Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort: 13-Night Ohana Suite 30th Anniversary Masterclass

Our 13 nights at the Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort (May 17–30, 2024) in celebration of our 30th Wedding Anniversary was fantastic in every operational dimension.

As a Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador Elite traveler logging over 100 paid nights a year across commercial corridors, airport hubs, and industrial centers as an RTLS deployment engineer, this stay represents the ultimate payoff: the work-funded road warrior, leisure-redeemed luxury. Every point spent on this trip was earned the hard way through late-night healthcare rollouts, enterprise hotel stays, and disciplined Bonvoy credit card spend.

Here is the firsthand field audit of how we architected a continuous 13-night suite upgrade, unlocked a massive 3.5¢ per point redemption, benchmarked Cabana #1 at the Edge Infinity Pool, and navigated Waikiki like seasoned operators.

1. Booking Architecture & NUA Strategy

“Talk about cutting it close - my 51st night this year posted 2 days ago and I was able to add more NUA’s to my account and use them today. Just in time for this week’s trip for my wife and I. We are headed to the Sheraton Waikiki in celebration of our 30th anniversary that will occur during our stay. It’s our 1st trip to Hawaii 😁

13 nights - yes I know 13 in Waikiki ?? but we have plans that may include island hopping. I built this stay over months, with the earliest reservation on Oct 16, 2023. I have 3 total reservations - a 3 night, a 5 night and another 5 night. This is partly due to booking nights as I earned the points, but also to try to give me the best options for SNA, now NUA approval. Today, 6 days in advance of our arrival, I was able to add 3 more NUA’s to the 1st 3 nights, giving me NUA’s applied to every night.

With the change from SNA to NUA, 4 new suite options opened up and I jumped on the opportunity to have more suite opportunities. These 5 suites are not the only options for NUA’s there are now MANY options at the Sheraton Waikiki to try for NUA success.

So, 6 days out, all the suite options I selected are still available in the reservation system. YES, I know this is no guarantee of NUA success, but it feels like the odds might be pretty good. While on the flip side of the coin, 3 separate reservations might not play in my favor over the entire stay 🤷. But no worries, this is a trip we cancelled in 2020 and 208 days ago we decided to put back on the calendar.

For perspective, I booked us a King Partial Ocean View room. This room fit the points budget and we’ll be just fine if that’s what we end up with. As I have described in other posts, I regularly check points rates (sometimes daily) to take advantage of points reductions. I originally spent 752,000 points for the entire stay, and by rechecking rates, I was able to reduce the overall points cost to 684,600 points - a savings of 67,400 points.

With an avg nightly room cost of 52,622 points, I essentially created my own book 2 nights - get the 3rd free 😎 Any way it goes - I’m redeeming for at least .011 this trip.”

(Gene Salvatore, May 11, 2024)

The Valuation Audit: Baseline vs. Upgraded Reality

“For any skeptics, choosing NUAs as your 50 and 75 night gift is a good choice. You should certainly apply them wisely, but they do work.

My case in point is 13 NUA nights approved to the 2 bedroom Ohana Suite at the Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort. These 13 nights are over 3 separate reservations - a 3 night and two 5 night.

I was a little worried about the last 5 nights as NO suites have been available to book the last few days, but today our last 5 nights were approved for the Ohana Suite!

That’s awesome …I don’t have to pack up and move us 😅

Anyway we’re having a great stay, all the staff we have been encountered have been fantastic and our room upgrade just amazing. Our redemption on this stay is outta’ this world at 3.59 cents per point - this room for 13 nights is $24,700 and we spent 686,500 points for a partial ocean view King Room for this stay.”

(Gene Salvatore, May 23, 2024)

2. The 25th-Floor Ohana Suite (1,100 Sq. Ft.)

“Our 13 nights at the Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort was fantastic.

We were upgraded for all 13 nights of our stay, spread over 3 back to back points reservations (3 nights/5 nights/5 nights) using NUA’s to the 25th floor Ohana Suite. An 1,100 sq. foot, 2 bedroom suite with 1 King bedroom and 1 bedroom with 2 double beds. We were very surprised when we walked into the room and found an amazing flower arrangement from one of our friends. It lasted the entire stay and kept the room smelling lovely!

Each bedroom has a lanai - the 2 bed lanai overlooking Diamond Head, the bedroom lanai shared with the living room, looking west for great sunsets, music and entertainment high above the Halekulani Hotel, fireworks and views for days.

We don’t travel light, and the room absorbed all our clothes, shoes, bathroom stuff, work (yes) stuff and electronics along with all our luggage. Housekeeping is available every day, and while we only requested it a few times during our stay, our housekeeper Cora was Fantastic! She provided great service, kept our room spotless when we asked, supplied as many towels and things we needed every day when we left the room - along with her daily Aloha’s, smile and friendly personality.”

(Gene Salvatore, June 2, 2024)

Dual Lanai Panoramas: Diamond Head & Halekulani Sunsets

The suite’s dual lanais provide 270-degree perspectives:

1. East Lanai (Off Double Bedroom): Direct line of sight toward Diamond Head crater and straight down over the vivid turquoise water of the Edge Infinity Pool.
2. West Lanai (Master King & Living Room): Facing west over the Pacific and Halekulani. Every evening, slack key acoustic guitar and hula music from House Without A Key floated up to our balcony 25 floors above. On Friday night, it gave us front-row, eye-level views of the Waikiki fireworks.

3. Breakfast Strategy & Dining Economics

“While the lounge here never reopened after Covid, and the free continental breakfast is pretty bare minimum - the Elite member breakfast upgrades that averages about $16/person is a good breakfast. You can choose from any menu item and the discount is about 1/2 price. While it’s been reported that the former lounge offerings were good, I believe it was a standard type buffet and restaurant menu selections were not an option.

We spent about $40/day for the two of us for breakfast, and we would not save much - if any - if we walked to breakfast somewhere nearby, nor would it be as convenient or with a view of the ocean or count towards qualifying spend ;-)”

Key takeaways:

• Convenience & View: Eating right at Kai Market on the oceanfront terrace is unbeatable.
• Folio Spend Stacking: Billed to the room folio, the ~$40/day for two counted directly toward annual Ambassador Elite qualifying spend and earned 17.5x points per dollar.

4. Edge Infinity Pool & Cabana #1 Benchmark

“We made sure to spend time lounging on the beach and at the world famous Infinity Edge Pool at the Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort - taking in different days with reserved seating in the private Cabana’s, Chairs and Water Loungers. Our favorite space was Cabana #1. It offered privacy, a garden feel, views of the ocean and the pool, snacks, some free drinks and shade when we wanted.”

Cabana #1 proved to be the absolute top pick on the deck:

• Positioned on the southern perimeter, giving an exclusive garden-secluded atmosphere.
• Dual-aspect panoramic views of both the infinity pool and the open ocean toward Diamond Head.
• Stocked with a bucket of snacks, cold drinks, shade curtains, and attentive service.

5. MaureenTravels’ Curated Dining & Oahu Island Discoveries

“We had lunch and dinner at the hotel a couple of times, and spent a few dollars at the hotel bars, but in general found plenty of other places to walk, or a few times, drive to.

MaureenTravels found some great spots for food, drinks and fun - like the HeyDay Bar at the White Sands Hotel that has swings instead of bar stools - to go along with Waikiki staples like Duke’s Waikiki, Halekulani - House Without A Key, the Mai Tai bar at The Royal Hawaiian, a Luxury Collection Resort, The Beach Bar at The Moana Surfrider.

We went out and explored a few days including Pearl Harbor National Memorial, Diamond Head, Rainbow Drive-In, the Polynesian Cultural Center, Waikiki Beaches, China Mans Hat Island and more.”

Key Highlights from the Road:

• HeyDay Bar (White Sands Hotel): Suspended bamboo swings instead of bar stools, poolside cocktails, retro boutique vibe.
• Duke’s Waikiki: Barefoot beach bar energy, draft beers, live music, and iconic Hula Pie.
• House Without A Key (Halekulani): Sunset cocktails under the century-old kiawe tree.
• The Mai Tai Bar (Royal Hawaiian): Historic pink palace oceanfront patio.
• The Beach Bar (Moana Surfrider): Shaded under the 1901 historic banyan tree.
• Pearl Harbor: USS Missouri (BB-63), USS Bowfin (SS-287) submarine, and Aviation Museum B-17 Flying Fortress.
• Rainbow Drive-In: Legendary Honolulu comfort food since 1961 (loco moco and chili plate).
• Chinaman’s Hat (Mokoliʻi) & Windward Coast: Stunning mountain ridges and ocean vistas.

6. The Field Verdict

“The time certainly flew by too fast, and this was the perfect location for us. The 2 weeks we spent were just after the rainy season, during graduation and right before the busy season. We didn’t find the hotel, the Infinity Pool, bars or restaurants to be too crowded and could always retreat to the privacy of our room.

We like the city when we travel and our upgraded suite provided an amazing amount of privacy, whether we were inside or outside. We got to take in some beach time, a few days of pool time, some days where we did nothing and just about enough time to go out and explore.

On the numbers side, this was an amazing redemption. We spent 684,600 Bonvoy Points earned from work travel and Bonvoy CC points. I booked a partial ocean view King room with a cash value of $7,580 for a 1 cent/point redemption. The upgrade to the Ohana Suite with a cash value of $23,700 increased the redemption to 3.5 cents per point!

I’m not sure we’ll be as fortunate again with points cost, NUA’s, suite upgrade and overall value - but we’re looking forward to returning in the future.”