Fairmont Kea Lani Maui

We are just writing to send our sincerest thanks for the amazing hospitality and service. Specifically, we wanted to acknowledge two folks: - Mary Jane in Housekeeping was just fantastic. Hard working, thorough, and so, so kind - The team at the pool/cabana shop are fantastic - I also wanted to mention the staff at the coffee/ice cream shop. They’re always so courteous, smiley, and nice. Our kids love it there.

Hands down one of the best and most beautiful hotels I ever stayed at. It's pricy but comes with so many things that's not common in other places. They have water and towels in the lobby for when you are taking a trip. Laundry is free and on every floor. Of course sunblock and cooling creams amongst other things. The grounds were breath taking. We stayed in the signature double bed suite, ocean view and it was spacious with anything a family would need to stay comfortably.

We stayed here for a week. It was truly a 5 star experience, especially after having left the Fairmont Orchid which is NOT a 5 star. Tami at the check in desk is very nice and does her job very well. She knew all about the property. Michael with bell hop service walked us to our room and delivered our luggage. Ian and Bianca with poolside service are amazing and greet you by name sometimes. We stayed here the week The Rams were here and that was the icing on the cake meeting and seeing them around the property. Housekeeping is fantastic at their job and I didn’t find a dirty spot in the room. My only complaint is the that the breakfast buffet is really hard to enjoy with the birds. There should be separate inside and outside seating. Birds fly into the buffet and I’m concerned someone will get sick from this. I cannot speak on the other restaurants, as we ate off property. I also hated that poolside chairs had more towels “reserving” chairs than actual people ever sitting in them. This needs to be enforced. My kids enjoyed the slide there. Overall, a very charming stay and I would return.

Beautiful hotel and great location! Rooms are spacious suites with large lanai’s. Great housekeeping with nightly turndown service. This place is first class! Great service as well as towel service at valet when you go on exploring or excursions. Close to shopping and restaurants although they have great dining on site.

There is much to love about the Fairmont Kea Lani, but constant mistakes and disappointments cause the hotel to fall short of what it should be. Start with the good parts. The hotel itself is beautiful, the rooms spacious, and the beach and pool areas are all wonderful. The buffet breakfast is also outstanding, featuring the standard breakfast fare plus also fantastic upgrades, like steak that can be added to omelets or eggs, fresh shrimp and ahi tuna, and the like. Loved all of that, and it had the makings of a true 5-star experience. But now the disappointments. The hotel advertises that guests can enjoy a complimentary canoe experience where the hotel takes you out on the canoe and also helps you snorkel a bit, but the thing is nearly a fraud: they have maybe 12 seats a day, which is clearly not enough for the several hundred guests. We had three rooms, for eight people, for a full week, and we managed to get only one seat all week. Worse, though, are the ways the hotel handles the financial interactions. Most annoying: the hotel repeatedly put things on our bills that were not in fact our charges. Every time I asked, they quickly looked, agreed with me that this or that was an error, and removed the mistakes, but that is still an unpleasant way to spend my vacation time. Separately, when I went to check out on the last day, the rate actually billed for my rooms did not match the rates quoted (in writing, by email) for my rooms. I had the confirmation emails and, again, the hotel made the adjustment; but once more, this is not what I want to think about on my vacation. And this sort of sloppy financial behavior was not just a rare hiccup. It is a pervasive problem with the hotel. For instance, we had an extremely annoying interaction at the ice cream shop where we ordered single scoops for seven people, all of whom were standing there picking flavors, paid the outrageous $60+ for the seven scoops, and then . . . the person scooped four and insisted that was all we had paid for. Crazy. The cashier was not able to generate a receipt and the whole behind-the-counter team just got flustered. (The cashier finally told the scooper to just scoop the missing ice cream, but, again, not the interaction I want on my vacation.) Overall, then, these sorts of little mistakes make the Fairmont a little disappointing. I’m happy to pay the high rates for a nice vacation, but I don’t want to constantly either get false charged or have to intervene to correct mistakes. This stuff shouldn’t be that hard to get right, especially for a top-dollar hotel.