OUTRIGGER Kona Resort & Spa — Hotel in Hawaii

We stayed here May 7-14 with another couple. Overall I’d say the Outrigger Kona is more of a value resort hotel versus a true “luxury” hotel as they market themselves. Hence they had large tour groups here as well as a blend of seniors and young families. Nothing wrong with either of those things — just an observation since we stayed at places like this when we had young children but it’s not ideal for a couples anniversary or honeymoon in my opinion. Especially given the lack of a good restaurant and bar. Here are my pros/cons. ||Pros:|- The property faces west so you can see amazing sunsets from the poolside or balcony |- Lush grounds with tropical trees and flowers everywhere|- Nice large pool with a water slide and a sandy shallow area for kids. At 1pm they do a waterslide contest where fastest person down gets a trophy|- Live music each night at poolside bar — mainly a person on a guitar singing and they were good/enjoyable|- They recently remodeled the rooms and common areas - new tile, wood, paint, carpet, decor, etc. |- They are located right next door (walking distance) to the place (unaffiliated with the hotel) for snorkeling with the Manta Rays and getting the boats to go snorkeling down the coast|- While not part of this hotel review the Manta swim is one of the coolest things we’ve ever done on vacation. It’s at night and they use a light to illuminate the plankton and draw in the mantas for natural feeding. It gets my highest recommendation. There are several outfits but the best is Sea Quest. |- They have a good quantity and quality of activities - Yoga facing the ocean, Lei making, cultural walk, Ukulele playing, etc. The woman Nani who ran them was wonderful. |- Several of the staff were delightful - especially Mike the bartender at the pool bar and Mansoor and Jade the servers at the pool (Mgmt, you need to give them raises)|- The drinks were reasonably priced (reasonable for a Hawaii hotel that is)||Cons:|- It is an older property (guessing built in the 70s?). It looks pretty well kept up and as mentioned above they remodeled much of the hotel, but that said they didn’t address the main structure where you can see chips and cracks in the stucco that has simply been painted over (see pic)|- The adult pool is in the middle of the hotel next to the restaurant and main walk way so it’s not very quiet and there is no view of the ocean. The main pool faces the ocean and is quite large but is also very busy with kids yelling/splashing |- There is only one restaurant/bar and it’s located in the interior of the resort (see picture). It’s more like a breakfast place but is also the dinner restaurant at night. The food is okay (just okay) so we drove to Kailua-Kona (15 mins) to get most of our dinners. Similarly the bar is located in the main dining area and also serves as the place you get coffee and order to-go food. It has a few high top tables facing the diners so the vibe isn’t great. So the dining/bar scene could be better. Speaking of that, the hotel has a great dedicated restaurant/bar area facing the ocean/sunset but it is not in operation. According to staff the hotel did a deal with Dukes to open a place there but it’s been years and no progress has been made on getting it built/opened. That’s a shame since it would be one of the coolest happy hour spots on the island if it was open. |- As I mentioned in the “pros” section some of the staff is great, but the problem is they are short-handed so there are times when service can get overwhelmed. For example on Saturday night at the restaurant/bar they didn’t have enough staff so they were not seating people despite many tables being open — hence there was a long wait with people milling about|- It’s a minor thing but a to-go coffee is $8 and there are no free refills — that’s the hotel putting profit above guest experience and not right for a “luxury” hotel as they market themselves|- Speaking of guest experience that is not luxury level, they make you turn in a special plastic key in order to get a thin pool towel and then you have to return the towels to them to get your key back. You have to have that key at checkout or you get charged. That’s not the type of experience in a true luxury hotel. |- They offer a Luau two nights a week (it’s run by an outside company). My wife enjoyed it so this could go up on the “pros” list but since I’m writing the review I’m putting it as a “con” with the reason being that they tricked it up too much beyond the traditional things. They started with the story and dances of the early Hawaiians but then quickly moved ahead to the flapper era and then had a section celebrating the firemen of the island - clearly just for the guys to take off their jackets and flex for the ladies in the audience. They end with a fire dancer who was excellent but just one guy versus other Luaus we have done on Maui with a whole bunch of fire dancers. |- Another minor but annoying thing was the WiFi kept dropping out so 8X a day you’d have to reenter your name and room number in the pop-up in order to reconnect. Not the end of the world of course but not typical for most hotels where you enter your details once and remain connected...

First problem, our room was not ready at 3pm. Second problem, when we got to the room my children went to bathe and there was someone else’s beverage behind the bathroom door. I have a 3 year old and she ALMOST DRANK IT! There was also someone else’s salad and chip dip in our refrigerator. I did not pay and wait around because the room wasn’t ready just for it to still be dirty. I called the front desk to complain and your staff assured me that it would be cleaned in the morning. I told them we would be gone by 9am for a soccer game. When we returned to our room at around 5pm, our beds were made and we had fresh towels. The beverage and food items that I complained about were still in our room. Your housekeeping staff did not do their job correctly once again. I went to the lobby and spoke with the front desk to complain. She spoke with the housekeeping manager and said someone would go to our room to clean it. She gave us a $75 meal voucher, a late check out, and said she would “comp our parking fee”. When we returned to our room from the pool later that night, the beverage and food items were still there!!!!! Third problem, At the pool, your female security guard got a complaint about kids going down the slide and jumping off the rocks by the slide. We were sitting to the right of the slide. She was checking wristbands and talking to another family across of us by the jacuzzi. Our first encounter with her was when my 3 year old CHILD was jumping from the edge of the pool and she yelled “hey don’t do that, stop that right now!”. The WHOLE pool could hear her, that’s how loud she yelled at my child. Another hotel guest that we were at the pool with asked “what do they need to stop? They can’t jump?”. Still from across the pool she said “no they can’t be jumping from the ledge of the pool”. We replied, we always jump and no one ever has a problem with it. It also says, no diving, not no jumping. She then walked over to my husband to ask for his wrist band, he showed it to her. Then, she pointed her finger in his face asking if we had outside alcoholic beverages. I asked her to repeat her question, she then turned to me and asked are you drinking an outside beverage because that’s not allowed. I told her no we are not, then she walked away. And then walked over to the other hotel guest that was asking about jumping and said there’s no jumping allowed and there’s signs that state that. We asked her to show us one and she replied, you can find it yourself. I told her she didn’t need to be rude about it and she should have management post signs that say no jumping and no diving. She walked away. As the night went on, she returned to the pool. My son was trying to retrieve the ball from the pool with a pool noodle. The ball drifted so he went on the rock wall by the slide. He got down because he retrieved the ball and the same security guard walked quickly to my child in retaliation from the previous incident and pointed in his face while scolding him. I said “you don’t need to be rude and you don’t need to be in his face”. She ignored me and other hotel guest tried to tell her he was trying to grab the ball. I stood up and walked over and told her to not talk to my child like that, he was trying to get the ball. She then looked up at me and said “well he can go in the water to grab it”. So I told her he’s done swimming and she shouldn’t be coming at my child like that. Then she started ACCUSING our children about going down the slide and jumping off. I told her that was not our kids, go check everyone else because it was not us. She replied “we have cameras and my manager saw you guys”. I told her to check them again because it was not our kids. She then said “my manager said I can shut down the whole pool” so we replied shut it down then. She walked away. Things got so heated and it was so unprofessional, it was ridiculous!!!! I wish there...

IN SHORT: By far the most disappointing hotel experience of my life. Food poisoning! Also: run-down, understaffed, and deceptive in their advertising.

Food Poisoning Within 24 hours of arrival, my girlfriend ate a chicken sandwich from the pool bar and immediately became sick. Halfway through, she felt ill and had to leave. 20 minutes later, she was violently ill. We had eaten the same food prior to this meal (including in Mexico City—zero issues), and a physician confirmed it was food poisoning. She has been bedridden and unable to keep down food for days. This ruined our one trip of the year—we had to cancel everything and spend our time in bed instead of enjoying our vacation. We also avoided all food at the hotel after this, which created additional logistical burdens. If you value your health or your time off, do not stay here.

Misleading Advertising We upgraded to an “Oceanfront” room, advertised as “the best views in the house.” The photo on the site showed serene palm trees and the ocean. In reality, we were directly over the children’s pool, with screaming kids and drunken adults as our daily soundtrack. No breaking waves, no peace, and no disclosure during booking. This was absolutely not an “oceanfront” experience as commonly understood. If anything, this was worse than the “partial ocean view” tier we actively paid to avoid. There’s a strong argument that this is deceptive under Hawaii consumer protection law.

And by the way, there is no spa. Despite being named “Outrigger Kona Resort & Spa,” the property does not offer massages, facials, or any spa services whatsoever. That’s like booking a steakhouse and being told they don’t serve food. Total bait and switch.

Poor Staffing, Safety, and Cleanliness This is not a four-star resort. It’s grossly understaffed, with indifferent service and long wait times. At the pool, we were never approached for food or drink service. Everything took an hour. Orders had to be picked up manually. Staff seemed overwhelmed or disengaged.

One horrifying example: while ordering drinks before dinner, a woman who had already been denied alcohol (due to a prior stair-related incident) was seated next to my girlfriend. She attempted to convince another guest to buy her a drink, was refused, then urinated through her dress while seated next to us. The urine got on my girlfriend’s new dress. We alerted the staff. They laughed and said they were off soon. No cleanup. The woman then walked into the resort store and bought a pack of mini shooters—still visibly soaked in urine. We later learned she had passed out on stairs earlier that day and smashed a bottle. The staff didn’t intervene or stop her from continuing to drink.

If something had happened to her, the hotel would’ve faced serious legal liability. It was surreal—a frat house would’ve handled this better. By the time we passed her again, she was halfway through her shooters, sitting on another public chair. We avoided that area for the rest of our trip.

Other Issues • Pool bar closes at 7pm; restaurant soon after. No room service. Resort is isolated, so this is a major hassle. • We paid $30/day to self-park far from the lobby, despite an empty valet circle. During events, parking was chaotic. • Layout is inconvenient—long walks from rooms to pools, which is especially bad when sick. • Towel desk staff were slow and unprofessional. Bar staff rarely smiled or acknowledged guests.

Pros? The manta rays are nearby, and the farmers market was cute. Lobby has a spectacular view. Our room was decently furnished—good, because we were stuck in it.

BOTTOM LINE: This place coasts on name recognition and stunning lobby views. But if you’re hoping for a stress-free, comfortable, or even safe experience,...