There is a complete lack of respect for privacy and their policy concerning this is extremely disruptive and invasive. One example was when the person cleaning the windows came down on ropes in front of our balcony. I was shocked to see someone look in at eye level because we were on the 8th floor. A few hours later, someone entered our room (even though we had the occupied sign on the door) to give us written notice about the window cleaner. A note under the door (instead of entering our room) BEFORE they started the work would have sufficed. And, more importantly, although they do not clean the room during the stay, they enter the room multiple times a day, even with the "occupied" sign on the door. We were woken up from naps twice after a long boat excursion. And, a housekeeper began to enter the room when my husband was exiting the shower. I stopped her at the door and asked why she was there for the 3rd time that day. She pointed to her phone and said she needed to enter. Without my intervention, that could have been an uncomfortable situation for both my husband and that staff. My husband called and spoke with her supervisor. He said it is their policy to enter the rooms whenever and how often they want. He said they don't need a purpose and they do that with every room. We were not satisfied with that answer, especially since it is very disruptive for them to enter the room multiple times a day without a purpose (I.e. a leak, housekeeping, something!) We then went to the front desk to express our concern to management, but management refused to speak with us. The lady at the front was trained to be the "gate keeper" and listen. She said "95% of their guests liked to be checked on". It is hard to believe that 95% of the guests like to be woken from a deep nap after being on an excursion all day, or to have someone walk- in when they are walking out of the shower. Not only is this not good for guests, it is not good for their employees. The next day we asked to speak with the General Manager, and again, management refused to speak with us. We then spoke with a lower level supervisor that said they began checking all of the rooms because of the "Vegas Incident". This was a scary thought. Do they think someone is going to shoot people from the windows so they have to enter everyones room everyday, even when they have a "occupied" sign up? I don't know, but I hope not. What I do know is that we were very much looking forward to staying at Aulani for their amenities, however, we did not get to use the ones that were important to us because they were either not maintained or under maintenance. We also did not have a comfortable bed to sleep in, the room was dusty and not well kept, and we were disrupted by staff multiple times a day. Aulani charges a price similar to Marriott and Westin and in some ways are similar, but Aulani does not use the same quality beds, pillows, or appliances. Aulani has a policy to disrupt the guests, and management does not want feedback, which indicates they don't care what their guests think and they do not want to make an effort to improve. For these reasons, I give Aulani 1 star and will be staying at the Marriott or Westin next time.
