Kona village review:
My husband and I travel to luxury resorts 3-4 times per year. Kona Rosewood Village is somewhat in a league of its own compared to the ones we have been to. While it is a beautiful property, it is very definitely in its infancy, and has a dramatic amount of work left to be a top tier property. However, itโs also clear they are trying. The GM (Daniel Scott) and Director of Hotels ( Mariajose Rodriguez) have both come from Las Ventanas recently, and itโs clear they want to turn this place around, and match the quality of Las and other high end Rosewood properties.
That said, I spent the first 3/4 of the trip quite unhappy and arguing with staff that had no escalation point until the GM returned mid week.
Arrival: 2/10
This was a dramatic short falling. We went to Four Seasons Hualalai the night before due to how our flights worked out, and that was a wonderful greeting quite late at night. They held Noio open for us, even though we were getting in late due to delays picking up our rental car, and didnโt once make us feel rushed. Even had us relax on some comfortable couches while getting us welcome drinks.
Kona Village, on the other hand, had no one to welcome us at a fairly reasonable time of around 6pm. The guard just waived us through the gate and didnโt tell us where to go. We happened to find the entrance, but there was no one to greet us. I had to wander around for five minutes poking my head into areas I shouldnโt be; shouting โhelloโ to get the front desk supervisor (Eduardo) to come out to help us.
Unfortunately, even once he did, he had trouble with their drink dispenser dispensing the welcome drink, and couldnโt get a bellhop to assist us. He ended up telling us to just leave our car keys with them and go to the bar to get a drink while waiting for them to get someone. It took 30 minutes or so before they came back to get us and half heartedly show us to the room (no property tour, and forgot to inform us that we could text for assistance with anything. Also forgot to assign a butler to our room)
Room: 1/10 and then 9/10
This is what basically ruined a large portion of the stay for us.
We were in a tree top room. I specifically booked this room as I absolutely love hanging beds. The motion of the bed gently rocking is super relaxing while reading a book and watching the sunset. The first room had a bed on the lanai with hanging mounts up top, four large ropes โsuspendingโ it, and a tether under it. However; the ropes had either stretched over time, or it was installed wrong as it was just sitting on the floor, instead of hanging.
This should have been an easy fix. The four ropes are sized via three simple to adjust bolts/clamps each. Maintenance could have come and resolved this in probably a half hour. Instead, we spent the majority of the trip repetitively asking for it to be fixed, without any visible sign maintenance ever looked. We were even told conflicting information on it by the front desk manager, the director of rooms, and the concierges. Sometimes we would be told they would work on it and other times told that it was never supposed to be hanging.
The only way I finally got it resolved was by sending photos of the promotional material showing that, yes, it is a hanging bed and should have hung.
It was at this point I finally managed to escalate to the GM (Daniel). He had us moved to the โprototypeโ room (#109) that happened to have this installed (mostly) correctly.
From that point the reason Iโm not giving the room a 10/10 is simply because there were some minor mechanical issues they had to fix once we moved into the room and the outdoor shower was super temperamental (but relaxing!).
Food: 5/10 breakfast; 7/10 lunch, 10/10 dinner
The breakfast buffet honestly was just not good. Everything on it was either luke-warm, or one day, totally cold. For some reason it seems like they donโt have the hot foods in any type of heater, just in cast iron pots?
The pastries on the breakfast buffet were pretty mid level quality; as was the pancakes/waffles etc on it. A lot of the pastry/pancake items tasted like something I would get at a Marriott or similar.
The odd part is that the ordered breakfast food is much nicer and much higher quality. For instance: the breakfast market has fantastic croissants, but the ones on the buffet have little flavor. The pancakes we ordered during the โmake goodโ breakfast were wonderful, thick, and fluffy. The ones on the buffet are essentially McDonaldโs silver dollar pancakes level. The ordered French toast is also fantastic, and there is no equivalent on the buffet (the buffet food doesnโt rotate much on a day by day basis: they seem to have two setups about 90% the same that are rotated between)
For lunch:
Food and menu were ok. The variety was a bit of an issue after a week, but if you were doing a split stay, it would be perfectly fine.
Iโd say nothing stands out as a pro or negative for lunch aside from the excellent onion rings as a pro, and the quite dirty pool menus as a negative.
For dinner:
This was absolutely wonderful. We did dinner at Moana, Kahuwei Smokehouse, and Paniolo night.
The Zarenado we got at the smokehouse was probably the best single entree we had all trip (including Browns Beach House and Merrimans).
From the marketing materials we were very confused by what Paniolo night would be like and if it would be worth $250 per person. However, it was honestly a great value for the price and quite a bit of fun: to give an idea of value: they tried to push a tomahawk steak on us for a table of fourโฆ The dinner was oddly devoid of the โcheap fillersโ buffets usually have. Lots of high quality cold shellfish; Kanpachi, poke, Short ribs, Tomahawk steaks, tenderloin, lamb chops; Mac and cheese, drinks, and a bunch more. They also have a local band and dancer come to perform Hawaiian music throughout the evening. It really was a great experience down on the beach watching the sunset and listening to the music while eating great food! We even laid out on our Lanai (on the hanging bed ) after to continue listening and relaxing.
Butler service: 10/10 once assigned
Giuliana, our butler, was absolutely fantastic. Amongst the best we have had at these resorts. She was assigned to us when we finally were able to chat with the GM (Daniel) on our 6th day. From the time she was assigned to us she texted on a fairly routine basis to ensure everything was going well, arrange small things like golf cart rides, and have little surprises in the room.
Honestly, I canโt think of a single critique with her services once she was finally assigned.
Pool service: 10/10
Service at the pool was great. The adults only pool had 3-4 employees running around at any given moment. Cold waters in coolers, and constantly asking us if we needed anything. Honestly, very little in terms of critique or concerns here. We were quite happy with this.
Housekeeping: 3/10
To put it bluntly: Quite poor. My gut tells me this is to do with the fact itโs subcontracted out to โMalaki servicesโ or something similar. In full disclosure: I shared this with Daniel and he stated that calling out the subcontractor alone negates the fact that they have issues internally they need to resolve as well, and blaming the third party alone would be misleading.
We first noticed they might be an issue at check in when there was a fairly large spiderweb at the desk we sat at attached to the lamp there.
Either way: clothes were rarely folded if left out, we had drink cups half empty sit in our room for three days before I asked specifically for them to be cleaned, there was trash under our โhangingโ bed in the first room(that remained for several days), and leftover open milk container from a previous guest that stayed in the fridge the entire time we were in that room (despite us asking on no less than 5 occasions for it to be removed, including to both a supervisor and manager). We also had our sponges show up on the floor when we came back to the room most days.
Elsewhere: the loungers at the pool had large amounts of crumbs in them, and the side tables opened and were filled with bugs/trash/etc. (they may want to screw these shut?)
The weirdest thing they did was nicely lay out used towels on the hanging bed that clearly had sunscreen marks on them from being used the day prior, instead of replacing them.
The issue here is that little misses in this area make you question the cleanliness that you canโt see.
Accessibility: 10/10
The resort absolutely excelled at accessibility. My husbandโs parents have difficulty with long walks and steps, and the resort went out of their way to make sure they got placed close to the Adults pool, and always had buggies whenever needed. When walking back from the buffet, staff would stop them and offer to carry their plates. The staff always went out of their way to make sure they were comfortable and got assistance.
I really appreciated how much they cared for this, and if it were not for the issues we had, would have absolutely made the stay.
I can easily contrast this with the Fairmont where we went to dinner the last day at Browns. At the Fairmont they just vaguely pointed and said โgo thereโ for the restaurant that was quite far from the entrance. If that were at the Rosewood Kona Village, a buggy would have been summoned and they would have been taken there without a need to walk.
Spa: 5/10
This one is odd: we did two treatments:
The Mahina Ritual: this was absolutely fantastic. Great value at $1,200 for about 2.5 hours of time at the spa for my husband and myself. If it were only for this one, easy 10/10.
The treatment started with full private access to the cold plunge, hot tub, steam room, sauna. They tactfully knocked and made some noise so we would know when they would come in. It was followed by a wonderful 60 minute outdoor massage. I had a male masseuse I liked (his treatment was great, although bedside manner was oddly lacking, and I tend to prefer a more โroughโ and โdeepโ massage), and my husband had a female masseuse he liked.
This was followed by an hour in a lounge with total privacy and a hot tub, two large desserts, champagne, cheese board, and hummus.
This was ended by a gift from the spa of some sleep time face creams.
Based on this we were quite looking forward to the hot stone we were to end our trip with.
I requested with our butler to have the same masseuses, and she confirmed it had already been requested, but my husband would have a different one as the primary was off on Friday. This would have been fine, however, when we got there it turns out they swapped our masseuses. I ended up with the female and he ended up with the male.
We couldnโt even point this out to them and have them correct it, as my masseuse came first and separated us, despite the fact we thought we booked a couples treatment room. (I assumed there was a last minute schedule change which is why I didnโt say anything on the maleโ>female swap)
My husband absolutely hated his masseuse. There were both major and minor issues:
Minor: The guy did some weird things such as not covering my husbands eyes while he was face up, not taking the robe down for him at the end, and not taking the leg support out when flipped over(so his legs had to be at a weird and very uncomfortable angle).
Major: His hands were quite rough, which while I actually liked in my treatment, my husband absolutely disliked immensely. He felt the treatment was very chaotic and poorly done. He told me as we were leaving the spa he had seriously contemplated asking the guy to just stop and end the massage half way through. He only didnโt do this as he dislikes confrontation.
My masseuse wasnโt great for me either.
I prefer a very deep massage, and she couldnโt keep up with the pressure. She asked me three times if it was good, each time I told her to go deeper. She would go deeper for maybe 30 seconds, but then go lighter again. She also seemed to only use the hot stones about half a dozen times over 90 minutes, whereas my husbandโs masseuse used it constantly.
When we left the treatments and went into the changing room, one of the towel bins was overflowing, and the showers all had dirty towels in them.
One last note: I did forget my wallet in the locker there. They handled that wonderfully by calling about 15 minutes later and offering to either bring it to the Browns Beach House we were headed to after the treatment (at the Fairmont, 30 minutes away), or bringing it to my room. This was a surprise, and appreciated.
Make-good effort:
It was quite clear from the moment I met with Daniel that he wanted to fix this situation. The problem is, my first interaction with a fix he provided was the room move they did for us (to fix the hanging bed issue). This may have been the worst room move I have ever had. It made the rest of the trip a bit chaotic when needing to find anything.
Given the volume of hotels Iโve stayed at, Iโve had occasional mechanical issues resulting in a move need, or split stays for different room types. Any luxury place Iโve been to will move everything as close to identical as possible. So it feels like we never moved.
Here? They took everything off the hangers, and from the drawers, and threw it haphazardly either into our suitcases or laundry bags. They also forgot our sponge, snacks, and a few other odds and ends.
When I told Daniel about this, to his credit, it was clear he was appalled and mentioned the proper procedure is for them to take photos of each and every drawer, and move everything identical, then compare photos to ensure nothing is missed.
We ended up living out of a suitcase for our last couple days post the move, as we really didnโt want to waste time reorganizing everything again. From this we were never able to โfullyโ relax, despite the hanging bed finally working(which I loved and used each day). Having our room be a disaster was quite frustrating, but at this point we only had a couple of nights left and were too frustrated to re unpack or deal with the heavily wrinkled clothes.
They also did not move our extra pillows over to the new room. We had to call to get extra pillows again. This was a bit frustrating for my Husband who had just found the right combination of pillows in the other room to be comfortable. The hotels standard down pillows seem to essentially collapse into nothing throughout the night and you have to stack multiple pillows together to get any height. Iโm hoping over time they will have something like the pillow menu at Las Ventanas.
Aside from that, it was clear he had made the various directors aware of the concerns, as many came out to speak to us to try to ensure problems either didnโt exist or were rectified quickly.
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Chef Robert, for instance, the head of the culinary program; made us a wonderful over the top breakfast. It was quite tasty and well done.
Oddly he insisted our lunch would be on him that day and he would โtake careโ of making it special, so I texted him what we wanted around lunch time and he came over right away to talk to us. That was amazing, butโฆ.we got served cold food, they forgot our dessert, they forgot to bring the extra ketchup when we asked for it, and we were charged for it as well (which would have been fine, as we did order the food, and would happily pay for what we order, but he told us we wouldnโt be charged that day).
On departure he had continental breakfast kits made up for us, which was also a nice touch.
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The spa manager spoke with us before our treatment and wanted to make us sure he would make it special, and for the first treatment they really knocked that out of the park (see that section for details). The second left a bit to be desired.
As mentioned in that section though, he made quite a generous offer when I forgot my wallet in the changing room.
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Mariajose (the hotel director) met with us several times, and was exceptionally friendly and helpful as well.
They also proactively tried some options to make it right on the bill as well. And made it clear they want to fix these issues and this shouldnโt be the standard of the property long term.
As I mentioned at the opening, Daniel (GM) made it quite clear that he knows he has work to do and is up for the challenge. Itโs just that Iโm unsure how long this will ultimately take, as itโs a continual learning experience.
As a note: he made it clear he wants guests speaking up if they notice something, as for every one guest that says something: a bunch will just not say anything about the same issue, but either never come back or write off the brand entirely.
Overall, Rosewood Kona Village has a fantastic hard product. The architecture is wonderful and it really feels like a little island resort reminiscent of some we have been to in the Maldives but on a bigger scale (and only a 5 hour flight from home!). The service and the pool and restaurants are pretty good as is the lunch and dinner food. I have no doubts that with time and with the new GM at the helm this will turn into a must visit property for luxury travelers. Itโs just that, that time is not yet here.
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