Halekulani is an oceanfront luxury hotel located on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii. The hotel contains 453 rooms in five buildings on 5 acres (20,000Â 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 and Imperial Hotels, marketing and trade associations geared toward luxury hotels.
Halekulani has received numerous awards, including a World's Best 2005 award from Travel & Leisure magazine. It received Four Stars from Mobil Travel Guide and a AAA Four Diamonds rating.
The hotel is currently owned and operated by the Japanese company Mitsui Fudosan. The hotel's boutique sister property, Waikiki Parc, is located across the street.
History
The original Halekulani was opened in 1907 as a residential hotel called Hau Tree and was owned by Robert Lewers. Subsequently 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.
It re-opened as its present incarnation in 1984.
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
- The swimming pool's bottom is covered in 1.2 million South African glass mosaic tiles that form a distinctive design in the shape of an Cattleya orchid.
- A century-old Kiawe tree in the outside area of House Without a Key
- Mahiole (Feathered helmet), a pair of 1983 stone sculptures by Charles W. Watson
Popular culture
At the Halekulani, author Earl Derr Biggers wrote his first Charlie Chan novel, The House Without a Key â€" the name of one of the hotel's restaurants.
References
External links
- Official website
- Leading Hotels of the World Home Page
- Halekulani history book
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