Holiday Inn Express & Suites Kailua-Kona, an IHG hotel
About
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Kailua-Kona is an excellent choice for travellers visiting Kailua-Kona, offering many helpful amenities designed to enhance your stay.
Guest rooms offer amenities such as a flat screen TV and air conditioning, and guests can go online with free wifi offered by the hotel.
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Kailua-Kona features 24 hour front desk, to help make your stay more enjoyable. The property also boasts a pool and breakfast. If you are driving to Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Kailua-Kona, parking is available.
Nearby landmarks such as Ali'i Drive (0.1 mi) and St. Michael the Archangel Church (0.1 mi) make Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Kailua-Kona a great place to stay when visiting Kailua-Kona.
While in Kailua-Kona, you may want to check out some of the restaurants that are a short walk away from Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Kailua-Kona, including Kona Brewing Company Pub & Brewery (0.5 mi), Big Island Grill (0.1 mi), and Umekes Fishmarket Bar & Grill (0.6 mi).
There is no shortage of things to do in the area: explore popular art galleries such as Kona Henna, Lava Light Galleries, and Trudy's Island Arts.
Enjoy your stay in Kailua-Kona!
Location
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Good things - the staff were really friendly and helpful, especially those refilling the buffet breakfast. The breakfast was complimentary each morning that had lots of choice. The location was good. Room was large, nice Dove toiletries in the bathroom. Useful computer room where you could print stuff for free.
Negative - no views from the room - ours overlooked the car park! Our room had poor lighting - no central light only lamps and because the room was decorated in dark colours, it was a bit gloomy! Sofa was a bit stained.
Breakfast and facilities are average, but the location is wonderful with the bustling front street only about a block's walk. Thanks again to the staff for their kindness. It really made all the difference as we were simply exhausted by the time we arrived. The front desk staff were also very helpful providing cutlery packs for takeout food and additional towels.
Came back about an hour and a half later, and went to my room. It’s standard IHG, though there is a partial ocean view. Room was clean, slept well, and had poor water pressure from the shower. Pretty standard for an HIE.
Breakfast was partially outside next to the pool. Sadly, it was your standard continental instead of mixing in some Hawaiian flavor.
Pool is outdoor, which is standard in the tropics. Deepest point was 5 feet. You have to go to the desk to receive pool towels, and they charge if you don’t return them (I think it was $20)!
Checkout the next morning was smooth. I was allowed to keep my car parked a few extra hours, to avoid paying more by parking in a town lot.
The normal rate is around $300/night, no doubt taking advantage of being in a heavily tourist area in December. I was able to spend my one anniversary night so no charge for me.
1) safety and security.
On my second day at the hotel I left my key in the room so I stopped by the front desk and asked for another one. The staff member asked me what my room number was and I told her. She didn’t ask to sight my ID or even check the sir name registered to the room. It seems all you need at this hotel to access the room is to ask for a key to the room number and it’s given to anyone who requests it.
2) unauthorised entry to guest room.
About half an hour after getting a second key I was in bed trying to get a nap in when I heard the door opening (I had the do not disturb sign on the door). I sang out and the door closed again. After getting dressed I went down to the front desk and they had no record of me being in that room (had they checked that fact before giving me a new key just half an hour before they would have known that). After some investigation it was found that my reservation was marked as a “no-show” and subsequently cancelled during the night prior. This is despite me arriving at the hotel and providing a credit card on arrival and being given keys to the room.
3) Strong chemical smell
When I first arrived the room had such a strong bleach smell that I had to open the windows to air out the room. It took over 24 hours with the AC blowing on full and the window open to get the smell out. I didn’t have any housekeeping service for the next 3 days out of fear the room would be bleached again.
4) Staff attentiveness
On more than one occasion I stopped by the front desk for help and waited a long period of time without anybody coming out to serve. It seems that the breakfast preparation area becomes a cool hang out for the front desk staff during breakfast hours. After following the laughter I found the front desk staff hanging out in the area. When I asked for help the staff member commented on how much fun the team have at this job. That’s wonderful, it really is, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of the guests.
I wanted to pass on the above feedback as I was checking out. After waiting 10 minutes at the front desk with not a soul in sight I just left the key and a post it note on the front desk and walked out.
It’s a shame that the management of this hotel lets it down so much. It’s got such potential with a great location and comfortable rooms. But until they address the above issues I’d give this one a hard miss.





The main reason we chose this hotel is its location and it was perfect, only a couple of minutes' walk to lots of restaurants and shops, including the Kona Marketplace and the Kona Inn Shopping Village, where we went several times for drinks and dinner (Kona Inn Restaurant, Kona Canoe Club) while watching the sunset. It's especially good to be able to walk to the center of town, including the pier (less than 10 minutes), because the traffic in and near the center is pretty bad nearly all day long due to roadwork, etc.
The only slight inconvenience was that the breakfast room was occasionally overcrowded, but then we shared a table and talked to some interesting people that way. We enjoyed seeing the families with young children. The breakfast staff was clearly overworked and sometimes had trouble keeping up.
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"Don't waste money by going out for a restaurant breakfast - the food served at the hotel is very good."Read full review
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