Kilauea Military Camp — Hotel in Hawaii

This was the first time that we made it back to KMC since our first stay in April 1986. KMC is a military facility for the military family. Rates are based on your choice of unit and pay grade. For a 2-bedroom, 2-bath unit for a retired CWO, the rate was $188 a night.||||Pros: ||You are actually in the Hawaii Volcano National Park, about .5 miles from the NP visitor center. You can actually hike to many of the sites within the park from your cabin.||||It's Military, so if you are, you are with your own. It's also reasonably priced, and I like that for our junior military personnel to be able to afford a vacation spot.||||The Camp has a fitness center, bowling alley, rec center, cafe, lounge, laundry mat, tennis courts, a gas station that gas,( I'm told that the cost per gallon is only .05 cents a gallon more than you will pay in Hilo), volleyball court, general store and other perks. ||||Fresh towels can be had at the front desk by just giving them your old towels. Also, you can get a fresh trash bag everyday. They don't ask for the used bag.||||The cabins are reasonably clean upon arrival.||||Its quiet||||The staff is reasonably polite and accommodating.||||Cons:||The kitchens are sparse. Stove top, oven, microwave, refrigerator, 3-cup coffee maker, toaster, dishes, utensils is what you get. One of the frying pans was an old T-Fall pan that was stuffing off...I wouldn't use it. No blender, no outside gas grill, no cooking oil, no salt & pepper, no paper towels, no tissue boxes, no aluminum foil, and no cleaning supplies other than dish soap. If you want to make frozen pink things to drink, then you'll need to bring a blender with you. If I was staying here for a week or more, I would also just assume that the frying pan will be something you won't want to use, and bring one of those with you as well. ||||Its military. So, you know what that means. This isn't the Outrigger. You get it their way, or you don't get it at all. There are rules...and hours for everything. I think they are short of staff, and I see some of the staff working more than one facility, which you see other hotels do as well.||||The restaurant food is worse than bad. We had the worst toasted cheese sandwich that we have ever had at the snack bar in the bowling alley. There wasn't enough cheese to bait a mouse trap. We also tried the $12.50 breakfast buffet at the Rim Cafe. It wasn't much better, and it resembled the spread at a cheap airport hotel, but not nearly as good as say, a Hampton Inn or a Fairfield. There wasn't even any milk for coffee. All they had were flavored coffee creamers. Dinners are served only on Fridays and Saturdays. I understand they may be better than the breakfasts.||||We lost power for a little over 12 hours one day and lost some food that we had in the freezer. I guess this happens quite a bit. But not to worry, you will still have hot & cold running water should the power go out during your stay.||||Don't even think about trying to check in before 1500. Even if your cabin is ready.||||The cabins are old. KMC turns 100 years old in 2024. They have been updated since 1924, I'm sure several times, but it wasn't the Taj Mahal in 1924, and it's not today. The cabins are on blocks like many old Hawaiian homes. Being on blocks, keeps the cabins cool during the hot afternoon with air circulating underneath, and also some sun shining through the bottom of bath tubs and shower pans early in the morning when the sun is low and shines up through the plastic under the cabins. There's not much support under the tubs and showers...its a little squishy.||||It's very hard to have contact with anyone about your rental before arrival. Calls and emails went unanswered days...

Update* upon bring issues to management's attention, they upgraded us to a better room that was newly renovated. They also provided additional compensation as a way to make things right. Additionally they have pulled the original cabin out of service pending upgrades. Mahalo to the management and staff for the quick resolution. My only remaining concern is that they would place their guests in a cabin like this to start with. Finish Update*

Resolution Needed for Unsatisfactory Accommodations

Severe dissatisfaction with the state of the cabin accommodations provided during my recent stay. The conditions were far below acceptable standards, and need immediate resolution.

Cabin Condition: Furniture: The furniture is extremely old, with cushions so worn that sitting is painful due to the worn out cushions. Stove: The stove is marked with sharpie to indicate burner locations, which is unacceptable. Bathroom: The bathroom is moldy and unsanitary, window locks with a old hook lock.

Kitchen was Unsatisfactory. Oven has sharpie to identify burner location and on and off positions. Dirty dishes in cabinets. Top of fridge was filthy. Food splatters on the celing.

Laundry Facilities: While the washing machines worked, all the dryers were out of order, causing significant inconvenience.

Arcade: The arcade is outdated, with several machines out of order. Additionally, some machines took our quarters, and there was no staff available to assist with refunds.

Dining Options: The Crater Rim Cafe only offers breakfast and lunch, with no dinner options available other than Fridayand Saturday.

Amenities Access: Despite the expectation that this facility is for military members, the amenities were crowded with non-military individuals. We were supposed to receive two complimentary breakfast buffets, but this was not mentioned at check-in. I only discovered this benefit by checking the website looking for contact informationfor these issues.

General store has zero prices marked, doesn't have eggs, and the butter only comes in 8 stick boxes, not ideal for a week stay.

Overall, the quality of these accommodations is extremely disappointing, especially considering the high cost and the fact that they are intended for service members. They are relying on location to get past these shortfalls. They need to address these issues immediately.

Stay at the Volcano house if you can. Similar price and 5 minutes away. Way better accommodations with outstanding...

I’m updating this review. At The Kilauea Military Camp, the food at the cafe was awful and they had barely any good choices for the buffet portion of the cafe but the only good food in the cafe was from the kid's menu. I hated the texture of the food and how it was cooked. The food in the buffet tasted like it was frozen for way to long and finally brough out now to be cooked. When me and my family first arrived in our house/condo it looked like there was blue and green mold on the flooring. We weren't sure if it was mold or not but there were definitely unidentifiable stains all over the flooring and furniture. The TV they were provide looked like a relic from the 1930's and it was very difficult to watch because I am sight challenged. There was an unidentifiable smell in the refrigerator it wasn’t even stocked with anything we had to buy our own food from the market that was inside the compound, and the food inside the market is pretty expensive. It is impossible to see at nighttime I tripped and almost fell at least 5 times because there was barely any lighting on the outside, they only have tiny lanterns Infront of already lit buildings and very little streetlamps and lanterns spread out throughout the property. The pull-out sofa bed was very stiff, and I got scratched at least 10 times on my foot and arm because of my height. The sheets and bed also smelled like crap and when I went to go test out a bed to see if it was more comfortable it was even stiffer than the pull-out sofa bed. The laundry mat had outdated laundry machines and the only thing they had that actually looked nice in the laundry mat was one stainless steel dryer. The recreation area was pretty fun though with the bowling alley, pool, food, and even arcade games. Although the recreation area was pretty nice the Arcade machines were pretty expensive. Some of the arcade machines costed 50 cents just to play, pool costed $1 in quarters, and there was even this truck driving game that didn’t even do anything but steal people’s quarters. I think the only thing I like about this place was the...