Good stuff first: the hotel sits on pretty grounds and we had a nice large room with a view of the pool and a smidgen of ocean. The bathroom and lanai were also large and lovely. The entire grounds are very lush in comparison to the extremely arid surroundings of the Kohala coast. The resort even carved out a lovely swimming lagoon for its guests.

The bad: My overwhelming problems with this hotel lay with the exorbitant add-on prices, also known as the Ryanair business model. Unlike with Ryanair airfares for 10 Euro, the Fairmont rooms themselves are not so cheap.

I suppose I should have known I was in trouble when the concierge told me she would pre-charge my card for $100/night to cover incidentals. No wonder. $15/night for self-parking, $23/night for valet. $14 for a Mai Tai. $40 for an average (and average tasting) entree. All of this excluding tax and tip. Even the lovely swimming lagoon mentioned above was overcrammed with chaises, though the hotel offered semi-privacy to those willing to offer up extra bucks. Even with all these "amenities," the hotel virtually shut down by 10 pm, presumably because all of their guests were too broke to continue doing anything else.

The room did have an empty fridge (at no charge!!) - in my view, the best amenity this hotel has to offer given its absolutely exorbitant food and beverage prices. The empty fridge is where you can store the food and drinks you buy at Foodland down the road that costs about 1/4th of the same junk at the Fairmont.

Stayed 7 nights at the Orchid from 9-19-9-26-09 and it was either my 5th or 6th time in 8 years and this was by far the best stay myself and my parents have had there.
My mother is handicapped and the staff at all levels were fantastic and always accomodating.
A very special THANK YOU to the FRONT DESK MANAGER, David who is by far the nicest, most professional manager I have met at any hotel. His attentiveness to our needs was always first class. There is a very sweet housekeeper by the name of Sally, who was also very helpful.
Chris, who has been working mornings at the restraunt downstairs for many years is also first class and a great guy.
The food has greatly improved from past visits and we especially enjoyed eating both lunch and dinner at the Ocean Bar where the prices were reasonable and the selections were excellent. Make sure to ask for the Ocean Bar's version of Ginger Ale, which is incredible and tastes like fresh lemonade.
The beach, pool and workout facilities were as good as always.
My only gripe is that I think it is high to charge 45.00/per day to use a cabana.
Seven and eight years ago it was FREE. I feel it should at the most be 15-20.00/day.
The parking attendants were great.
Finally, the room was excellent and the bed seemed like an automatic tranquilizer, very comfortable.
All in all, if you are going to the BIG ISLAND on the Kahala Coast and you want a nice beach, a good room and fantastic service, this is the only place to stay.

We stayed here for our anniversary. We got a half-price rate of $199 several months before our visit and it was a great deal. The property is beautiful. Sunsets at Brown's Beach House are my favorite memories.

I stayed there for 5 nights for my honeymoon. Upon check-in I was offered an optional upgrade to the Fairmont Gold service. The fee was not insignificant (~$125 more/night) but in retrospect it was all worth it, as it included complimentary room wifi, complimentary valet service and exclusive use of their private lounge. The ocean view from my room was phenomenal. Overall service was outstanding, from the concierge to the wait staff to the valet service to even the maid.

My wife and I also enjoyed snorkeling from the hotel beach area. The man-made beach and reef were just okay but the waters were calm in the morning and there were turtles EVERYWHERE. The turtles actually come up to the cove by the hotel for their afternoon naps--great photo ops.

Didn't eat dinner there but we liked the breakfast buffet. In general we could tell the hotel showed a little bit of age, but I think the charming location and staff really made up for it. For comparison's sake my wife and I next moved to the Grand Hyatt in Kauai, and while the Hyatt was more grand and newer we both preferred the Fairmont Orchid.