Fairmont Kea Lani, Maui — Hotel in Maui

Good property, but not 5-star service

I booked the Fairmont as a splurge trip as part of my proposal to my now fiance. The property is high quality and the staff members are all very nice, but I felt like at every turn things were handled with a tiny bit of incompetence or weren't up to our expectations. Here are a few specific examples:

When I booked a couples massage spa treatment, I was told that if I upgraded from a 60 min massage to a 90 min massage I would get a cabana for the day. This is a $200 upgrade (more including tip). The cabanas that they provide are just giant tents over pool chairs (aka basically glorified umbrellas). At the Westin in Lahaina the cabanas are sofas + day beds, table, TV, and a mini fridge. It's a significantly upgraded experience over the free pool chairs provided for all guests. At the very least I thought I was booking a day bed. Then when we went to check in for the cabana, they took me over to a pool where there was a ton of construction and jackhammering happening in the rooms nearby. I was told about the construction so that didn't phase me, but it was awkward to be offered a cabana in such a noisy area and have to request to move it. Naturally the pool was totally empty because no one else wanted to be in the area of the hotel either. They were very accommodating, but if that area of the hotel is so loud, I would advise against setting up guests there.

I mentioned to the staff that it was our engagement trip and I booked a deluxe ocean view room. I was given a room on the 2nd floor, even after checking in at 6am to try to ensure that we might get the nicest available room in our tier. Other reviews online mention rooms on the 3rd floor or above are better, as the 2nd floor rooms are partially blocked by the trees. When I came back later in the day, it turned out that I wasn't checked in properly and they had to take my card a second time for incidentals.

I had told the front desk in person when I checked in that the hotel stay was a surprise for my girlfriend, and asked that they give her access to the pool before check-in (as is inline with their policy) just without mentioning the reservation (I told her I booked her a day pass). When she arrived, they told her they didn't see our reservation, and I had to come over to the hotel and talk to them to fix it. Eventually they were able to make it work, but I had specifically come by earlier in the day to talk to them to ensure that this wouldn't happen. This could have ruined the surprise I had planned for her.

We had booked a group dinner at the hotel restaurant Ko for our engagement party, and had coordinated with the concierge and hotel staff to have appetizers ready for us as soon as the party arrived at 7pm. We arrived promptly at 7pm as we had promised, and appetizers weren't on the table for another 20-30 minutes. It then took them another 10-15 minutes or so to come get our drink orders. When we discussed it with them, they had a whole print out of the various requests that we had made, the pre-ordered appetizers, etc, just for some reason they didn't act on any of them. Even getting in touch with the food and beverage coordinator took multiple phone calls on multiple days, while also leaving phone messages and getting told to contact various different departments of the hotel (none of whom ever picked up the phone). Eventually I had to email them. Again, very nice over email, but frustrating to get in contact with.

Having all the requests in hand/in the system, but just doing nothing about it seemed to be consistent with the experience of hotel. Being very attentive and nice in taking the request, and then just not seeing it fulfilled properly. I would rather that they communicate that things aren't possible rather than taking the request happily and then doing nothing. Overall I would say it's a beautiful property, but I just didn't think the service was commensurate with the price...

We stayed at the Fairmont Kea Lani - Maui during our belated honeymoon. Our stay was nothing short of amazing. Everything about the hotel experience surpassed our expectation. The property is beautiful. This includes the hotel entrance wrapped around a beautiful grove of tall trees, the landscaped pond near the entrance to Nick's Fish Market (we saw a black-crowned night heron nab a fish on two different occasions), and the private beach abutting the Channel.

The private beach in particular merits special mention. It is very easy to rent beach chairs and an umbrella (do so as close to 8AM local time when it opens), which makes the morning sunshine more enjoyable. Make sure to hit the beach early in the day. It is usually sunnier then and also less windy. It tends to be a little cloudier and more windy in the afternoon, and if the wind hits a particular speed, then the staff must take down the rented umbrellas.

The pools are also great, and the Fairmont has three to choose from. The "main" pool is centrally located and tends to be for families/children, but the property also has an "adults only" pool for anyone who wants to enjoy a little more peace and quiet. Do not miss the third pool, which is elevated above the "main" pool and houses a swim-up bar and the AMA Grill. You can rent a cabana at any one of the pools, but, in our experience (couple with no children), the best thing to do is to find a spot on the grassy area behind the "main" pool on the way to the ocean. The views of the ocean and the hotel landscaping are better than the pool views by a long shot, and the area is tucked out of the wind so the umbrellas stay up longer into the afternoon.

The restaurants and dining are excellent. We booked our trip through Costco (which we recommend strongly), and, as part of our package, we received free breakfast each day at the hotel's breakfast buffet (saving roughly $40-$60 per-person-per-day). The buffet has an array of fresh fruits, pre-prepared small containers of overnight oats/yogurt with fruit, hot breakfast stations (eggs, bacon, potatoes, etc.), cold breakfast stations (oatmeal and fixings, etc.), and much more. It also has an amazing omelette station where a chef makes a personalized omelette for you. The other restaurants are very good. We enjoyed Nick's Fish Market the most, but Ko is also top-notch if you enjoy fine dining. We did not get a chance to go Pilina (our fault!).

The hotel's location should not be overlooked. If you enjoy walking, running, or the outdoors, then you can take the Wailea Beach Path, which starts at the Fairmont, a few miles to the north for some exercise. The path itself is beautiful. If you walk in the morning or afternoon (at low/high tide?), then you are almost guaranteed to see several sea turtles swimming in the waters along the beaches, and you will probably even see a sea turtle relaxing on the beach in the sun. We saw several during our stay. The Path also passes several other hotels/villas in Wailea, making for easy travel to other restaurants (we loved Ferraro's at the Four Seasons) and activities (Te Au Moana Luau is an absolute must). The best part is that the Fairmont is tucked away near the south end of the path, making it feel the most private of all of the hotels.

We could go on and on about the hotel services, which were top-notch, the friendly and polite staff, or any number of other good things about the hotel (the drier on our floor dried our clothes faster than our drier at home). If you are thinking about staying in Wailea/Maui, then you cannot go wrong with the...

This 5 star hotel boast its properties, and amenities only for you to realized you paid $500-$2000 a night to be nickle and dime your whole vacation. It is just not worth paying that price to not have food included at any point in your stay, and extremely high prices with food at that. A decent breakfast will costs you over $23 dollars. Any side you ask for is $8 dollars which is ridiculous, and 1 cup of tea $7 bucks! I could have easily gone to another hotel and received breakfast with my stay. Want to have a drink at night? Well that rum and coke is going to run you $11 dollars and if you like long island ice tea expect to pay $16 bucks. Better to go to the store and buy your bottle for that same price.

Hotel Kea Lani includes so called amenities or activities that are not even really free. You can use the boogie board for an hour for $9 dollars or all day for a little over $20 bucks. What they fail to tell you is that their beach is riddled with rocks and you cant boogie board there. Most of the guest were walking to the beach of the other hotel which had no rocks. More ideal for using the boogie board if you wanted to use it. You pay and rent EVERYTHING at this hotel despite you having paid for your stay. In our case a little over $600 a night just to be told you have to rent this or pay for that. Snorkeling was free but only once again for an hour. Same with using the canoe. Even the so called "complimentary photo shoot" is NOT really complimentary. Yea sure they will take your picture, but you must pay $400 bucks for the photos. Might as well have another guest at the resort take your photo on the beach no different.

As if the price gouging for food, and just plain existing at the hotel isn't bad enough trying to get food to come to you from outside of the resort is no easier. The hotel will supply you with a list of restaurants that can deliver through a site called Hopper Maui. This is a company similar to uber eats, however they are awful and once again, overpriced.

Calling outside restaurants to deliver at the hotel is a pain because the representatives are not very kind to the delivery people forcing them to come around back or some obscure entrance to deliver you food instead of just allowing them to come to the front desk. Its a wide open space, and it is never so busy that they can't get out and drop off food to that area taking less than 5 minutes of time. Our delivery person explained that representatives at the hotel aren't very kind and people don't like to come to deliver food there.

This is not the first time this hotel has been had guest try to urge change from them. It appears that management care more about lining their pockets than making their resort really worth while for individuals who are willing to dish out the amount it cost to stay here. I am very disappointed that my first 5 start hotel stay was at the hotel kea lani. I will not recommend this location to anyone. If you are paying almost $1000 dollars a night you really should be getting free breakfast and other complimentary things that are actually FREE during you stay. At this point I have no idea what I paid for while staying here. Why my room cost so much only to pay additional for EVERYTHING there made no...