Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. is scouring its Waikiki properties for a spot in which to establish a Sheraton Club, a sort of premium club for hotel guests, and it could alight 30 stories above Waikiki Beach, atop the Sheraton Waikiki.

Starwood is studying different possible locations for the Sheraton Club among its properties, confirmed Keith Vieira, senior vice president and director of operations for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. in Hawaii and French Polynesia.

Twist at Hanohano, formerly called the Hanohano Room, is the “;lead location”; at the moment, but he added “;it's not a done decision.”;

Many Sheraton-branded hotels have a Sheraton Club, which is a “;private club”; where guests who pay a premium may go for breakfast or cocktails and the like, Vieira said. It is not to say the Hanohano Room, or Sheraton Club, would be unavailable to the general public, however. “;It may be available for other functions,”; he said.

Twist employees, some of whom have served guests high above Waikiki for decades as the restaurant has changed concepts, have been informed of the potential change. The Sheraton Club also “;will require workers,”; Vieira said, including wait staff and possibly concierge or other guest services-type staff.

The decision on where to locate the club will be made by the summer, he said.

The storied Hanohano Room has for decades been a destination restaurant for special occasions, a spot for late-night jazz, a nightclub to be seen in and a venue for the live “;Perry and Price Show”; on the radio nearly every Saturday morning for 19 years, until 2003 when it closed for renovation.

It was to reopen as a steakhouse, though there was no mention of steak in a Nation's Restaurant News item about the Hanohano Room after it reopened in 2003.

Online reviews of Twist, which offers several prix fixe options from $65 per person to $155 per person, are mixed and range from over-the-top satisfied to downright unkind.

Hawaii, the top value destination

Hawaii is the best value destination in the U.S., according to Smarter Travel Media LLC's SmarterTravel.com.

Its 2010 Editors' Choice Awards cite Hawaii as the best deal for travelers based on sales and deals. “;With a three percent drop in year-over-year travel prices and a 10-to-15 percent decrease in premium hotel rates, plus four new air routes so far in 2010 and the likely addition of new low-cost service from Allegiant, Hawaii was the obvious choice,”; the website says.

Las Vegas was named runner-up.

Hawaiian Airlines also got two mentions from SmarterTravel.com editors. They ranked Hawaiian among the Most Customer Friendly Airlines, behind JetBlue, Southwest, Virgin America, Air Tran and Frontier.

Hawaiian also got an honorable mention, as did JetBlue, for Best Airline Web site, a category Frontier Airlines won.