I booked and paid for this hotel before I read the reviews on tripadvisor, after booking I was desperate, I was afraid of what was waiting for me. None of what I read was true. The hotel is excellent, the location is perfect if you want to avoid the hustle and bustle of Waikiki Beach, but again a 2-minute walk from the beach and the hustle and bustle. It is ideal if you are not a "resort type" of person. There are no shops or restaurants within the hotel, but everything you need is in the immediate vicinity, a 2-3 minute walk away. The room is not old-fashioned, it is comfortable, nicely decorated. We had a partial ocean view and Ala Moana Avenue, the balcony has a small table and two armchairs, comfortable to sit in the evening and in the morning for a coffee, there is a coffee machine and coffee in the room. The bed is comfortable, the room is extremely clean, cleaned every day. The bathroom is beautiful, comfortable, clean, in fact I have never seen so many towels for two people in a hotel. There is also a small fridge in the room where you can cool your drinks. At check-in, you get water coupons for each day of your stay, but there are also stations to fill your bottles with cold water. The reception is open 0-24 and the staff is very friendly and always smiling. The hotel has a restaurant that serves breakfast. The hotel has two smaller pools with deck chairs and umbrellas that are free for guests and sunbeds that can be paid for. There is also a bar at the pool where you can order a snack in the afternoon (we ate once and it was really tasty). The hotel has a garage that is cheaper than other garages in Waikiki. The only small, but really small, complaint is the elevators, which may be a little noisy, but they are not noisy during the night. We stayed at this hotel for 6 nights and I don't have a single complaint that I read in the reviews, I would come back again. As I wrote before, this hotel is more for guests who are not resort type guests. We had a car and every day we went to a different location on the island, we didn't stay at Waikiki beach because it's too crowded for me. Friday fireworks are practically in front of the hotel, just walk down to the lagoon and enjoy 😊

Arrived at 10.30 to be told your room would be ready asap and we would be informed. We'll at 4pm falling asleep on their couch we were finally able to get in. A spacious room but yes dated. Half of the hotel was getting upgraded and we were in the dated side. Still even though at the end of Waikiki Beach still a good position and next to the hilton Village. Not a lot of great eateries near by but an ok pub across road with a bit of history. A couple of small pools...nice garden around them. There could have been other amenities but we wouldn't know cause there was no paperwork or qr codes to tell us what was available there. A restaurant that only did breakfast, snacks around the pool and an occasional special dinner...no room service. Also unbeknown to us, as it was booked by the travel agent, it is connected to Hilton Vacation Club so we managed to get roped into a seminar... Our first experience with the Hilton and possibly our last.

We booked The Modern as a couple for our pre-wedding vacation to stay before reading any reviews as we got an excellent deal for our reservation. In saying this, we came extremely close to cancelling our reservation due to the number of negative reviews. I felt compelled to write a review of our experience to help others with plans to stay at this hotel as the fear mongering is astonishing.

From the moment we pulled up in our Uber to the hotel to our last encounter when leaving, every single staff member was unbelievably kind. The bellhops opened the car door for us (not just for check in and check out, every single car ride this was done). We had seen multiple reviews stating that staff were not pleasant to deal with, so this was a surprise for us from the start. Check out time is 10:00am, and our flight was not until 10:00pm. We visited the front desk the night before our check out and asked for a late check out. They allowed us to stay in our room until 12:00 complementary. The bellhops then stored our bags (which we needed to access throughout the day and was not an issue). Multiple staff members told us that we could stay on site and utilize the amenities while awaiting our flight. One of the staff members at the front desk even pointed out to us not to forget there was an outdoor shower that we could use to rinse off if we wanted to freshen up before heading to the airport. There are 3 elevators, we stayed on the top floor and never had to wait for an elevator. The hotel also provides a schedule of daily activities such as yoga, lei making and hula dancing lessons all free of charge.

We checked in and received the 2 water per day of stay coupons. This has also been mentioned in reviews saying it is impossible to only have 2 waters per day. These people forgot to mention that there are multiple water filling stations/ice machines throughout the hotel and outdoor areas (we luckily always pack reusable water bottles for the plane ride, we ended up using them daily). Access to cold, clean drinking water is not an issue.

The food on site is not something we availed of often as we had a long list of places to try. We had a few snacks and drinks during happy hour at the pool (great deal), all of which were delicious and served hot/fresh. This hotel was perfectly located for us. It is roughly a 10-minute walk to the Ala Moana Mall (large food court, and Foodland for poke), and 30 minutes to Waikiki Beach. There are fireworks every Friday night at 7:45pm that we were told to watch at Magic Island, not realizing that the hotel next-door puts off these fireworks and we also would've had a great view there!

We enjoyed the pools so much! The chair/umbrella set up is great, and we found the chairs to be much more comfortable and adjustable than most hotels we've encountered previously. Day beds are also available for rent but we chose to use the chairs provided. We spent most of our time at the first-floor sunrise pool, always clean and well maintained. We spent some time in the adult only sunset pool on the second floor as well, this is just a wading pool with some chairs to lay in. This pool wasn't our favorite as there is sand surrounding but may be more enjoyable for some! Again, kept clean and well maintained. Also to note there are staff members at the pool all day that provide clean towels. There were several days that we made multiple trips to the pool and were offered fresh towels every time.

Another common complaint I've read are regarding the cleanliness/upkeep of this hotel which was our #1 concern upon arrival. I absolutely agree that this hotel could use some upgrades. Is the bed the most plush and luxurious we've ever slept in? Absolutely not but coming from someone who is a light sleeper and prefers a plush bed, it was by no means a bad place to sleep. The pillows were comfortable (4 provided) and the bedding was clean. My main complaint with the bed is that they do not have fitted sheets, a normal sheet was tucked around. Also, there is no comforter/duvet. We requested extra blankets on night one and the staff brought us 2 different types of blankets (2 of each). Housekeeping was offered to us daily. Many days we didn't spend any time in our room aside from sleeping, so we'd keep the "do not disturb" sign on our door. The housekeepers who we came by in the hall each day asked us if we would like services every day. When service was provided our bed linens were changed, towels/facecloths restocked, garbage changed, and bathroom cleaned. The furniture could definitely use some upgrades, but there were no major concerns aside from normal wear and tear (chips in the wood, etc.). The balcony chairs are quite uncomfortable but again, not something to be too concerned about overall.

One complaint that we do have (main reasoning for the 4/5-star review) is the bathroom setup in the hotel rooms. The wooden shutters provide zero privacy and are right next to the bed. This bothered us on a daily basis. In saying this, there are very nice and well-kept bathrooms on each floor of the hotel. Another negative is that there is not much noise control, we could definitely hear all conversation happening in the hallway and at times we could hear the elevator, but we've never stayed at a hotel that has impeccable soundproofing.

Overall, we had an unexpectedly wonderful stay at this hotel. I am not here to discredit anyone's previous review, but I am here to share our experience and hopefully decrease the fear/anxiety that we had leading up to our stay. I guess this was our reminder that although reviews are helpful at times, always remain open to allowing your own experience to create an uninfluenced opinion. It was totally unnecessary and we're extremely happy that we decided to stay here. We would book another stay at this hotel in a heartbeat!!