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'Tinkerbell' Tends the Garden at the Kona Kai Resort
Before we left on Friday to celebrate the Halloween weekend we Tweeted for hotel staffers working in Halloween costumes over the weekend to send us some pics. And we have to say, Tinkerbell at the Kona Kai Resort, a B&B in Key Largo, Florida is the best. Not only does she look cute, but she's actually still able to water the garden. Where form meet functionality.
Rates here start at $244 a night but they do not take online reservations. Go here for booking information. Thanks for sending this in, Tinks!
We're still accepting hotel Halloween costumes if you want to send 'em along. And don't forget to follow HotelChatter on Twitter!
Tags: Hotel Deals / Hawaii Hotels / Shell Hospitality / → All Tags
Lounge at a Hawaii Resort for Just $57 a Night
This rainy East Coast day has us pining for sunny vacations. Turns out, for once, we might actually be able to afford it too. Now through Sept. 17th, you can book stays at Kona Coast Resort starting at just $57 (!). That’s a savings of 45 percent off stays up to five nights and 65 percent off stays five days or longer; valid through Dec. 18 (not counting Oct. 3-11 or Nov. 22-27). We’re impressed!
Kona Coast Resort sits on the beaches of the Big Island’s Kona Coast, with fully furnished villas on 21 tropical acres, swimming pools, hula lessons and dive instruction, a 36-hole golf course and on-site spa services.. The package also includes a Pool Time Fun Kit complete with a tote bag, flip-flops, and tic-tac-toe towel and game.
Book the deal at the resort’s weekly updated blog, ShellHospitality.com/blog. Mahalo!
Tags: Hotel Openings / Hotel Packages / Hawaii Hotels / Jean-Georges Vongerichten / → All Tags
St. Regis Princeville Will Indeed Re-Open on Oct. 1
Despite our fears for the worst, it seems the St. Regis Princeville is actually still on track to reopen Oct. 1 (or Sept. 26, if you trust its website). The first-ever St. Regis resort on Hawaii, the Kauai resort is finishing up a multi-million dollar renovation that includes a new Halele’a Spa, golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones II, and a new resto—called Kaua’I Grill—by Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
To ring in the good news, the 252-room St. Regis Princeville is launching the Quintessential Celebration Series, a four-part guest party through October and November. The four celebration offers will be available to a limited number of guests and will include a five-night stay for two, beachside welcome reception, two days of activities and events, and a ticket to the St. Regis Princeville Gala Evening with “notable honorary guests.”
Tags: Hotel Amenities / Hawaii Hotels / → All Tags
K`oa Kea’s Beds Could Tame Our Bed-Hopping Ways
We admit it, we’ve slept around with the best of them: Frette and Sferra Bro.; Bellino and Dwell; Egyptian; Turkish. We’ve had no qualms getting horizontal with them, especially when they bring a high thread count to the bedroom.
Despite all our one night stands (and extended stays on occasion), we've gotta say, we think K`oa Kea Hotel & Resort at Po’ipū Beach is onto something with their custom beds.
Tags: Reality TV Hotels / TV Set Hotels / Hawaii Hotels / Antonio Sabato Jr. / → All Tags
Antonio Sabato Jr. Looks for Love (On Camera) at Hilton's Waikoloa Village
Yeah, we’re kinda embarrassed that we think former Calvin Klein manty model Antonio Sabato Jr. is still kinda hot. Maybe it’s his chiseled cheek bones, perfectly tanned skin, and taut, muscular abs, but we will never ever hold his appearance on Ally McBeal against him. Sigh.
The commitment-phobic Italian actor has jumped from daytime to prime time soap operas (and back again), and most recently, playing his hunk-alicious self on Ugly Betty. He managed to wed Alicia Tully Jensen for one whole year, knock up both Virginia Madsen and Kristin Rossetto, and has been linked to Nicolette Scorsese, Vanessa Marcil and Rachael Cook.
Now, at ye old mature age of 36, Sabato, Jr. seems to think he’s ready to settle down (uh huh) and like every D-list celebrity in need of a career refresher (hello, Bret Michaels, Denise Richards, and Janice Dickenson!), he’s hooked up with a reality show to make his dreams come true. Barf.
Tags: Hawaii Hotels / Trump Hotels / Waikiki Hotels / → All Tags
Trump Waikiki is Going After Your Family
Trump NYC aims for 'tweens (hey, we're just callin' them like we see 'em — though we've been told by some very authentic Trump NYC fans that the hotel is very luxurious and wonderful), and now Trump Waikiki is going for families. Which is...interesting.
With steep room rates on the ol' calendar — we heard $300-$395 and $650-$670 for standard and oceanfront rooms, all the way up to $1,440 for two-bedroom suites — this palce has luxury written all over it. Uh, luxury...and family.
Tags: Hotel Amenities / Hawaii Hotels / → All Tags
Comfy Beds and Pillows Still Top the Must-Have Amenity Lists
After a week of staying and visiting at various splurge vs. steal priced hotel properties throughout Hawaii (in the name of editorial R&D), we experienced accommodations, services and amenities that ran the gamut from unbelievably good values to barely adequate.
As we started delving into the destination wedding article that features the aforementioned Hawaii hotel properties, we took a long hard look at what amenities make us really happy. For us, it’s really all about the bed (we’re still swooning for the king sized slice of heaven at Ko`a Kea Hotel & Resort at Po`ipū Beach in Kauai). We also take complimentary Wi-Fi into consideration when booking hotel stays but if it's free and hardly working then it's not really worth it.
But that's just us. We wondered what other folks really liked or didn't like at hotels. We got some great suggestions about hotel amenities in our recent Hotel Preston contest but we decided to poll some of our frequent traveler friends on their fave hotel amenities. Here’s what they had to say:
Tags: Hotel Restaurants / Hawaii Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags
Table One at Halekulani Now Taking Reservations for August 1
Since we heard that The King of Cocktail, Dale DeGroff had a hand in revamping Halekulani’s Lewer’s Lounge cocktail menu, we decided to pop into the swank Hawaiian spot on a recent tour of the islands. We muddled through some cocktail R&D, had a delish dinner at House Without a Key, and got an unexpected culinary two-fer, as the poshy posh resort had just announced the August debut of their Table One.
The resort’s Executive Chef Vikram Garg is touting Table One as a “restaurant within the restaurant” located in the atrium of the hotel's Orchids restaurant (pictured above.) Is this kind of like the hotel within a hotel trend we see in Vegas? Regardless, it sounds exclusive.
Tags: Hotel Deals / Maui Hotels / Hawaii Hotels / → All Tags
Honua Kai Wants To Save You Money On Maui (We Think)
Last time we checked out the Honua Kai Resort & Spa on Maui, they were just about to open the first half of the resort and had $195 opening specials. Today, it's still a year before the second half of the resort opens, but the specials are back with the frugal vacationer in mind.
The new deal is that from September 1 through December 12, Honua Kai is offering you a "dream deal" with up to 50% off rack rates, which brings them back to the $195 a night rate they started with. Their press release on the deal is very careful to name lots of reasons why you can save money at the Honua Kai: for example, you get a shade umbrella for free next to the pool, instead of the $100 a day you might pay at other Maui resorts for a shade cabana. You can also save some bucks by cooking in your own suite, they suggest, because you can now buy any ingredients you're after at the Aina Gourmet Market.
Be careful with the fine print, though. Even though Honua Kai seems very keen to save you money, there are quite a few mentions of a $25 per day "daily resort service fee" on their website, so check if you'll need to pay that too before you do your calculations.
Tags: Hawaii Hotels / Edition Hotels / Hotel News / Hotel Woes / → All Tags
After a Time-Out, The Ilikai Has Gotten It Together and Will Re-Open
Okay, so Hawaii's Ilikai (famous for the Hawaii Five-0 opening-sequence shots) fairly-suddenly closed last week, citing too-extreme operating costs. But now it seems to have taken a hot time-out, has gotten itself together and will re-open again. Yeah, alright.
According to reports, the hotel will "reopen as soon as practically possible under a new management team and operational structure." That is, iStar, the owners, said its subsidiary had "reached an agreement with the union representing workers at the hotel." Will it re-brand or will it open as the Ilikai still? It's looking like the latter — we could book a room (for $97) on July 21st.
The hotel is going to go back and rehire about 50-ish employees under new terms, and drama, drama, drama — but we're still sitting here wondering whether this is ever going to become Hawaii's Edition or not.
What's the deal here? Does anyone know? Someone clue us in — Edition's website hasn't been updated in a long, long time.
Tags: Hotel Woes / Waikiki Hotels / Hawaii Hotels / Donald Trump / Trump Hotels / → All Tags
Uh, Why Do People Care About the 'Trump' Name So Much?
Uh-oh! Remember how we told you that Trump Fort Lauderdale was having some sorta-bigtime issues and may not have the Trump name on it after all? The condo-hotel development's "opening date" of late 2009 was a little bit ambitious, and developers had sent a letter out to condo buyers to notify them that the folks behind the project were in default of a licensing agreement that allowed use of Trump's name on the project — and then, when buyers heard that there was a pretty decent possibility that Trump's name was going to be yanked from the building altogether, they wanted nothing to do with the place and sued developers for misleading them into thinking Trump was definitely going to be in on the project. Whoops!
And then we told you that Trump Waikiki was having no such issue, and was moving along just fine. But: not so!
Pacific Business News reports today:
Buyers of 11 of the units at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Waikiki filed a lawsuit Monday against the developer seeking to cancel their purchase contracts because use of Donald Trump’s name on the luxury condominium project is not guaranteed.
Sounds mighty familiar.
Tags: Hawaii Hotels / Hilton Hotels / Hotel Restaurants / Hotel Bars / Waikiki Hotels / → All Tags
Add Tropics Bar & Grill To Your Waikiki Bar-Hopping Itinerary
Note: This "cheeseburger in paradise" might look a little different on your plate.
It’s rare we meet a bar we don’t like, and since a night out on Waikiki wouldn’t be complete without making the Mai Tai rounds, we were stoked to hear about Oahu’s latest addition – Tropics Bar & Grill at The Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa.
It may lack the see-and-be-scene cachet of nearby “it” bar at Nobu or the Mai Tai Bar, but for some good ‘ole al fresco eatin’ and drinkin’ smack dab on Waikiki Beach with photo-op worthy sunset shots of the Pacific Ocean, the lively spot can’t be beat.
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