Royal Kona Resort reviews
5519 TripAdvisor reviews
Bumpy start but great stay
Chris H on Feb 08, 2025
We had a great time staying at the Royal Kona. The welcome was very cold as the hostess checking us in had an attitude but the rest of the stay was top notch!! The mai Tais were amazing as well as the rest of the staff! Its a very clean hotel and we plan to go back.
OK - But The Beds Are VERY HARD to sleep on!
Engineer_Lou (Las Vegas, NV) on Feb 07, 2025
We stayed here January 22-29, 2025 - Partial Ocean View Room 546. It is one of our Favorite Hotels to stay at, except for the room renovations made during COVID. They took out the most comfortable beds in the rooms. The renovations to the rooms was a downgrade from the rooms furnishings and beds from the previous years. This was a VERY CHEAP Renovation to all the hotel rooms. The cheap renovation took out the Full Length Mirror, End Table Lamps and Large dresser drawers in the rooms. The lighting in the bed headboard for the room is inadequate on both sides of the bed. CHEAP replacements for table lamps! The beds are now very low to the ground, no box bedspring and the mattress installed is very hard to sleep on. We requested a Mattress Topper, which was a large foam cover they put on top of the mattress. This helped but nothing to write home about as a helper. My back was sore after 2 nights sleeping on this bed. I asked the front desk if they had rooms with better mattresses and they told me that ALL the rooms have the same mattresses when they replaced them during the renovation. The Hotel rooms were a 3.5 rating in the past prior to the renovation. I can't say they are more than a 2.5 after the recent room renovations. The best thing they can do to make an improvement is to Replace ALL The Bed Mattress in all of the rooms. They have renovation work going on on the outside of the Lagoon Tower right now from 9am-4pm. The jack hammering of the concrete outside vibrates into the rooms so loud, you have to turn up the TV to almost MAX VOLUME to hear anything. Best to do something away from the rooms in the Lagoon Tower. There was a large Ocean Surge around the beginning of January, 2025 that took out all the sand from the Lagoon Beach. The Lagoon is closed and they told us that they need to make major repairs to the wall before bringing back new sand. So your only swimming available is in the hotel pool. They have put more security in place to keep out locals and outside visitors from using the pool area. The pool area is open for Hotel Guests ONLY! They still have not reopened the hotel restaurant they closed during COVID-19. The only food available is in the open bar area and reservations are required for seating now. You can make a reservation ahead as a Hotel Guest. Otherwise you go down to the restaurant bar and check-in for the next available table. There is Live music on Thursdays and Saturdays 5pm-7pm. Table reservations book up quickly. There are Reserved Tables for the musicians guests and Groupies all the time. So seating is very limited for those showing up at 4pm. Henry Kapono, a major recording musician, plays here on the 3rd Thursday of the month. We try to schedule our stay to see him at the hotel when we come. They have a Luau at the hotel 4 times a week and we found it to be very expensive to attend. Currently it's $189 per person and $230 for VIP Seating up front. It's an easy walk from the resort to the local restaurants and the ABC Store for gifts. There is a resort fee of $30 per day and it does not include parking fees. Overall, the hotel grounds are kept up and clean. The only major downside is the beds for sleeping comfort during your stay. If I were paying the over $300 per night rate, I would definitely look elsewhere for accommodations. I sent in my Hotel Review Comments asking for some compensation and the Hotel passed them on to someone else for possible reply. I never heard back for over 2 weeks now. I'm not holding my breath for a reply. A lack of Customer Service!
Place needs lots of help!!!!!
Ken B on Feb 02, 2025
Place is in need of alot of help.Very old and antiquated.Some staff members were rude.Did not get the bedding choice I booked.Have stayed all over the world and have never seen such a high late check out rate or no guest computers. Need to have more choices at restaurant.Parking rate is high!!
Hot Mess
Sonia T (Calgary, Canada) on Feb 01, 2025
We stayed here for one night before heading to our VRBO. We have tracked the world and have never felt so unwelcome before in our lives. I will say though that the front desk ladies were very nice and helpful. Karen at the pool screaming at us asking if we go to the hotel. Asking us for a hotel key. Another male pool attendant 15 min later asking us if we are staying at the hotel. Asking us for a room key again. Bartender very rude and rolled his eyes at us when we asked for our complimentary Mai Thai. Told us to go to the other bar and also asked us if we were staying here. He said you need a voucher which I didn’t know was with the room keys in the sleeve. Basically told us to go away. It was like we were bothering him. Smelly wet carpet in the hallways which in the morning was sprayed with fake gross smell to mask it. Plugged/clogged bathtub drain with a 5 min shower. Standing in a foot of water….so gross. See picture. The aftermath was even more disgusting. Construction noise starting at 8:45 am, after they changed our reservation from the lagoon room that was being renovated on. Is it because of our age? Or because my husband is brown? Neither of us slept because we were so upset and distraught at how we were treated. The location seems good but then you walk past the homeless people to get to the touristy overpriced restaurants. I recommend staying no where near here. The manager refunded us our parking and resort fee was not charged. He said he would talk to Expedia about refunding our money however that never happened. Expedia said they couldn’t get a hold of him.
Good Location
Vinayakbs (Jakarta, Indonesia) on Jan 27, 2025
Well located on the beach and close proximity to commercial area of the Island. Good restaurants are in walking distance and plenty of options. I stayed in Bay tower on the sea front and the rooms were old but clean and comfortable. Al carte breakfast is standard and nothing to complain.