For anyone looking for reasons to choose Hawaii as a meetings destination, there are two big ones to consider: value and quality. Not only are there plenty of good deals to be found, but the hotels—and the destination itself—are looking better than ever.
Substantial investments in island infrastructure, everywhere from the pulsating heart of Waikiki to the serene shores of Kauai’s Hanalei Bay, are coming to fruition.
"Even in the current economic climate, companies are continuing to make capital improvements to their hotel properties and retail outlets," says Michael Murray, vice president of sales and marketing for the corporate, meetings and incentives division of the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau. "We’re delighted to see this. It demonstrates the strong commitment to tourism here."
Murray notes that the a "renaissance of change" began several years ago, with the multibillion-dollar investment that has elevated Waikiki to a world-class destination offering dramatically upgraded hotels, high-quality shopping, fine dining and state-of-the-art event and meeting spaces.
"That really started momentum that we’re seeing throughout the islands, with so many hotels undergoing total facelifts," he says. "It’s a litany of positive changes that just goes on and on."
Oahu
Of all the upgrades that have taken place in Waikiki in recent years, perhaps none is so dear to the hearts of traditionalists as the restoration of the legendary "Pink Palace of the Pacific," the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. The property reopened earlier this year after a six-month renovation that was the most ambitious since it first opened its doors back in 1927.
Painted a slightly more vibrant shade of pink than before, the hotel retains its Moorish-Art Deco design, but with subtle changes that included opening up the lobby to the Royal Coconut Grove, a rare green space in the heart of Waikiki that is part of the hotel’s 66,000 square feet of outdoor event space. The former Surf Room is now Azure, a beachfront restaurant featuring locally caught seafood purchased daily at the Hawaii Fish Auction.
Other new touches include luxury beachfront cabanas and the Helumoa Playground, a resort activity area built around a lagoon-style swimming pool. The lushly landscaped area, which is available for events, is shared with the neighboring Sheraton Waikiki.
"The Royal is the hotel that made Hawaii famous, and now it has been brought back to the luxury level," says Revell Newton, director of sales and marketing for Starwood Hotels Waikiki. "For a long time, the hotel lived off its history. It was run down. This is a 180-degree turn for the hotel."
With its reopening, the Royal Hawaiian has become part of Starwood’s Luxury Collection, a brand described by Newton "as a group of iconic hotels that cannot be labeled."
According to Newton, Starwood Waikiki now offers a distinctive portfolio of hotels appealing to a wide variety of meetings and tiers of attendees. Along with the Royal Hawaiian, they include the equally historic 793-room Westin Moana Surfrider as well the 1,700-room Sheraton Waikiki and 1,150-room Princess Kaiulani.
"We can really mix it up for different tiers of business, with CEOs at the Royal, upper management at the Moana, mid-level at the Sheraton Waikiki and more budget-sensitive people at the Princess Kaiulani," he says, adding that both the Moana and Royal are well positioned for incentive business. "We sold as one Starwood product for years, but now our Waikiki hotels have much more of a defined market."
The Sheraton Waikiki is wrapping up a $200 million renovation, which has included a new spa and extensive renovations to the hotel’s 45,000 square feet of meeting space, and new food and beverage operations featuring restaurant-quality banquet fare emphasizing local ingredients.
"The Sheraton always had great meeting space, and 80 percent of the rooms have ocean views, but it didn’t have a story to tell," Newton says. "Now we are positioning the hotel as the leading convention headquarters hotel in Waikiki."
Waikiki’s newest addition will be Trump International Hotel & Tower-Waikiki Beach Walk, which is on target for a September opening and will feature 460 luxury hotel-condominium units, a spa, a pool deck and dining outlets.
Located adjacent to the Waikiki Beach Walk shopping and dining complex, the Outrigger Reef on the Beach just completed a $110 million makeover. Under the project, 436 guest rooms and suites were enlarged and the lobby and porte cochere were redesigned to feature a historic canoe and other museum-quality Hawaiian artifacts. Its sister property, Ohana Waikiki Beachcomber, also underwent a property-wide renovation and has two new event-friendly spaces: Jimmy Buffet’s at the Beachcomber and the Honolulu Surfing Museum and Bar, which contains surfing memorabilia from Buffet’s private collection.
In December, the Hilton Hawaiian Village opened the Grand Waikikian, a 331-unit, all-suite tower with residential-style timeshare accommodations that are also available to guests. The resort also introduced the new Waikiki Starlight Luau, a dinner and entertainment show held five nights a week. With the show staged on a tower rooftop, the property’s lagoon-side lawn area, the site of the previous luau show, is now freed up for private events.
New at the Halekulani is the 2,365-square-foot Orchid Suite, which is separate from the main hotel building and features panoramic views of Diamond Head and Waikiki and a gourmet kitchen where chefs can provide interactive cooking experiences. The 455-room luxury resort has also introduced Art in Motion, a fleet of luxury cars that includes a Masarati Grand Torino and Lotus Elise and other premium vehicles available to guests.
Just outside Waikiki in the posh Kahala neighborhood, where multimillion-dollar mansions sit behind palm-shaded walls, is the Kahala Resort, a 338-room property that has been a favorite hideaway for Hollywood celebrities since it was opened by Conrad Hilton in the 1960s.
The resort, which is surrounded by dolphin lagoons and has its own beach, recently completed a $52 million renovation that included major upgrades to the 11,500 square feet of meeting space.
According to Director of Group Sales Elaine Macy, Kahala Resort’s secluded location and new meetings technology are finding favor with groups, including those concerned with perception issues.
"Many companies are downsizing the size of their groups and like the fact that they can do a streaming video from the ballroom sent out to the rest of their employees," she says. "The other thing that groups like, especially now, is the privacy we provide—yet with the convenience of being on Oahu. You won’t find the press hanging around. That’s also why we get many movie stars."
Also new on Oahu are enhancements made to one of the island’s most popular attractions and event sites, the Battleship Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor. The historic battleship now features a restored dental clinic and new tours with iPod touch units that feature video footage and audio-recorded interviews with veterans who served on the ship.
Kauai
The big news on the "Garden Isle" is the upcoming unveiling of the St, Regis Princeville Resort, formerly the Princeville Resort, which will reopen in August after a year-long renovation designed to elevate the property to Starwood’s top-level St. Regis brand.
"It’s really an exciting project, more of a transformation than a renovation," says Chris White, director of sales and marketing for the 252-room resort on Hanalei Bay, which has undergone several incarnations since opening in 1986. "In the past, we had a beautiful location and a beautiful hotel, but we had some issues of whether it made sense for the location. Now we are redefining our service levels and embracing the destination of the North Shore. The hotel will have much more of an indigenous feel."
Among the changes will be the addition of Hale Le’a Spa, which will offer 12 treatment rooms, a salon and 24-hour fitness center.
Accommodations at St. Regis Princeville will include 50 suites, each with butler service. There will also be a new signature restaurant and a redesigned pool area with cabanas. The 27-hole Makai golf course, which has been closed for renovation and is one of two championship courses at the resort, will reopen in October.
According to White, the hotel, as in the past, will primarily target corporate meeting and incentive business, with the ideal size ranging from 75 to 125 rooms.
Aston Resorts’ Aloha Beach Hotel Kauai, located next to the Wailua River, completed a renovation in December that included all 216 guest rooms and cottages. The property offers several indoor and outdoor meeting spaces, including the Plumeria Garden Court, which offers a built-in stage and adjacent lawn accommodating up to 300 people.
The Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa recently installed a solar power system to serve its energy needs. The 602-room resort also completed a garden spa expansion, featuring such amenities as open-air treatment rooms, outdoor lava rock showers and soaking tubs.
Maui
The Grand Wailea Resort & Spa recently completed a $50 million renovation, which included refurbishing all 780 guest rooms with new dark wood furniture and flat-screen TVs. The hotel’s signature Wailea Activity Pool and Spa Grande, which is the largest spa in Hawaii and consistently rated one of the world’s best, also received upgrades.
New at the property is Ho’olei at Wailea, luxury three-bedroom townhomes that are available to overnight guests and located across the street from the main hotel.
"Some groups are choosing to put their CEOs or other top people at Ho’olei," says Brian Lynx, director of sales and marketing for the Grand Wailea.
Elsewhere in the Wailea resort complex, the 450-room Fairmont Kea Lani completed a property-wide renovation that included all guest rooms and its 30,000 square feet of meeting space. The Wailea Beach Marriott Resort & Spa, which completed a $60 million renovation last year, added a new swimming pool with six cabanas built over the water.
In Kapalua, one of Hawaii’s most dramatic resort transformations was last year’s $160 million makeover of The Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua, which has gone from a traditional Ritz-Carlton look with marble and European-style furnishings to a more Hawaiian-style design featuring native stone, wood and landscaping.
The project included the reconfiguration of some guest rooms to create 107 one- and two-bedroom, full-ownership Residential Suites, which are available to hotel guests. The hotel also has a new full-service spa with 15 treatment rooms.
In January, Vermont-based Arden Grove Hospitality assumed management of the island’s most secluded property, the 66-acre, 70-room Hotel Hana-Maui, which includes a free-standing conference center.
Lanai
In recent years, substantial investments have been made in the island’s two major properties, the Four Seasons Resort Lanai at Manele Bay and the Four Seasons Resort Lanai, The Lodge at Koele. Improvements have included a $50 million makeover for the Lodge at Koele, which refurbished all 102 guest rooms at the upcountry resort.
A pavilion called Hale Halawai, which means "meeting house" in Hawaiian, was unveiled at the Manele Bay property. Perched on a hill and part of the resort’s conference center, the facility offers 7,300 square feet of indoor space and 2,880 square feet of outdoor terrace space.
Hawaii’s Big Island
A landmark property on the Kohala Coast since it was first opened by developer Laurence Rockefeller in 1965, the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel recently emerged from a $150 million renovation following a two-year closure after earthquake damage. The room count at the iconic resort overlooking a crescent-shaped beach has been reduced from 310 to 258, resulting in more spacious accommodations and bathrooms.
The reopening of the hotel coincided with the reopening of the renowned Mauna Kea Golf Course, which had also closed for renovation.
Improvements have also been taking place at the nearby Waikoloa Beach Resort complex, where the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa completed a $50 million renovation that included the refurbishment of all 555 guest rooms, a redesigned lobby and the addition of Mandara Spa and an infinity-edged pool.
A $100 million renovation launched in 2005 brought property-wide improvements to the 1,340-room Hilton Waikoloa Village. The resort now features redecorated guest rooms, meeting space with updated lighting and sound systems, and a renovated spa.
