Kristy A.
Yelp
I go to Hawaii about once a year to 18 months. I've been using Roberts for about a decade now, but our most recent trip and experience with them has soured us on using their services.
Bottom line: in the past when we have booked, we book the option to have a shuttle waiting for us and to take us to the hotel once we have our luggage. They apparently have changed their process (without disclosing it at time of booking or any communications to let us know the change) at HLN. This time no one was waiting for us per usual. I called and was told we had to check in with a booth. Okay, different than what I was used to and I was a little irritated that this wasn't communicated before hand, but not an issue (yet). At the booth, after being ignored and/or having to start over trying to check in because the people working the booth were much more interested in their own conversations and/or helping someone else, I was told that it could take up to an hour to get on a shuttle. That is not what I booked and to what was contractually obligated. Then they didn't know. Then it was only a few minutes. Then we had to walk across the street to catch the shuttle, only to have the shuttle return to the original place where we were waiting (this is important later). In all, it was indeed about an hour before we were off.
Honestly the staff at the booth were at best incompetent and at worst, really didn't care. Despite me explaining multiple times the type of shuttle I had booked, they either weren't understanding or just didn't want to try and bother to try and fix the situation. We kept being told "traffic" was the reason we had to wait. We've arrived at HLN plenty of times during the afternoon and yes, Honolulu will always have traffic jams that time of day. That's not the point: the point is that their obligation was to plan ahead to have a shuttle waiting for us so we could head to our hotel immediately.
Normally we're pretty easy-going travelers. Things happen. But the lack of understanding/will to fix the situation was appalling. And why all these things were especially important this trip: my elderly mom just beat not one but two cancers a few months ago. This was a celebratory trip, but after a nine hour flight she absolutely needed to get to the hotel and rest and not be jerked around all over arrivals in the airport. And she's still recovering from having part of her lung and colon removed, so extra walking at that time with her exhaustion was not helpful. And while I'm reasonably healthy, having to drag around to 50 pound suitcases (because she cannot pull her own right now) all over the place during this obscene confusion/incompetence certainly was not the easiest for me after a nine hour flight. In addition, she got wheelchair service at the airport who dropped her off where we were originally supposed to pick up the shuttle. From where we walked away to cross a street to catch the shuttle only to have the shuttle drive right to the very place we were waiting. Un-freaking-believable.
The only reason they are getting two stars from me is a credit to the drivers themselves who were kind and helpful (and were very confused/upset for us when we told them the situation).
Next time we go I'm just going to suck up the extra money and take a cab or Lyft.