Review of the Turtle Bay Resort: Oahu Hawaii

Overall: Beautiful, luxury property – but watch out for the nickel-and-diming

Pros: Wonderful showers in the rooms, good location, nice patios with balconies

Cons: High $50-$75 +tax resort fee that doesn’t include much, lots of fees on an already high-cost property

Paid: $84.65 + mandatory $75+tax resort fee. Value: $389.14 + $75+tax+fees.

How to score this deal:

Sometimes you’re just reading the right blog at the right time, and an amazing deal pops up. It’s really hard to plan for that, but that’s what happened here. This review of the Turtle Bay Resort Oahu Hawaii’s North Shore is based on our stay during the holidays last year (2018). So we’re a little behind, but I wanted to show you how you can score great deals in the future too.

1. Stay aware of promotions like this one, which granted 90% off base hotel rates made through Expedia‘s app with a coupon.
2. When you see a great deal, jump on it. In our case, we were going to be in Hawaii during some of the dates the discount was good for, and it was a limited-time offering. The 90% coupons sold out pretty quickly, but not before we snagged one.
3. Be aware of cancellation fees. Be careful about jumping on a deal that’s completely nonrefundable.

Full review – Turtle Bay Resort: Oahu Hawaii

Location: This resort is on Oahu island’s north shore. It’s a little less touristy than the traditional Waikiki Beach area. I really love the location! Check out my other post on the secrets of Oahu, including secret beaches, here: 5 Secret Oahu Locations.

Check-in was simple. We booked an Ocean Vista Level room, which means it was on a higher floor with an upgraded bath and shower, plus free snacks in the elevator area.

We arrived at our room and agreed that we had a great view from our balcony.

As promised, the bathroom was nicely upgraded. The shower was huge – two people could practically dance around in there. The bathtub was nice, albeit a little small. Two average-sized adults are NOT fitting in there.

We liked some of the other details too, such as the provided umbrellas and bathrobes, plus easily accessible beach towels.

Review – The resort fees

The resort fees were very high, so we thought we’d try to take full advantage of them. Turns out, we thought most of the stated benefits of the resort fee weren’t fairly described or easily used:

I review each benefit of the Turtle Bay Resort Oahu Hawaii here:

1. Blu-ray with unlimited movie rentals – This was a great benefit. But be aware that they charge you $40 for a failure to return a DVD. While we were there, one of the two DVD kiosks was broken at the property.
2. Wi-fi, local telephone calls, coffee & tea – Yes, these are pretty standard inclusions, but they were provided.
3. GoPro Camera Usage; AND “Snorkeling gear usage” – I tried to make use of these benefits, but was told it was too dangerous in the (calm) water. I pointed out that there were dozens of people snorkeling. They said that those guests had brought their own gear and were snorkeling at their own risk (but with lifeguards on duty). It was gentle surf. So, I went out to my rental car, took out my own gear, and snorkeled like everyone else – but without the hotel’s equipment. I attempted to rent their equipment twice during our one-day stay, no dice.
4. Nalu Kinetic spa; Fitness Center; Business Center: I can’t speak for the Business Center, but I attempted to use the spa to no avail. When I entered, an attendant was chattering with a friend for about five minutes while I was walking around. I waited for her to finish her conversation, then I asked if I could see the sauna area. She asked if I had a spa appointment and I said no, but I was a guest. She said it would cost $85 per person to go to the sauna without paying for a spa service. I turned right around and walked out. She didn’t attempt to show me the facilities.
5. Pool chairs with umbrellas: I attempted to use these to no avail too. I asked if I could rent one of the open ones and was told it would cost me $60. Once I read the provided fine print, I realized the free rentals were only for the pool area, not for anything touching the beach. Yes, it does say “pool chairs,” but this felt cheap.
6. Beats Pill Bluetooth speaker use, one-hour tennis court usage per day, 10-minute stand up paddle demo, basket of range balls, live entertainment poolside, and Kids Eat Free benefits – We did not attempt to take advantage of these benefits, so I won’t comment on them. But I had problems being able to use 3 out of the 5 benefits I did try to use.

In all, I thought the resort fee was ridiculous.

Note: One thing the resort fee does not include is standard parking. At $15/day, I thought parking was reasonable, but I think we could’ve gotten away without paying it at all. When we went to check in, we noted our space as #105 and told the checkin agent. She didn’t note this anywhere or give us a parking pass or anything. Then when we went out to our car, we got scared because it was gone from spot #105….before we realized there were multiple spot #105s in the lot! Our car was fine.

Word to the wise: You can probably get away with not paying parking if you just say you got dropped off by an Uber.

Review – Ocean view Vista rooms at Turtle Bay Resort Oahu Hawaii:

As mentioned, I thought our balcony view was a great feature of the Ocean level Vista rooms. The free breakfast/snacks due to being on the Vista level were nice too. Afternoon snacks included fruit, flavored water, nuts, and Andes mints. Morning breakfast included coffee, mini ham and cheese sandwiches, individual cereal servings, fruit, and some fruit juices. This was serviceable and nice but nothing extravagant.

Aside from the modest snacks and breakfast, I’m not sure why the resort fee should be $75+tax for these rooms, while other rooms’ resort fees are a still-too-high $50+tax. Snacks and breakfast don’t seem like they should qualify as being part of a “resort fee” in my mind, and they’re not mentioned on the property’s resort fee page either.

In general, I hope online travel agencies such as Expedia and Booking.com start charging commissions on hotel fees. As this article from The Points Guy describes, resort fees are outrageous partially because hotels don’t pay commissions to OTAs on fees. This provides an incentive for hotels to bury the true cost of room rates under resort fees, and View from the Wing tracks how attorneys general are beginning to sue hotels for this practice.

Bottom line

This is a luxury resort property in a beautiful location. But the nickel-and-diming experience left us a little cold. I’d stay here again if I got another REALLY great deal on the room rate, to make up for the super-high resort fees!

I hope you thought my review of the Turtle Bay Resort on Oahu was balanced. And if your Hawaiian trip involves visiting the island of Maui, check out my recommendations of what to do at six secret Maui spots, including secret beaches and other locals-only locations!