The Outrigger Kona Resort & Spa

Really nice hotel and lovely layout with the pools (admit pool is separate from kids area) but all very nice. We didn’t get a very warm welcome at the reception compared to some other Hawaiian hotels we stayed at which was a shame. It would have just made it a little more personal but this is a great hotel. The spa was closed for renovations while we were there. Read less

Bad review IN SHORT: By far, the most disappointing hotel experience of my life, having been at five star properties and shot-up motels Food poisoning! Also: Run-down, understaffed, and deceptive in their advertising. My issues, in order of decreasing importance: 1. Food Poisoning Within 24 hours of arriving, my girlfriend ordered a chicken sandwich from the pool bar and immediately became sick. Halfway through the sandwich she felt extremely sick and immediately had to return to our room (quite a walk from the pool, by the way). Within 20 minutes, she was extremely ill. I ate the fish tacos (pretty good), and we had shared all of our food in Kona prior to this experience, so this was 100% the chicken sandwich. She was also diagnosed as suffering from food poisoning by a physician - this was NOT an alcohol issue. Our last trip was to Mexico City, and we had zero issues there despite the rep for GI issues and heavy drinking, so it is shocking to have this happen at a four star resort in Hawaii. We are on day three of our stay and she is still unable to keep down any food. This was the most serious issue because it has ruined our one vacation per year - we had to cancel all of our excursions last minute and eat the costs, and she has been trapped in bed and too exhausted to enjoy herself for much of that time. She is on break from law school and I am between jobs and about to start a stressful new position - this was our trip for the year, one I worked hard to pay for, and it has been defined by this issue. If you value your time off work, or the health and well-being of your family, do not stay here. We were also too scared to eat here after this incident, so this burdened us with the additional inconvenience of planning all of our meals off the report. 2. Misleading Advertising Hoping for a special time together to end our trip, we looked at the various room options at the Outrigger. Resort View, Partial Ocean View - nope. Next up is Ocean View - but what if we upgraded to the Oceanfront? Given that this was an expensive upgrade over the Ocean View, advertised with a tranquil shot of palm trees and the water from the balcony, we assumed that the “Oceanfront” room would be private, romantic, and actually ocean front - that is, fronted directly on the ocean. After all, on the website, the room copy reads ““Enjoy the best views in the house with this spacious, ocean front retreat.” To our total surprise, and without it having been advertised or disclaimed during the booking process, our balcony actually overlooked the CHILDREN’S POOL AREA, with the ocean only visible past the pool deck (meaning, no breaking waves). Instead of the soothing sound of the tide, our couple time on our balcony was overwhelmed by the sounds of screaming kids and misbehaving adults. I cannot imagine a world where the common understanding of “ocean front” implies a view of a noisy pool area filled with obnoxious drunken guests (more about this later) yelling and partying far after the supposed 10pm closure of that area. We even hedged for this by not booking the regular Ocean View room, having ran into this kind of shady advertising before, but we never would have thought that the premier non-Club room would be so disappointing. Utterly deceptive advertising, and possibly illegal under HRS § 480-2/§ 481A-3. Also: NO SPA HERE. As part of this point, and perhaps equally as ridiculous - I was foolishly looking forward to getting a massage for myself and a mani/pedi for my girlfriend after spending our preceding time in the national park. How naive of me to assume that the Outrigger Kona Resort & SPA would have a SPA or even offer spa services if any sort. It’s like going to a restaurant and finding out they don’t sell food. Joke’s on you. 3. Poor Staffing and Food Options Frankly, I am shocked that this is considered a four star resort, and am confident that they are coasting on prior reputation to maintain that designation. The staffing here, simply, is abysmal. They are clearly short staffed, and this is reflected in the service of you as a guest. I am NOT high maintenance, and I much prefer to write positive reviews - I have worked service jobs, and am happy to read my book and wait when people are busy. But I must note that we were never approached by any staff (usually just a single person that we ever saw) while at the pool to ask if we wanted to order drinks or food (again, please do not eat the pool food), something that has never happened to me at this type of resort. Food took forever (up to an hour) at the pool bar and, again, possibly due to short staffing, we think that safety practices have slipped. Orders did not come to our chairs - we had to wait at the bar. All of the staff seemed uninterested and checked out, and a few we spoke to noted issues with staffing. Towel check and rental staff were super slow and unprofessional; I get that they’re young, but even at my youthful-laziest I made sure to attend to customers before I went back to flirting with my coworkers. There is one really egregious incident which I think is representative of these issues: while grabbing a drink and a water at the pool bar before sunset and a later date night we had dressed up for, we overheard a woman being denied service of more alcohol due to an earlier incident on the stairs. A few minutes later, the woman sat down next to my girlfriend and tried to get the man next to her to buy a drink for her, which the bartender astutely also refused. After the woman was denied again, I heard a splattering sound from her bar stool, and when I looked down and saw the puddle on the ground the smell of urine hit me. This woman had pissed herself, through her dress. We later realized that the urine got on my girlfriend’s brand new dress as well - disgusting! We alerted staff to the fact that the chair next to us was soaked in urine (thinking they may want to remove it from use so nobody else got urine on their clothes), but they laughed and said they’d be off in 20 minutes anyway. To my knowledge, nothing was done about the chair. We later learned that the woman had passed out drunk on the stairs that morning and smashed a bottle of vodka, but that attempts to reach the manager about her continued attempts to get more drinks were met with silence. We watched this woman leave the bar, go upstairs to the resort store and walk out with a pack of shooters despite being literally soaked in her own urine. If this was a well run hotel, this NEVER would have been allowed to happen, and if she was seriously injured or died during her stay, her family would have significant grounds for lawsuit on the basis of her continued access to alcohol. Really shocking, both in how it shattered the illusion of the hotel caring about their guests (it’s an illusion, but one I paid $350 a night to at least see attempted), and also on the level of management being so poor that enormous liabilities are allowed to spiral out of control like this. A frat house would have taken better care of this woman than I saw the hotel doing. By the time we walked by her again 10 minutes later after stopping by our room, she was halfway done with her pack. No clue what happened to her, but we will not be sitting on the couch she was on for the rest of our stay. Additional problems include: Bars and food closing too early - pool bar closes at 7(!!!) and restaurant shortly thereafter. Not that you should eat there, but this resort is far from any restaurant areas, so the lack of late night options is an issue. Also, no room service, in a four star resort! Parking - lot is quite far from the hotel, despite a totally empty valet area adjacent to the lobby. We paid $30 a day to self-park, and were surprised to return one day and find that this lot also served as event parking, after which there was so much traffic that it took us 20 minutes to park. Resort layout - we had to walk quite far from the pool to our room in wing 3, especially when you have to throw up after eating the food there. Additional elevators (or even stairs) would make sense. DO NOT SPEND YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY HERE. Pros: walkable to manta rays. Cute stray cats on the grounds, and mongooses. Pleasant farmers market right off the resort some days. Holoholo store is well stocked and has great coffee. Room was nice inside (but we had to spend our whole time here). Lobby is gorgeous and has best view of any lobby I’ve ever seen (maybe they should have put a room there?). Read less

Our anniversary trip to the Big Island was EPIC and the staff at the Outrigger made our stay so enjoyable! The staff was friendly, efficient and professional-from our valets to the check in (who gave us room upgrade) and the voyager 47 club is a must. V47 had a full daily breakfast and host, Randy, can tell you about some great spots to visit. Our happy hour host, Tessa, was amazing and has such a bubbly personality-she put the happy in happy hour as soon as you walk through the door. The food at happy was delicious! Ms. Sharlaine makes the best dish dip-period! Thank you Tessa, Sharlaine and Randy and Outrigger crew-we will definitely come back! Read less