This was not our first stay at the Diamond Resort so we know exactly what we wanted and were getting. If you love Japan and the Japanese style furo (baths), you will like this place. The furo is not just to bathe, but a ritual and experience into relaxation. We stayed here just one night mainly to experience two things--their Japanese style onsen (spa) and ther excellent Japanese restaurant.

I will go through the bathing ritual in detail even though others may have mentioned it in the other reviews because there were still some people who didn't know the rules when we were there. First you must remove your footwear at the entry into the bathhouse. Cubbyholes are provided. There is a toilet provided just past the entry. Then there is a dressing area where there are larger cubbyholes with baskets for your clothing and other personal belongings. Some cubby's have locks, most don't. You should only have your clothes and toiletries anyway. I also bring my make-up, deodorant, and my own hairbrush which I like better than theirs. You must remove all clothing. Then you grab some towels and enter the bathing area. Shower caps are provided (at the sink countertops in the dressing room) if needed. Inside the bathing area there are faucet stations set up with stools, buckets shampoo, conditioner, body gels, and a mirror. Sit at a stool and turn the water on. One handle turns on the hand-held shower, and the other opens the faucet. Wash yourself and use the bucket to do an overall body rinse. Once you are clean, ONLY THEN DO YOU GO INTO THE POOL. Do not go into the pool without washing as some westerners do!!! The pool is not to be used to wash yourself. All of the washing is done outside at the faucet stations! Do not take your large towels into the pool either. The small towels are fine but do not wring them in the pool (etiquette). The Japanese usually use the small towels to wipe their face and neck, and neatly fold it and place it on top of their heads to avoid contaminating the water with their towels. Use the pool as a time to unwind and relax. There is a sauna, a waterfall massage, and a sprial shower that you can also use. You will find a dial near the sauna to turn on the bubbles in the pool. There is another dial which turns on the waterfall massage. The spiral shower shoots tiny sprays of water in a circular spiral pattern from your shoulders down to your knees. A little ticklish but feels great after. When you come out, in the dressing area there is a long counter with sinks, chairs, mirrors, combs, brushes, shower caps, Qtips and cotton, lotions, hair dryers, and a water cooler dispenser to rehydrate yourself. You will walk out of the spa so relaxed with the panoramic views of the ocean and neighboring islands in front of you.

For an additional fee, you can make reservations and get any of their spa treatments which included several types o facial and body massges. We didn't do any of this though.

Our room was a "suite" which included a bedroom and a kitchenette. The furnishings were new and very nice. There is a full bath complete with the stool and bucket set up similar to the spa. The toilet was a source of laughter for my two teenage kids. There is a washlet inside the toilet. There are buttons alongside the toilet which controls the direction, temperature, and intensity of the washlet. It also warms the toilet seat. It is a Japanese version of a bidet built into the toilet. My kids were trying to figure it out when it suddenly spurt water out of a tube and out of the toilet and into their faces. Once the laughter stopped, they finally figured out how to use it. The next morning my daughter had gone in to use the toilet before me. When it was my turn, I pushed the button and out squirted hot water! She had turned up the temperature of the water. I wish I had taken a photo of the ttoilet to upload here.

There are two authentic Japanese restaurants. Le Gunji is a teppan-yaki style restaurant with a more westerized menu. It is like the Benihana restaurants that most westerners are familiar with. We have eaten there on previous visits and the food is plentiful and very good. The other restaurant is Taiko. This has the more traditional Japanese food such as sushi, noodles and tempura. It doesn't matter what you order, everything on the menu is authentic and very good! For appetizers we ordered some sushi and it was excellent! Very fresh and large pieces of fish. My son ordered the shrimp tempura udon and he ate very bit of it. My husband and daughter both ordered the tempura dinner. It came with fresh pieces of raw tuna sashimi, pickles, shrimp and vegetable tempura, rice, miso soup and rice. I ordered the miso orange glazed butterfish which also came with miso soup, pickles, sashimi and rice. For dessert we ordered their strawberry shortcake, creme brulee, and a new dessert (forgot the name). They took a slice of cake roll, dipped it in tempura batter and quick fried the cake, then topped it with a scoop of ice cream. 3 choices of cake and 4 choices of the ice cream topping for this dessert. They were all very good.

The Taiko also started an early bird special 5-6pm, and the menu changes daily, one for each day of the week (seafood, prime rib, Japanese night, etc.). We didn't know about this until after we were eating. We wish we were told about the early bird specials when we made our dinner reservations or we would have tried it instead.

The staff mentioned to us that the furnishings were new, and they are in the process of removating more of the hotel. There is a new partner/co-owner (American) but the workers didn't know too many details.

A few places in the spa looked a little tired but everything was clean. We definitely want to go back.

We stayed here with two other adults for one night during the peak Christmas / New Year's season. This was one of the only hotels in Wailea which had room availability and was not requiring a seven-night minimum stay.

The hotel is catered to the Japanese tourists, so the staff speaks Japanese and the suites have Japanese bathtubs. There is also a public bathhouse (ofuro) which is free of charge and open at limited hours.

The suites themselves are roomy. Ours was on the top level and overlooked a Koi pond. The room was a bit of a walk (2-3 minutes) from the lobby area, but you can call for a cart to pick you up if you have heavy luggage. Rooms are a bit run down, but clean and can fit four adults comfortably (two on the MASSIVE bed in the bedroom and two on the pullout in the living room). We hear the hotel is going to be renovated soon.

This resort is not near the water, but you can walk down to the beach in less than 5 minutes. The hotel grounds, koi ponds and landscaping are very nice and relaxing.

Bought this hotel on Hotwire, so I had no idea what I was getting. (BTW, when I bought it, Hotwire was advertising car and hotel, but it turns out that was just a come-on to buy both, so I ended up having to book them separately at extra cost. I contacted Hotwire about the misleading headline and I notice it is not there now.) Nevertheless, even on Hotwire, the price was not cheap, so I was a little nervous, since I thought with a 4 star hotel in Wailea, I would get oceanfront, although not the Four Seasons or Grand Wailea. It turns out the hotel was up on a hill behind the oceanfront resorts. I read the reviews on Tripadvisor extensively and really liked the one who called himself Diamond Guy. Anyhow, these are my observations once I got there:

1) Very easy to find and very easy to access all of Wailea and Kihei for shopping, eating, and beach.
2) The valet service and all other staff were beyond friendly and helpful.
3) We were upgraded to ocean view which was lovely to watch the sunsets each evening and sit and read.
4) Property is beautiful and unbelievably quiet.
5) Went to the pool for hours everyday and saw almost no one else at the pool or on the property.
6) The spas are separate for men and women and don't believe that bathing suit optional stuff - they are not optional! I only went once to the women's and there were several others there, but it was still quiet. I did not partake in in any of the extra spa activities.
7) Never ate at the restaurants, but the Italian restaurant looked packed all the time and seems to be very popular for all visitors to Maui, not just residents of the hotel.
8) Now the room -
a) the bed, as mentioned by other reviewers, was the biggest bed I have ever seen. We had our adult daughter with us and told her to just stay in the bed also since it was so big, but she decided to stay on the couch in the living room and we closed the doors between the two rooms (not too sound proof though). I never heard another sound in any other unit, but I think we were the only ones in our building (4 per building). I like that instead of putting everyone together in one part of the resort like some hotels - they spread guests all over the resort.
b) The bathroom was pretty cool. The huge tub and shower are together behind glass doors with a little stool for the shower, so one can hold the shower head in your hand and bathe like the Japanese (there were many stations like this in the spa area too). The toilet was in a separate room all by itself, which was nice for the three of us to be able to use it without getting in anyone else's way.
c) Kitchen is not full, but frig was big enough for us to keep adding soda pop, snacks, milk (and especially lots of poke if you like that sort of thing - great poke from the deli dept. at the local market in Kihei). No microwave, but a little sink and burners (which we never used). The kitchen is not stocked with dishes, etc., but we called and the supplies were brought to us immediately for the duration of our stay.
d) I guess the only complaint I have about the whole resort was that the room was not as immaculate as I would have liked. I am a mirror fanatic and I could tell that they did not clean the mirrors regularly. They did clean everyday - kind of late, and we often had to call - but still no mirror cleaning. The rest of the room as cleaned though. On our last day, they were having a bug cleaning service come in which is apparently something that needs to be done frequently in Hawaii. We only saw a couple of bugs - and neither of them freaked me out.

9) Bottom line - I would definitely stay here again. The friendly staff, the huge suite and the quiet property were right up my alley.

As others wrote... excellent hotel for price in Wailea. Staff was OUTSTANDING! Only "issue" was Capiche restaurant.. Appetizer's were good, but entree's were below average for the price. For the price I'd go to The Waterfront, Spago, or even Sarento's. But the hotel employee's were so friendly and rooms such a good value that it still rates an Excellent.