The Outrigger Kona Resort & Spa

We were platinum guests at this resort. We were treated like absolute royalty by the front desk, valet, maid service, bell desk and at the members only Voyager Club 47! The Club served excellent breakfasts and the evening cocktail hour fair would have easily replaced our evening meals, had we not had other locations where we had already made plans for our meals. We were in a freshly remodeled room with a view of the stage for the Luau. It came as an upgrade because of our platinum status. If you're lucky enough to have the chance to stay here, be sure not to miss the Manta Rey viewing deck. These animals are amazing and are most active about 10pm! The place has it's own indoor/outdoor pool with a water slide, tennis court, basketball court and the grounds are immaculate. The grounds even include a beautiful chapel. We visited Volcanos National Park, a coffee plantation, a black sand beach and just loved the island. The trip was very special and the rest and relaxation at the Resort made the long sightseeing days easier to enjoy. Read less

LOVE this hotel!! Staff is extra friendly! Greeted with fresh pineapple by the pool and a great hotel staff member named Toa took complete care of us! His hospitality was 10/10! If you go ask for him and he’ll take great care of you! outstanding service and his professionalism was at its finest. When I come back I will definitely be asking for more Toa! Read less

The worst stay on our three week trip to Hawaii. The grounds and the room were gorgeous. The service was tragic. When we checked in, Karen, asked where we were coming from. I told her we'd just spent a week on Oahu. She then proceeded to completely denigrate that island and tell us how lucky we were that we were now safely on the big island. I was stunned. Unfortunately, this was not an anomaly. We bought things in the gift shop twice, and were treated like an inconvenience each time. They had a ridiculous method for checking out and returning beach towels, like they were bars of gold. For the price per night, these types of amenities should be freely, and abundantly available. There was nothing complimentary there, not even coffee and tea in the mornings. And on our check out day, we'd asked for a late check out and were granted an extra hour. We were not told that our key needed to be recoded for that. In fact, we were not told at check in that our key would automatically stop working at check out time. We had breakfast, walked the grounds, then returned to find ourselves locked out. I went to the front desk to see what the problem was, where Karen once again delivered a tragic level of service. She treated me as if getting locked out were my faux pas and as if she were doing me a favor by allowing us entry to a room we should still have access to. It was unreal. I reached out the the manager, Sally Kilhara-Aling, and that was pointless. She could not have cared less. Avoid this resort. Read less

We were a traveling family of 5 (myself, my wife, my wife's parents, and our 1 y/o son). Unfortunately, a series of mistakes, oversights, poor follow up and customer service, clouded the trip and took up far too much of the time we were supposed to be on vacation. One of the main reasons we booked this hotel despite its distance from the Kona town center and any of the nice beaches, was the promise of adjoining rooms to help with nap times for our toddler. This promise was broken by Outrigger (adjacent rooms but not adjoining). We also practically had to beg to get a crib (requested at booking, again the day before flying in, and multiple times after midnight once we'd already arrived in our room). On our second night in the "resort", the power in just our hotel room went out around 11pm. My wife had to find her way out of the shower in the darkness, attempt to get dressed, go next door and call the front desk. Maintenance was able to reset the breaker, but warned us it may be faulty and happen again. He showed us how to reset it ourselves, as it would likely be necessary. My wife woke up ~5 am because it was hot in our room (AC was off and had likely been off for a while), had to reset the breaker again, at which point we realized that the fridge was warm and the breast milk we had brought with us as well as the milk and food we had purchased for the baby locally, was likely spoiled. The next morning, instead of enjoying ourselves, we had to go back to the store to replace the milk and food in the fridge that was ruined and to guest services to try to get our room fixed or moved. There were no adjoining room options available (again). The only alternative was to keep my in-laws in their room (unfortunately a double instead of a king) and move us to a room on the complete opposite side of the hotel. The room was an upgrade in terms of size and view, and our late check out fee was waved to help compensate for the lost food costs, but now we were extremely far from our family, which at this point, completely nullified our efforts to have them close to help with our child. We accepted this best offer for a functioning room, but then had to return to our room to pack up all of our things and wait for the bellman. That next evening, we noticed SIGNIFICANT damage to our rental car. The only time we left the premises to this point was a ~30 minute lunch. The damage to the mini van rental was at the very top right of the vehicle, indicating that whoever hit it was likely in a large/tall vehicle such as a construction truck, trash truck, etc. The hotel was undergoing major renovations with construction crews on property. We asked hotel security to pull video footage from the parking lot. We spent ~30 minutes speaking with 2 security officers, giving them a full account of each outing. Security asked to meet with us a few days later, so we had to change our plans yet again to accommodate the meeting time. Had we known how utterly worthless both the initial "investigation" and this meeting would be, we never would have wasted our time. A security officer met with us, informed us that the cameras can't see anything due to tree overgrowth, and proceeded to provide us with their "report" which was only 2-3 sentences long and almost seemed to place the blame on me. We were then told by the 3rd security officer that it's Outrigger policy not to release the official report to anyone (i.e., me, the police, my insurance company, or the rental car agency), begging the question: "why would anyone waste their time making a report if nothing could be done with it that actually assists in the situation?" And how could Outrigger not put SECURITY at the very top of its to-do list given all the other construction that's going on?! Lastly, their website only stated: "While we are undergoing property enhancements, some of our public spaces may not be fully available until early Spring..." How incredibly misleading! What they fail to mention is that guests can't enjoy most of the public spaces without walking through dust, walking 2-3 times farther to get to a functioning elevator, or hearing a near deafening level of construction sounds for several hours every day. Our days at the pool consisted of hours of being subjected to the shrill of drilling from one direction of the "resort", and hammers and saws from the other. These sounds were nearly impossible to escape, lingering even on the way to our room(s) and on our balconies. Who would (knowingly) sign up to pay for that? I'm fully aware of how hard it is to believe that all of these things happened during our stay in Hawaii (I even left some things out!), but if there's any question as to whether my descriptions above are exaggeration, I took dozens of videos as evidence. When I attempted to get an apology and some semblance of restitution from Outrigger, it took 3-4 e-mails (weeks apart) to get any response which turned out to ignore nearly everything I said. SHAME ON YOU. Read less

Awesome awesome hotel! This was our first trip to Hawaii and we're not disappointed. Yes the hotel is undergoing renovation but we were too busy adventuring around the island to be bothered by that. We also lucked out and were given a room that had already been renovated as well as a complimentary upgrade to oceanfront. Win win! This hotel is awesome! I love they have an adult's only pool with complimentary cabanas. When we checked in we were given free leis and reusable water bottles. Love that you can refill your bottle at any of the water refill stations scattered around the property. The location is amazing with a manta ray viewing deck. Very cool! Also being under renovation the hotel was only about half full so it was quieter and had breathing room. Service and cleanliness were impeccable. We also attended the Feast and Fire Luau the last night we were there and even though it rained we had a blast! I can't wait to go back Hawaii and stay here again! We love it! Read less