$219 per day hotel room in Hawaii? How about with $97 in added fees per day? Yes? How about a 1 mile from the parking lot to the check in desk? Check in luggage with the valet at the Hilton Waikoloa Village main lobby. Driver parks the car in the parking lot, walks 1/4 mile back to the main lobby. Take the electric tram. Make sure it is going toward the Ocean Tower and not the Lagoon Tower. Don't want to wait? Walk another 5/8 mile to the Ocean Tower check in desk. From the Ocean tower check in desk, up to 1/4 mile to your room, depending on it's location in this three circle ring building holding 600+ units. Hilton Hotels advertises $219 rooms at the Ocean Tower. Add on a mandatory $40 daily resort fee, $33 daily parking fee ($39 valet parking), and 4.712% state sales taxes on all 3 costs, plus 10.25% hotel tax on the $219, and it's about $316 a day for a standard 20'x 12' HH room, resort view, AC, waist high refrigerator, and no microwave. Booked through the Hilton Grand Vacations, using HGV points, to get remodeled condos at Ocean Tower. Got a 1 bedroom unit with a resort view for the points equivalent of $420 a day. There are also 1 bedrooms large, 2 bedrooms, 1 bedrooms premier, 1 bedrooms penthouse, etc. Each increment is about $210 more. No $40 daily resort...$219 per day hotel room in Hawaii? How about with $97 in added fees per day? Yes? How about a 1 mile from the parking lot to the check in desk?

Check in luggage with the valet at the Hilton Waikoloa Village main lobby. Driver parks the car in the parking lot, walks 1/4 mile back to the main lobby.

Take the electric tram. Make sure it is going toward the Ocean Tower and not the Lagoon Tower. Don't want to wait? Walk another 5/8 mile to the Ocean Tower check in desk.

From the Ocean tower check in desk, up to 1/4 mile to your room, depending on it's location in this three circle ring building holding 600+ units.

Hilton Hotels advertises $219 rooms at the Ocean Tower. Add on a mandatory $40 daily resort fee, $33 daily parking fee ($39 valet parking), and 4.712% state sales taxes on all 3 costs, plus 10.25% hotel tax on the $219, and it's about $316 a day for a standard 20'x 12' HH room, resort view, AC, waist high refrigerator, and no microwave.

Booked through the Hilton Grand Vacations, using HGV points, to get remodeled condos at Ocean Tower. Got a 1 bedroom unit with a resort view for the points equivalent of $420 a day. There are also 1 bedrooms large, 2 bedrooms, 1 bedrooms premier, 1 bedrooms penthouse, etc. Each increment is about $210 more.

No $40 daily resort fee, no 10.25% Hawaii hotel tax, and no 4.712% state sales tax on HGV point purchases. Only an $8.89 daily sales tax. $33 daily parking fee as Hilton doesn't run the parking lot.

At check in we got room 3026 in the section of renovated rooms. Third floor room? Thought I hit the jackpot.

Interior corridors only on the third floor. Outdoor corridors on floors 4-8 of the East ring, and floors 3-8 of the Central and West rings. Guests serenaded to dozens of birds chirping in the trees of the inside garden area at dawn and dusk.

We walk through the old section of 1970s Hilton hotel rooms, old stained corridor carpet, with chipped painted walls. At room 3019 the corridor decor becomes completely new. Entering renovated HGV condo section.

Room 3024 and then room 3026. Room 3025 has been absorbed into rooms 3024 and 3026, both 1 bedroom units. The HGV 1 bedroom condos are 50% larger than the HH standard rooms.

Open the door. My third story view through the balcony window is of workers walking on the grass feet away from my balcony, I mean patio, and a bulldozer operating feet away. Since when is a third floor unit on the ground floor?

Ground floor room darkened due to overhang from upper floor balcony above.

1 bedroom unit with 2 full size beds, L shaped unit, 20'x 12' bathroom, kitchen and living room. 10' x 12' bedroom. 360 square feet total.

Full kitchen with brand new oven, microwave, full size Bosch refrigerator, 5 flattop electric burners on stove, dishwasher, full set of glasses utensils, plates, bowls, for 4, plus pots and pans. Tall reach to get glasses off the top shelf. Pots and pans behind the garbage can beneath the sink.

4 chair dining table, living room with pull out sofa bed.

Shades instead of drapes over the balcony window/sliding door. Two 55" flat screen TVs.

Bedroom next to corridor, has no windows. Room 3024 next door has the bedroom on the outside, with two balconies.

Room safe built into top shelf of bedroom dresser. Technician resets with each new guest arrival. Hope nobody takes out the bottom drawer and kicks open the bottom of the top drawer.

Washer/dryer in hallway closet. Pay to use communal washer/dryer, along with detergent on the bottom floor for those 500+ HH units in the Ocean Tower.

Bathroom has separate glazed glass toilet and shower units, with long sink top. Toilet cover opens up with the stall door opening. Lights up at night for those with poor night vision, when doing stand up jobs. 3 people can use the bathroom simultaneously even if unfamiliar with each other!

Gym between 6093 and 6094, sixth floor between Center and West Circles.

Rooms 19-39 of floors 3-8 in the East Circle farthest from the ocean, have been renovated from HH hotel rooms into HGV condos. All have a resort view or a partial ocean view, a sliver of blue on the horizon, overlooking the golf course. New construction phase April-June 2020.

HGV owners rent by room type, don't get to choose room floor, let alone specific room. Want to avoid the ground floor third floor? $1200+/day for a premier or penthouse unit, available only on the 7th and 8th floors.

Coming from Costco? Bring foldable cooler bag with ice . 30 minute 1 way drive, with ice cream, popsicles, and rotisserie chicken in the 80+ degree tropical heat, even in winter. Drop off at the lobby, where passenger hauls frozen and perishable foods to AC electric tram. Driver parks car and hauls the rest 20+ minutes to room. Unless you drive on the service road and drop groceries through the third floor balcony door!More