Halekulani (hotel)

Halekulani

View of the hotel from the street.
General information
Location 2199 Kalia Road
Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawai'i
Opening 1984
Management Halekulani Corporation[1]
Design and construction
Architect C.W. Dickey, Killingsworth and Associates[2]
Other information
Number of rooms 453[3]
Number of suites 42[3]
Number of restaurants 3
Parking Valet
Website
http://www.halekulani.com

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[4] and Imperial Hotels,[5] marketing and trade associations geared toward luxury hotels.

Halekulani has received numerous awards, including a World's Best 2005 award from Travel & Leisure magazine.[6] It received Four Stars from Mobil Travel Guide and a AAA Four Diamonds rating.[7]

The hotel is currently owned and operated by the Japanese company Mitsui Fudosan.[8] The hotel's boutique sister property, Waikiki Parc, is located across the street.[9]

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.[10]

It re-opened as its present incarnation in 1984.

The original Halekulani was a plain residential hotel, more an informal grouping of simple bungalows on simple landscaping, offering inexpensive, unpretentious accommodations, with simple food. Later it grew into a more conventional hotel with numerous buildings containing several rooms each and two well known restaurants; one being the House Without a Key made famous by the Eark Derr Bigger's novel of the same name. The other was the Coral Tree Lanai, known for its gracious seaside service. The low density on the extensive grounds made it an attractive investment for rebuilding and rebirth.[2]

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.[12]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.halekulani.com/hotel/waikiki-legacy
  2. 1 2 https://www.halekulani.com/sites/default/files/file/History_Book_0.pdf
  3. 1 2 http://www.halekulani.com/hotel-rooms/room-location-map
  4. ↑ "Halekulani". Leading Hotels of the World. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  5. ↑ "Halekulani: A House Befitting Heaven". Imperial Hotel. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  6. ↑ "Sydney ranked world's best city". CNN. 12 July 2005. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
  7. ↑ "Halekulani scores high on national spa rating". The Business Journals. 19 March 2004. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
  8. ↑ Heckathorn, John (13 May 2009). "Waikiki's Halekulani hotel celebrates its 25th anniversary". Hawai'i Magazine. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
  9. ↑ "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.
  10. ↑ "Memories of Our House Befitting Heaven" (PDF). Halekulani Corporation. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  11. ↑ "Halekulani Hotel - Guest Facilities - Beach & Pool". Halekulani. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
  12. ↑ 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 / 21.277878; -157.831931

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