of the potential dates (these are based on available flights). If possible we would like a later check-out. The available to flights from HNL to DFW depart at 9 pm. September 11-22 (11 nights) $900.00 TotalSeptember 16-25 (9 nights) $810 TotalSeptember 16-24 (8 nights) $725.00 Total. If one of these will work for you I can put the entire charge, up-front, on a Master Card to book the rental. It will again be just the two of us. We are very low-impact on your property as well as energy conscious. We cleaned up after ourselves on our prior stay to make sure that we were welcome back again and again as return guests, once or twice a year, for several years to come. I look forward to hearing back from you,Grant Wiscour.
Our offer was accepted, we enjoyed our stay and are booked to return in January for 12 days, three people this time, for $1100 total. It just doesn’t get much better than that.
Like most people, the last day of our trip is a sad time. I tell my wife that I am working on the coming back, not crying about the leaving. It helps a little but always tough to return to the land of the big PX.
30 Days and a Wakeup and we’ll be back in Paradise!
Aloha. I know this is lengthy and alot of info but I hope it helps someone get back to the islands.
Grant Wiscour
Irving, Texas
Yes there are two ABC stores on Kauai, one in Kapaa and one at Nawiliwili Harbor in Lihue.
Are there ABC stores on Kauai?