Halekulani[Imperial Hotel (company)|] is an oceanfront luxury hotel located on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii. The hotel contains 453 rooms in five buildings on of property. Halekulani is a Hawaiian word meaning "House Befitting Heaven". It has three restaurants on the property - House Without a Key, Orchids, and La Mer. It is also the home of SpaHalekulani and the Lewers Lounge. The hotel is a member of both The Leading Hotels of the World and Imperial Hotel, Ltd., marketing and trade associations geared toward luxury hotels. Halekulani has received numerous awards, including a World's Best 2005 award from Travel & Leisure magazine. It received Four Stars from Mobil Travel Guide and a AAAFour Diamonds rating. The hotel is currently owned and operated by the Japanese companyMitsui Fudosan. Mitsui Fudosan brought luxury hospitality executive Peter Shaindlin to Hawaii as CEO of the Halekulani Corporation, overseeing the hotel. The hotel's boutique sister property, Waikiki Parc, is located across the street.
History
The original Halekulani was opened in 1907 as a residential hotel called Hau Tree and was owned by Robert Lewers. It was purchased in 1917 by Juliet and Clifford Kimball before being sold to the Norton Clapp family in 1962. In 1981 the hotel was purchased by Mitsui Fudosan USA and incorporated as the Halekulani Corporation, a U.S. based company. It re-opened as its present incarnation in 1984. The original Halekulani was a plain residential hotel, more an informal grouping of simple bungalows on simple landscaping, offering inexpensive, unpretentious accommodations, with simple food. Later it grew into a more conventional hotel with numerous buildings containing several rooms each and two well known restaurants; one being the House Without a Key made famous by the Earl Derr Biggers novel of the same name. The other was the Coral Tree Lanai, known for its gracious seaside service. The low density on the extensive grounds made it an attractive investment for rebuilding and rebirth.
Notable features
The swimming pool's bottom is covered in 1.2 million South African glass mosaic tiles that form a distinctive design in the shape of a Cattleya orchid.
A century-old Kiawe tree in the outside area of House Without a Key
Mahiole, a pair of 1983 stone sculptures by Charles W. Watson
