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Hilo Seaside Hotel
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5 reviews for Hilo Seaside Hotel
This is one of the most inexpensive places to stay on the Big Island. Given the price, I found the Hilo Seaside Hotel to be perfectly nice.
First, the deal about the rooms. The "standard" room comes with a shared bathroom, so heads-up. I reserved a "superior" room, which is roughly $10-$15 more per night and in terms of quality is at or just below Motel 6 level. It's ever bit as nice as any road motel, just older. My linens were perfectly clean every day, the shower worked fine, we had a decent TV to watch, a table to eat on, and a mini-fridge. The hotel staff were pleasant.
Regarding the other reviews, Hilo is a tropical, rainy little town; expect everything to be humid, no matter where you are staying.
Just a hint if you stay: skip the attached restaurant (Coconut Grill). They give you coupons when you arrive at the hotel, but the restaurant is overpriced. I'd instead recommend Verna's, a drive-in right around the corner on Kamehameha, which is inexpensive and delicious!
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I'm all for saving money. That's why, on a whim, I booked a night at the Hilo Seaside via Priceline for $60 so that we could stay a night on the Hilo side to check out the lava viewing from the 130 and the Wednesday farmer's market.
So for $60 and two stars, I wasn't expecting much. And I was ready to give this place its requisite two yelp stars for being what it said it was: cheap, clean, simple.
But come on. There is no parking; a tiny 20-spot lot that is not connected to the hotel and fills up by the evening, and street parking in front of the hotel that also fills up. If both those areas are full, you're assed out. We had to drive around for 15 minutes until we got lucky and found a spot in the front after somebody left. We also had to take everything out of our car since the lack of secure parking left our jeep wide open to the sketchy characters hanging out on the street (when we first left our car in the street, we noticed that one of the side back windows of our Wrangler had been unzipped...hmm). What kind of hotel doesn't have parking? Even Motel 6's have enough parking spots for each room.
Come on. The bath towels are the size of hand towels. And the notch in the shower is barely big enough to hold the soap, no less the shampoo. And there are gross little spots all over the shower and walls, like the room has chicken pox. And the bathroom window wouldn't fully close.
Come on. The first thing I see when I walk into our room after a long, tiring day is mr cockroach scrambling around on the floor looking for his friends. Well, I never found his friends but he was good enough; I spent the rest of the night with one hand covering my asshole in case another buggy tried to crawl up my butt while I sleep.
No more saving money for me. I would have gladly paid $30 more for a cleaner, nicer hotel.
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I liked the place a lot.
We got a room for only $55 per night!
I like the retro feel of this hotel, even though that is not their intention.
This looks like the hotel The Brady Bunch stayed at on their Hawaiian vacation back in 1972.
I am a huge Brady Bunch fan and this hotel reminded me of that era. :)
My experience wasn't that bad. Hilo is my favorite city in Hawaii and the people and scenery is very nice. I especially like the pond in front, the small scale model of the entire Hawaiian island in the lobby and I loved the globe lamps hanging in the lobby.
The staff was very nice as well.
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I LOVE the koi pond. They have the biggest koi I have ever seen. Wish there wasn't a plastic stork or heron standing in the middle of it. ;(
I also LOVED the water pressure in the shower. No eco-friendly shower system here, and that's how I like it - nice and firm with really hot water available for long periods of time.
I slept like a baby here. It was quiet, except the mild humming of the A/C. Nice and dark. No weird smells present in the room, though walking the hallways outside I'm pretty sure I smelled pee in one corner. I saw no roaches.
The people at the front desk are pleasant and helpful. The rooms are kind of spread out. There are lots of signs up directing one to rooms. I should've taken a picture - it looks kind of rediculous.
Check in is at 3 pm, so that's kind of a drawback. I wouldn't call this place a luxury hotel, but you can't go wrong staying here for the price!
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It must be hard being a two-star hotel; destined to disappoint, relegated to the back bleachers of the hospitality industry, often only making it off of the personality of its owners. It's a two-star and nothing more.
Pros:
1. The spartan room encourages sight-seeing and people watching--anything but having to endure the rag smell.
2. Actually, a fairly comfortable bed.
3. Very nice staff.
4. There's a pool on premises.
5. It cost me $72 a night.
Cons:
1. One iron for the whole place. You gotta go to the "laundry room" and wait your turn.
2. I had roach stowaways in my luggage when I left, though I never actually saw the critters while I was there.
3. A wet rag smell everywhere.
4. One of those window-fitted air-conditioners that was louder than a Chevy with a banana stuck in the exhaust pipe.
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