Post #265049 by Humuhumu on Tue, Nov 7, 2006 11:23 AM

I'm very sad they're removing the water features -- that was what really made the Islands feel like you were sitting in the middle of a gorgeous postcard.

I would never tell anyone not to write an establishment to let them know how much you value their tikiness, but I just don't think it will change this course. It's just too late. Perhaps if we'd known about this months ago, but now it's a fait accompli.

The post of Otto's email is a bit hard to read; here's a summary of what's going on, taken from a post I just made on my blog:

Here’s a quick summary:

-  The hotel’s name is changing. The new name is not known, but it will no longer have “Hanalei” in it. According to Otto, “This was mandated in order to raise the status of the property.”  
-  The Islands Restaurant “[is] going to be more TROPICAL than TIKI,” per the GM.  
-  The waterfalls and the waterway into the restaurant are being removed.  
-  The Dragon Room will be removed.  
-  The bamboo in the Islands is staying, the glass floats might stay, but all the other tiki decor in the restaurant is being removed. It’s not known yet what the fate of these items will be. There’s a chance the artifacts will be put on dispay for Tiki Oasis attendees, but this has not been worked out yet. The large outrigger sign is staying.  
-  On the first day of renovation, all of the artifacts in the Islands Restaurant have been removed and boxed up for storage.  
-  The Islands Restaurant’s monkeypod tables are staying, and $38,000 is being spent to refinish them.  
-  Some walls are being knocked down, and an outdoor patio is being added, to expand seating.  
-  Windows are being added to overlook the patio and pool.  
-  Food & drink menu will be unchanged. Tiki mugs will be used for serving.  
-  Carved railings removed from the Islands Restaurant will be relocated into the tropical, tikified Atrium area in the hotel tower.  
-  Landscaping is being enhanced with a $20,000 budget, and fresh palapas have been added.  
-  Room rates are increasing, but this won’t affect Tiki Oasis 2007, because Otto locked those rates in before these changes.  

Bottom line: the Red Lion Hanalei Hotel is a conference hotel. They're courting large group reservations, not individual reservations, and large groups want a large restaurant, not a tikiphile's dream. It can't hurt to let them know the historic value of what they have (although I can't imagine they don't know this, now that they've been working so much with Otto).

The big thing that's at risk at this point are all those artifacts that have been removed from the Islands and are now boxed up. It sounds very much like they haven't figured out what they're going to do with it, which sounds to me like it's at risk of going home with somebody. Perhaps write to the Hanalei to express a desire to see the items remain visible on property somewhere?