We visited the Outrigger Kona over Memorial Day weekend to celebrate my husband's 40th birthday. We're currently stationed on Oahu for a few years, so this was an easy island-hop for us.
I got lured in to looking at the Outrigger because they were advertising 40% off ocean view rooms on Facebook. After hemming and hawing, I decided to go full-tilt and book the ocean front room because 40 is a big one! I called their military line and spoke with a very helpful agent who helped me book the king oceanfront room for about $1100. I was pretty excited!
Fast forward a few weeks, and my husband and I decided to add the V47 Club access to our reservation. When I called the hotel directly, they quoted me $100 total per day ($50 per person) for 3 days, and this included breakfast as well as a "happy hour" with snacks and drinks each day from 4:30 to 6:30. They emailed me a confirmation showing that we were all set with the club access. This was about 2 weeks prior to our arrival.
Fast forward to check-in. We've arrived rather late on the island, not having had dinner. We're hoping to check in quickly and try to get somewhere that might still have food (we've missed dinner at the hotel already). The woman checking us in says we're all set for the room plus a $250 deposit, for a total of about $1400. I do some quick math and realize our club access is not on the bill. When I asked her about it, she said there was no record of the club access and then tried to charge me a lot more than I was quoted (and more than my email confirmation). We finally got it sorted out but it took a while and, long story short, we ended up at Burger King in Kona for dinner because EVERYWHERE else was closed. Yay.
We finally check out our room and although it's dark, I can immediately tell that we are NOT oceanfront. I check again in the morning and confirm that yes, we have a view out over the pool and the waterslide (see photo). Can you see the ocean? Yes. Are we *ocean front*? Absolutely not. The view is nothing like what was pictured on the Outrigger website for the room. When I inquired about it at the desk, the woman said "yeah, they designated the room as oceanfront when it was built in the 70's", which was unhelpful and didn't really explain anything. Maybe I'm just being a jerk, but I know for a fact that there were oceanfront rooms available because we passed a few with their doors wide open as we wandered the hotel throughout the weekend.
My bill was emailed to me the day we checked out (5/24) and included $30/day for parking, which I had understood was supposed to be included in the club access when we upgraded (maybe I'm wrong, but there's no way to tell, as you will see). I emailed them on 5/26 to inquire about the parking cost and waited to submit our Outrigger review until the 28th or 29th, hoping to have a better experience with response to my bill inquiry. I finally submitted my review online and mentioned how underwhelmed we were with our experience. I did finally get an email response from the manager on the 30th, but it was completely lackluster and did not address our disappointment in the room OR the parking charge issue. I replied to his email to ask (again) about the $30/day for parking and never received a response. So, maybe I misunderstood and parking wasn't included in the club access? It seems we will never know. Shrug.
Overall, the stay was fine- the club access for breakfast and happy hour was okay (not bad, not spectacular) and the room itself was very clean. We slept well. I was just super disappointed that what we got (pool chaos and noise) was not at all what I expected (calm, serene, unobstructed ocean views each morning) and that the hotel staff did not seem to care whatsoever. A highlight was the bartender at Piko after hours, a FABULOUS birthday dinner at La Bourgogne in town, and the nighttime manta ray swim (which we did through Hang Loose tours, and not through Outrigger, and I'm so glad). We enjoyed every minute of the weekend adventures but would not consider returning to Outrigger in the future.
