Fairmont Orchid, Hawaii

A beautiful hotel complimenting it's stunning setting. Dining alongside, wandering along or sitting gazing at the Pacific ocean was superb. There were also plenty of places to sit or lounge away from the pool if desired. The hotel room was lovely with a nice balcony. All the staff were extremely friendly but also very professional. We liked Brown's beach house for breakfast and the Hale Kai for lunch/dinner as quite reasonably priced. As a special occasion we ate one evening in Brown's restaurant, the setting, food and service was excellent but it was very expensive! I would like to mention and compliment the customer service we received after we left too, very prompt and thorough messages received by Leah, thankyou and much appreciated. The behind the scenes staff can be forgotten about but the whole team is important.

Beautiful setting on Kona coast, many rooms with beautiful views. While there, they were busy, but I don't find this an excuse for not having a room ready or making accommodations. The beach is nice but there are better further up the coast. Expensive for what you got, we've found better hotels, again was disappointed staff didn't do something special since room wasn't ready.

Natashi at the front desk was teriffic when we checked in. She upgraded our room and gave us a certificate for 2 free mai tais. Also enjoyed an amazing reflexology massage in the spa. Loved our time at the Orchid!

The resort is beautiful with tennis and golf. The views from our room were very nice. We stayed on the 6th floor which is considered the Fairmont Gold which was wonderful. On this floor you get an extensive delicious breakfast and appetizers. This floor has its own concierge and check in. We ate at most of the restaurants and the food was very good. Browns restaurant has spectacular views and the food was superb. The rooms themselves are pretty much standard but with large balconies. Highly recommend the tennis courts they are well maintained and the staff that run the tennis shop are very helpful. We had to rent rackets and Rudy in the pro shop fitted me with the right racket.

I'd have given it 3.5 stars if that was an option, but they operate a bait and switch like so many hotels do today wherein they tack on ~$30/night for a "resort charge" regardless of whether you use the amenities or not. I have no idea why this is legal, as it's just blatantly advertising one price and then charging you a higher price when you show up. I call that a scam, and the fact that it's commonly done is not an excuse. Honest hotel operators don't engage in this. I'm automatically deducting one star from any hotel that does this. As to the hotel: It's a fairly beautiful property, but it's kind of "resort generic". It's clearly set up to accommodate lots of conferences, which is fine, but never contributes to a great hotel. The room was quite spacious, with a decent view and a balcony. Very comfortable and the room itself was the best part of the hotel. The staff was friendly, but pretty robotic about half the time. We had some great service staff, though, at the pool bar/restaurant, and with room service, so I'd say it's hit and miss. Props to Eilee at the pool bar! The food generally was...ok. We never ate at Brown's, their premiere restaurant, so I can't judge that, but the night we arrived we had a pizza in the lounge, but it was almost inedible. The crust was almost raw it was so soggy. When our waiter asked, I pointed that out, and all he did was nervously chuckle and walk away. We also enjoyed watching a giant roach parade around the wall near our table while not enjoying the pizza. We had food at the pool bar which was fine, but nothing great, and ordered room service for breakfast a couple times. Again, fine, but nothing you wouldn't get from a good diner. I don't mean to sound too negative, as it is a reasonably beautiful setting, but the hotel is just not up to Fairmont standards, and also suffers from their unethical bait-and-switch resort fee.