We just finished 7 nights at Kona Village. We had a trip booked there in 2011, but the Tsunami hit so the trip was cancelled. We were excited to hear that they had reopened and just returned from 7 nights for our family of 4.

The property itself is definitely 5 stars. Beautiful location, beaches, and rooms (hales). The property is over 80 acres and tucked away. It felt private and less crowded than other large resorts. We also saw wildlife galore right from the beach - monk seals, turtles, whales, etc.

The price to stay here is $$$$$. We paid $3,200 per night for an ocean front Hale. At that price point you’d expect exceptional service and that was where the resort fell short of the 5 star ratings and had us leaving feeling that they are way over priced.

Examples:
- At check in our room wasn’t available. Actually it was cleaned and ready to go, but some amenities hadn’t been delivered yet. After 2 hours of waiting we asked for an ETA. They had no idea. We then asked them for we could go to the room to change while they wait for the amenities to be delivered and they told us that wasn’t allowed. We then asked if we could get our swimsuits from our luggage so that our kids could at least swim while we waited and they said that our bags had already been delivered to the room so no. Lots of run around and, as guests, we would have placed a much higher value of getting in our room as soon as we arrived vs waiting for hours so that a hand written note and fruit platter could be in our room prior to our arrival.
- They give you bikes to get around the resort. We were in Halle 150 which is at the very end of the resort. There were 4 of us, but only 2 bikes at our Halle. Problem number 1 is that they didn’t have enough bikes at our Halle before arrival. Problem number 2 is that, when they delivered bikes to our room, they weren’t even close to the right sizes for our kids. Our 6 year old ended up using the 10 year olds bike to give you a sense of how off they were. They kept saying that they were low on kids bikes and didn’t know that they’d have the right sizes for our kids. They did, thankfully, as I don’t know how we would have gotten around without them. Given that they repeatedly told us that they were short on kids bikes, I suggested that they pick up the bikes that were the wrong size from our Halle so that another family could use the bikes and they never did. They sat there, unused, for the entire week.
- One morning we had a snorkel trip booked and had to leave the resort before the restaurant opened for breakfast. They have a coffee shop on property that opens an hour before the restaurant so our plan was to grab breakfast there before leaving for the snorkel. It was supposed to open at 6am and was still closed at 6:20am. When I asked the front desk what was going on they had no idea that it hadn’t opened yet and assumed that an employee didn’t make it to wait that day. This caused quite the scramble for us.
- We waited over 20 minutes from someone to even take our drink order at the sushi restaurant. They delivered our dinner before we even had silverware or plates and I had to let them know that they were missing. They offered us bread service when they first checked in on us and we accepted as our kids were starving and the bread didn’t get delivered until AFTER we ate our entire meal.
- We got our own towels and made up our pool / beach chairs every single day that we were there
- Room service dishes weren’t picked up despite us calling to let them know that we were done.

I could share more of these minor inconveniences, but you get the point.

They just reopened in July so I want to give them a bit of grace, but their pricing makes it difficult. They either need to significantly up their service or significantly decrease their pricing.

It really is a beautiful resort so we’re rooting for them and hoping they can figure it out!

Spend 4 nights at Kona Village and stayed at Hale 113 (Ocean Front Hale). Check out the resort map gives you an idea the size of the property and hopefully help you choose the hale of your desire.

The resort is worth a tour, all Hales comes with bikes to get ground the property, we spend an afternoon biking around and discovered different types of Hale and Suites, enjoyed different views of the beach, and come to learn the resort is 100% solar energy with batteries backup via Tesla Megapacks. During our stay the main beach area and pools were not crowded at all, staff brought us towels and food & beverage menu, I had the pool to myself at 3PM in the afternoon. The Asaya spa is well worth a visit both of our masseuses (Angela & Lily) were friendly and incredible, the facility is beautifully design and build.

When it comes to food and beverages this is somewhat subjective, our preference is keep it simple and let the ingredients speaks for itself. Breakfast at Moana were enjoyable with good selection, however their dinner food quality need some improvements (i.e. overcooked fish, over sauce raw fish menus (masking seafood freshness?), and why so many smoke and milk/cream sauce). Had a better dinner experience at Kahului Cookhouse, the fresh baked bread, ceviche, and whole catch zarandedo, the scallop was not fresh and masked with again milk/cream sauce. Both restaurant services were friendly.

Our Hale 113, very close to the pool, beach, restaurants, bars, and spa. Amazing view of the ocean, great amenities, and beautifully design and build. It’s next to Shipwreck Bar so there are noises in the afternoon and early evening, this could be a positive you can literally stand in your lanai wave the bartender down and order your drinks.

We had a terrific time and much needed getaway, will definitely come back again.