Last month, management at the Hawaii Prince Hotel Waikiki & Golf Club released the details of a $55.4 million redevelopment and rebranding effort currently underway at the 563-room property. Looking to learn a little more about what's planned, I spoke recently with the hotel's general manager, Chuck Abbott, and asked him why now was the right timing for the upgrades.
"The hotel has been open for 25-plus years, and they have done some minor upgrades throughout those years," he said. "But it was decided it was time to really rebrand, reposition the hotel, bring it back to its glory and look at all areas that affect our guests when they arrive."
Located on the western edge of Waikiki, the Hawaii Prince Hotel Waikiki is slated to undergo renovation to all of its guestrooms, the arrival experience in the lobby, all of its meeting rooms, and restaurants as well as its fifth-floor swimming pool. The property's name will also be changed to the Prince Waikiki.
"About 50% of the rooms are already completed in the Diamond Head tower," Abbott said. "And we're finishing up the other half, probably by the middle of October. All the guestrooms will be completed early to mid December."
Abbott noted that work on the restaurants should wrap up in November while the lobby improvements are likely to be finished by mid December.
"In the early part of 2017, we will renovate all the meeting rooms, and we will also add an infinity pool up on the pool deck," he said. "You'll have an unobstructed view when you're sitting in the infinity pool and be able to look out over the Ala Wai Harbor and, of course, the Pacific."
Another fifth-floor upgrade will be a club lounge guests can book for an additional fee from any room category in the hotel.
"For anybody that wants that concierge club experience, they'll be able to have a daily continental breakfast with a hot item," Abbott said. "We'll have service throughout the day. We'll also have some appetizers in the evening, and they can get a beverage and relax."
Guestroom improvements, meanwhile, will be extensive, including new furniture, beds, carpets, wall coverings and blinds. Abbott noted, however, that the bathrooms were already four-fixture and relatively large, limiting some of the renovation necessary there.
"The bathrooms are basically just being freshened up, because the actual hardware was in really good shape," he said. "But we did change some of the fixtures and so forth to make it more modern and up to date."
Describing the property today "as probably around three-and-a-half stars," Abbott said the hope is to boost that rating some with all the improvements.
"We really want to push ourselves to the upper upscale again," he said.