Halekulani (hotel)

View on a balcony from Halekulani featuring pool and lounge area in foreground, and Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head in the distance.

Halekulani is an oceanfront luxury hotel located on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii. The hotel contains 453 rooms in five buildings on 5 acres (20,000 m2) of property. Halekulani is a Hawaiian word meaning "House Befitting Heaven".

It has three restaurants on the property - House Without a Key, Orchids, and La Mer. It is also the home of SpaHalekulani and the Lewers Lounge.

The hotel is a member of both The Leading Hotels of the World[1] and Imperial Hotels,[2] marketing and trade associations geared toward luxury hotels.

Halekulani has received numerous awards, including a World's Best 2005 award from Travel & Leisure magazine.[3] It received Four Stars from Mobil Travel Guide and a AAA Four Diamonds rating.[4]

The hotel is currently owned and operated by the Japanese company Mitsui Fudosan.[5] The hotel's boutique sister property, Waikiki Parc, is located across the street.[6]

History

The original Halekulani was opened in 1907 as a residential hotel called Hau Tree and was owned by Robert Lewers. It was purchased in 1917 by Juliet and Clifford Kimball before being sold to the Norton Clapp family in 1962. In 1981 the hotel was purchased by Mitsui Fudosan USA and incorporated as the Halekulani Corporation, a U.S. based company.[7]

It re-opened as its present incarnation in 1984.

View of Hotel from the Street

The original Halekulani was never a particularly luxurious resort; it was a plain residential hotel, more an informal grouping of simple bungalows on simple landscaping, offering inexpensive, unpretentious accommodations, with simple food. It was growing a bit dilapidated in the 1960s, but its location made it an attractive investment for rebuilding and rebirth.

What some others have to say about this "iconic" property today: "Other than the sand and the view of Diamond Head, there was nothing left of Charlie Chan`s or Chang`s Waikiki except for the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, next to the Halekulani.

"Biggers had many of Chan`s suspects stay there, just down the beach from the cottage where a movie star is murdered in The Black Camel. Charlie Chan ate there with his friend, Inspector Duff, even though the soup, as always in Hawaii, was poor."

Notable features

Popular culture

At the Halekulani, author Earl Derr Biggers wrote his first Charlie Chan novel, The House Without a Key – the name of one of the hotel's restaurants.[9]

References

  1. ↑ "Halekulani". Leading Hotels of the World. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  2. ↑ "Halekulani: A House Befitting Heaven". Imperial Hotel. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  3. ↑ "Sydney ranked world's best city". CNN. 12 July 2005. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
  4. ↑ "Halekulani scores high on national spa rating". The Business Journals. 19 March 2004. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
  5. ↑ Heckathorn, John (13 May 2009). "Waikiki's Halekulani hotel celebrates its 25th anniversary". Hawai'i Magazine. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
  6. ↑ "Waikiki Parc Hotel to close in 2016 for renovation, reduce room count". Pacific Business News (American City Business Journals). 18 March 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  7. ↑ "Memories of Our House Befitting Heaven" (PDF). Halekulani Corporation. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  8. ↑ "Halekulani Hotel - Guest Facilities - Beach & Pool". Halekulani. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
  9. ↑ Weiss, Don and Phyllis (28 October 1989). "Sleuthing The Elusive Trail Of Charlie Chan's Hawaii". Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved 19 May 2014.

External links

Coordinates: 21°16′40″N 157°49′55″W / 21.277878°N 157.831931°W