After closing in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the seven months until the Royal Lahaina Resort's Oct. 15 reopening were filled with various projects to refresh and update the 27-acre property in West Maui.
The resort improved its sustainability infrastructure while also revamping the lobby, lounge, pool area, restaurant, and guestrooms.
"Once we officially shut down in March, right away we started looking at opportunities to refresh the resort and invest in the product," said Gary Hogan, CEO of Royal Lahaina's parent company, Hogan Hospitality. "I know we're going to come out of this OK. And we were so successful recently, with occupancy running in the low 90s in 2019, when you have occupancy that high it's tough to get into rooms and shut things down when cylinders are firing."
The lobby makeover includes a new ceiling with ipe wood slats, fresh paint, wall coverings and bright accents. The Royal Lahaina's restaurant, which Hogan said will be renamed, now has a remodeled interior dining room, and the changes in the public spaces did more to highlight unobstructed ocean and beach views. Additionally, all of the resort's pathways were repaved.
"We weren't looking at redoing the lobby or restaurants, but when we were forced to close, it was an opportunity to do something different," Hogan said.
The resort's oceanfront swimming pools have been redesigned with blue reflective tiles, while the Royal Lahaina's beachside cottages now feature new furniture, flooring and decor.
The old beige carpet in the 333 guestrooms in the resort tower was replaced with a new, bright Hawaiian pattern featuring dashes of blue, and the existing teak furniture was sanded down and refinished in a makeshift assembly line in the resort ballroom.
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Hogan said furloughing the majority of the 650 employees during the pandemic was one of the toughest things he has ever had to do, so projects like refinishing the furniture in house served as a way to provide work to some of those Royal Lahaina employees while moving forward with improvements.
"We renovated the hotel in 2006, and everyone was doing a Tommy Bahama look at the time. But I wanted something more timeless, and we brought in all teak furniture," Hogan said. "That Tommy Bahama look was out of style four years later, and here we are 15 years on, and our rooms haven't timed out."
To improve the property's environmental footprint, the company is spending $4.5 million to add solar panels and other energy efficiencies. The first phase of the project added solar panels to the rooftops of the Lahaina Kai Tower and Royal Trading Company. Soon they will also install panels above the shade canopies in the guest parking area.
Hogan said he expects the project to pay for itself in less than three years, adding that when the resort is fully occupied the electricity bill is $180,000 per month.
While making physical updates, the staff also prepared new systems and procedures for reopening with social distancing and other health protocols. Pre-arrival check-in via email is now available in addition to text messaging with hotel staff, express checkout and contactless menus for the food and beverage outlets.
"From the arrival and lobby all the way to the rooms, we touched on everything," Hogan said. "People are definitely going to notice the change, and we're lucky that our repeat business is very large. We have our third generation of families coming now."