sjlola
TUG Member
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2010
- Messages
- 182
- Reaction score
- 138
- Location
- Northern California
- Resorts Owned
- WKORVN OF EYx5, WPORV EOYE
This wasn't my experience, but I just saw this post a few minutes ago from a local in a Kauai facebook group. Good on WPORV. We own there and we will be looking to make several donations this week to relief efforts.
I want to share what I witnessed in Princeville the morning after Lowell, when I walked the neighborhood to see how it fared. Initially, my heart sank when I saw the devastation along Makai golf course, with hundreds of trees toppled over paths and roadways. But it didn't take long for the community to rally together, and everyone with a chainsaw came out to cut a path through the trees on the road for cars to get through.
I was extremely impressed by the response from the Westin Princeville. They accepted people from the community and provided free coffee and a place to charge cell phones. It wasn't an elaborate gesture, but at a time when so many people were without electricity, it was exactly the kind of community support you hope to see from a large local business.
My experience at 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay was completely different.
The hotel had guards stationed at its entrance and was turning away people who were not hotel guests. People approaching the property were told they were not welcome.
I went to the area because I wanted to get a view of Hanalei and see the extent of the damage after the hurricane. While I was walking in the hotel's parking lot, a manager approached me and told me that if I did not leave, I would be arrested for trespassing.
I understand that a private hotel has the right to control access to its property. My concern isn't whether it had the legal right to ask me to leave. It's about how a major resort that is part of this community chose to respond when its neighbors were dealing with a widespread disaster.
The contrast was striking: one Princeville resort was offering its neighbors coffee and a place to charge their phones; another was posting guards, turning non-guests away, and threatening a member of the community with arrest for being on the property.
Hotels on Kauaʻi benefit enormously from this island, its people, its natural beauty and the surrounding community. In difficult moments, I think it's reasonable for the community to pay attention to which businesses behave like members of that community.
I want to share what I witnessed in Princeville the morning after Lowell, when I walked the neighborhood to see how it fared. Initially, my heart sank when I saw the devastation along Makai golf course, with hundreds of trees toppled over paths and roadways. But it didn't take long for the community to rally together, and everyone with a chainsaw came out to cut a path through the trees on the road for cars to get through.
I was extremely impressed by the response from the Westin Princeville. They accepted people from the community and provided free coffee and a place to charge cell phones. It wasn't an elaborate gesture, but at a time when so many people were without electricity, it was exactly the kind of community support you hope to see from a large local business.
My experience at 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay was completely different.
The hotel had guards stationed at its entrance and was turning away people who were not hotel guests. People approaching the property were told they were not welcome.
I went to the area because I wanted to get a view of Hanalei and see the extent of the damage after the hurricane. While I was walking in the hotel's parking lot, a manager approached me and told me that if I did not leave, I would be arrested for trespassing.
I understand that a private hotel has the right to control access to its property. My concern isn't whether it had the legal right to ask me to leave. It's about how a major resort that is part of this community chose to respond when its neighbors were dealing with a widespread disaster.
The contrast was striking: one Princeville resort was offering its neighbors coffee and a place to charge their phones; another was posting guards, turning non-guests away, and threatening a member of the community with arrest for being on the property.
Hotels on Kauaʻi benefit enormously from this island, its people, its natural beauty and the surrounding community. In difficult moments, I think it's reasonable for the community to pay attention to which businesses behave like members of that community.
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