Castle Hali'i Kai at Waikoloa

Do not stay here! Resort has zero amenities and the worst customer service I have ever experienced. We stayed in 18C, which is nothing like the photos. Two terrible twin beds in the front bedroom, one horrible king in the master bedroom, uncomfortable old furniture in the living room. We reported several concerns, management did nothing.

As with all the reviews that are less than stellar, the common theme appears to involve complaints specially regarding the poor attitude and demeanor of most of the pool staff here. I would like to know if all of these complaints are falling on deaf ears or if Management care enough about their paying customers to address these issues and do something about it. After all the bad experiences and concerns so many paying customers who chose to spend their hard earned money and patronize your resort while there are other choices, this needs to stop! Your customers should be valued and treated as what we are, paying customers who spent a lot of money here and deserve to get great customer service all around! This place is not cheap. Paying over $2K for 3 nights certainly entitles all all your customers to a great stay, excellent customer service and a wonderful experience all around. If we want to be treated like dirt, we would have opted for a cheap Motel with no expectations, but I believe even Motel employees know the importance of good customer service and treat their customer better that they do at Halii Kai pool. Please do something. I don’t know if these employees have stakes or owns a condo at this resort, and even if they did, I don’t care! That does not give them the right to harass or berate ANY paying customers. They need to get fired as the is obvious conflicts of interests there with owners seem not wanting guests at the resort!

We've stayed at this resort at least 5-6 times in the last decade. It's excellent in many ways and the views from the pool/gym area are absolutely amazing. The facilities are wonderful and so are most thing about this place. Except... *Some* staff. Many are okay, such as the people at the front desk by the gates. However, as also pointed out in a very recent review, pool staff aren't great. Forget the overpriced drinks and food! The pool staff are decidedly unfriendly and grumpy. The most annoying person there is a particular middle-aged lady (who's been there for years, every time we stayed at Hali Kai). She has a distinctively high-pitched cartoonish baby/child voice. But, don't let the voice fool you: she's extremely unpleasant. One example: last time we stayed there, during the height of COVID, she noticed me entering the pool area without a mask. Even though it was literally 10 steps to the chase lounges (where masks weren't worn), she insisted that I must EXIT the pool area and come back with a mask. That's not so terrible or unreasonable. However, when I politely asked her if I could get a mask from the staff, she cheerfully told me: of course I could, if I paid $10 for ONE MASK. I thought she was kidding, but she wasn't... I exited the pool area, went around it and saw a friendly groundskeeper/custodian. When I asked him if he had a spare mask, he happily handed me several and didn't want anything in return. What a giant rift between a really nice guy and and a mean horrible creature with a squeaky voice. Really left a bad aftertaste.

We love this place for the pool and the workout area overlooking the ocean. However the homeowners do not keep up on the workout machines...they are always broken. And then they decommission half of the equipment for social distancing. Also they require a mask, OUTSIDE, to simply walk into the pool area where everyone is completely socially distanced. This is an oxy***** since they allow you to pay to be in their homes, 'spreading your germs', but we don't rent this place for the rooms, which are small. We rent it for the pool and workout area. So don't allow my 'germs' in your home but not outside at your pool. The resort has already decreased the amount of chairs at the pool, which is ridiculous.

We have stayed in condo 16B on 3 occasions since 2018 and most recently in Nov 2023. We love this condo. It is a ground floor 2 BR 2BA unit, with a wonderful view of the sunsets from the west facing lanai, which includes a gas grill that we frequently make use of. In addition, this unit is very near the Ocean Club pool, gym, bar, and restaurant. The condo owner rents through VRBO and is very responsive to requests or any issues. In addition to the condo itself, we love this development. The Ocean Club is beautiful with the pool and gym sitting right on the shore lava. We find the restaurant very good, food is always prepared just right, and the restaurant and bar staff are very nice. Kathy always takes great care of us!! Some posters have complained about service, but please understand this is a small kitchen with limited staff at any time. Be patient, you are in paradise!! This rating would have been a 5+, as you can detect from the comments above. However, there are a couple of issues I wish they would correct: 1. The staff at the office by the gate are very rude, impolite, and totally unfriendly. What's up with that?? We had the same experience in 2018, 2019, and 2023. If you don't like your job, maybe find a different one. I have gone overboard trying to be friendly, but the response is always very brusque. I hope someone from management reads this. 2. Every night at sunset, there is a sunset ceremony which appears to be put on by the condo owners committee. A couple of elderly Caucasian men come out with a grass skirt and blow a conch shell. They try to make it into a Hawaiian spiritual type event, but it is cringey awful "cultural misappropriation" if you are going to do something like this, please bring on a local actual Hawaiian, and of course reward them for their time and efforts. The way this is done is disrespectful and an embarrassment.

We stayed at Hali’i Kai in Waikōloa for two weeks. The property manager, Michelle, at Kohala Coast Properties was outstanding and very helpful. We had to extend our trip by one day to accommodate an unexpected flight change. Michelle was extremely helpful in getting booking us for an additional night at the last minute and even answered her phone after hours. The reason for the two star rating is because of an issue caused by the staff at Hali’i Kai. We dropped our two access cards in the drop box at the front office at approximately 8:45am on the day of our departure. I took photos of me dropping the access cards in the box just in case something happened and they tried to say we didn’t return the cards. There was no one at the office at the time and the sign said they would not return until 10. Sure enough, we received a call from Sadie at the front office at Hali’i Kai that only one card was returned. We insisted that we returned both cards and I offered to send them the pics of me returning the cards. Despite all of this, she insisted that we would be charged $50 for a lost card. After a lot of back and forth, my wife got on the phone and insisted that Sadie check the box again. This also took quite a bit of convincing as Sadie had said she just checked it. Finally, she decided to check the drop box again. After being on hold for several minutes, Sadie let us know she had found the card stuck to the bottom of the drop box. No apology from her, just a “thank you for your persistence” before she hung up. If the front office isn’t going to be staffed and the drop box is not reliable, they should consider another system of returning the access cards. Or, at the very least, be more willing to double check the drop box. The fact that we had to repeatedly insist that the card was in there and ask her to check the box again was very frustrating. Had we not been so persistent, we would have been charged $50 for a card we did not lose. I would highly suggest that other guests take video of the cards being dropped into the box and to make sure the card numbers are visible when doing so. Other than that, our stay was fine. The condo was nice and mostly well equipped for a two week stay. There are some pretty draconian rules at the pool and it isn’t really great place if you have active kids. They should consider making it an adult or senior citizen pool. Due to the “no fun zone” at the pool and the failure of the staff at the front desk to properly account for the returned access cards, I will not be staying here again. We’ve been coming to the Big Island for many years and have never had these issues with any of our other stays.

The condo we stayed at was amazing. The hosts were lovely and check in was a breeze. This is such a thoughtful place and the owners should be proud of their lovely home. I had the most beautiful sleep in their king bed! The ocean club is very restrictive. It does seem strange that you can’t access an ocean view unless you pay for drinks or dinner. It feels lonely. Not conducive to watching the sunset with your fellow humans. I think this complex has an identity crisis. Do you cater to people who live there? Or want to rent these condos to travelers? You can’t have both. I waited 20 minutes for 2 glasses of wine just to hang out and watch the ocean. The servers at the club were super kind, just not enough of them to handle the amount of people. You can’t take even a bottle of water or coffee in the morning to the ocean view. You’re stuck in the condo. Just know what you’re booking.

Nice, clean and quiet; perfect place for the family. Would definitely recommend and come back to stay here again.

The property and condo were beautiful. We loved the pool, except for the pool staff, they were rude.