Upgrade trend felt in Hawai'i hotels, too
By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Staff Writer
Many of the hotel room upgrades occurring on the Mainland also are taking place in Hawai'i properties.
Photo courtesy Hilton Hawaii
In addition to decorative pillows, duvets and high-speed Internet access, every room in Hilton properties here will have flat-screen or liquid-crystal-display TVs by this summer. Guests also will soon see Hilton-brand alarm-clock radios that can hook up to iPods and feature buttons for programmed stations offering news and music in Hawaiian, classical and contemporary formats.
An ocean-front room in the Hilton Hawaiian Village's Rainbow Tower now features a flat-screen or liquid-crystal-display television and soon may have an alarm-clock radio that's iPod-friendly.
Hilton also has upgraded bath amenities such as shampoos and lotions from Neutrogena to Crabtree & Evelyn.
Marriott International, which has been renovating its properties in Hawai'i, is phasing in flat-screen TVs and updating room decor with features like new bedding, and modernized lighting and bathroom fixtures. The hotel chain also has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on technology upgrades in Hawai'i, including high-speed Internet access in every guest room and wireless access in public areas and meeting rooms, said Stan Brown, Marriott International's vice president for Pacific Islands and Japan.
Brown acknowledged that such upgrades enable hotels to charge more. But they are an absolute requirement to remain competitive, he said.
"Sure, it helps in the return on your investment that you're making, there's no doubt about that," he said. "But if you don't reinvest ... you wind up running the risk of losing that (consumer) loyalty that we've taken a lot of time to build up."
LCD or plasma TVs will be included in the renovation of the Outrigger Reef on the Beach and the conversion of two Ohana hotels to an Embassy Suites property. High-speed Internet access, and free local and domestic long distance calls, also will be included in those hotels as well as the Outrigger Waikiki.
But modernizing a hotel room's look and feel here doesn't mean scrapping its sense of Old Hawai'i.
For example, rooms at the Hilton Hawaiian Village still will feature Hawaiian art and tropical-print bedding. Rooms in the Sheraton Waikiki and other Starwood Hotels and Resorts properties will have flat-screen TVs and computer work areas while still including Hawaiian accents in artwork and quilts.
The Embassy Suites — expected to be completed late next year — will not only have granite countertops and stainless-steel refrigerators but hula girl lamps and draperies with palm-tree imprints, said Barry Wallace, senior vice president of operations at Outrigger Hotels and Resorts.
"We want them all to know they're in Hawai'i," he said.
Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 535-2470.
