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Halekulani
Honolulu, Hawaii, United States · Halekulani · Grand Luxury
Fishermen who dried their nets beneath the hau trees on this stretch of Waikiki beach named it Halekulani, House Befitting Heaven, after businessman Robert Lewers let them use the shore beside his 1883 bungalow. The hotel has occupied the oceanfront parcel on Kalia Road since 1907, and Admiral Husband Kimmel dined here the night before Pearl Harbor. Mitsui Fudosan rebuilt it in 1984, and MICHELIN gave it Two Keys in 2025.
- 115 rooms
- Opened 1917
- Neighborhood: Waikiki
- Architect: Edward Killingsworth; C.W. Dickey
About Halekulani
- Fishermen reportedly named the property Halekulani, meaning house befitting heaven, after businessman Robert Lewers let them dry their nets on the beach beneath his 1883 bungalow.
- Admiral Husband Kimmel dined here on December 6, 1941, the evening before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
- Radiocarbon dating beneath the hotel's footprint found evidence of human settlement dating back to the second century, among the oldest documented sites in Waikiki.
- Sold to the Norton Clapp family in 1962, then bought by Mitsui Fudosan USA in January 1981, which rebuilt the current 453-room hotel in 1984.
History
The site of Halekulani on Waikiki Beach has been occupied by human settlement since at least the second century of the Common Era — archaeological investigation has found radiocarbon dates from that period beneath the hotel's current footprint, making this stretch of Waikiki one of the oldest documented inhabited sites in the islands. The Polynesian settlers who first came here chose well: a calm stretch of beach flanked by hau trees, sheltered from the open ocean, with the trade winds drawing across the sand. Honolulu businessman Robert Lewers, whose company Lewers and Cooke supplied much of Oahu's lumber, built a two-story wooden bungalow on this site in 1883 as a weekend retreat for family and friends. He extended his hospitality to local fishermen, inviting them to beach their canoes and dry their nets beneath the sheltering hau trees.
Those grateful fishermen, the enduring story goes, named the place Halekulani — House Befitting Heaven. In 1907, journalist Edward Irwin leased the Lewers house and converted it into a small hotel he called the Hau Tree, adding bungalows to the grounds. When Irwin's lease expired and his enterprise faltered, Clifford and Juliet Kimball leased the property in 1917 from Lewers's estate, beginning with three guests in a forty-capacity hotel and promptly restoring the Halekulani name. The Kimballs rebuilt the Lewers house into a plantation-mansion-style main building in 1931 and 1932, working with architect Charles Dickey on the structure's distinctive high-pitched hipped roof — a design solution Clifford Kimball suggested to Dickey specifically to catch the cooling trade winds, and which Dickey formalized into what became known as the Dickey Roof, a signature of Hawaiian regional architecture.
The main building, completed at a cost of $169,000, was constructed by Japanese-American contractor George Junji Oda and became a familiar Waikiki landmark for generations. By 1940 the Kimballs had grown Halekulani to 115 rooms. The Norton Clapp family of Seattle purchased the property following the Kimballs' deaths in 1962, and the House Without a Key bar — named for Earl Derr Biggers's Charlie Chan novel, set at a hotel modeled on Halekulani — became the hotel's most celebrated fixture under their ownership. The Clapp family sold to the Honolulu-based Halekulani Corporation, a subsidiary of Japanese real estate firm Mitsui Fudosan, in 1981.
The aging bungalows were demolished and the hotel was rebuilt as the existing 453-room property, reopening in April 1984 with the historic Main Building and its Dickey Roof preserved and restored at its center. In April 2020, facing the pandemic, Halekulani closed for a comprehensive property-wide renewal — guest rooms, public spaces, the porte-cochere, the iconic House Without a Key bar — reopening on October 1, 2021 with its physical plant renewed for what the Halekulani Corporation described as the hotel's second century. MICHELIN recognized Halekulani with Two Keys in its 2025 guide, placing it among the finest hotels in the United States.
The setting
Halekulani anchors the quieter western edge of Waikiki Beach along Kālia Road, on a site first cultivated by businessman Robert Lewers in 1883 — long before the surrounding district became Hawaii's premier resort corridor. The name, meaning "House Befitting Heaven," was bestowed by local fishermen who beached their canoes beneath the property's hau trees, and the hotel has occupied this oceanfront parcel continuously since 1907. Royal Hawaiian Center lies five minutes on foot, Duke's Waikiki nine minutes, and the historic Moana Surfrider ten minutes — situating guests within the most storied stretch of Waikiki while preserving the secluded, low-rise calm of its five-acre beachfront estate. 12-minute walk to downtown Waikiki. 3 miles from Diamond Head State Monument.
Restaurants and bars
- House Without A Key — Restaurant · American
- La Mer — Bar · Bar
- Orchids — Restaurant · Fine dining
Awards
- AAA Four Diamond (2026)
- Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star (2026)
- MICHELIN Two Keys (2026)
- Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards (2025)
- Condé Nast Traveler Gold List (2023)
Open Halekulani in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.
More Halekulani hotels
- Halepuna Waikiki by Halekulani — Honolulu, United States · Core Luxury
- Halekulani Okinawa — Onna, Japan · Grand Luxury
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- Halepuna Waikiki by Halekulani — Halekulani · Core Luxury
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Halekulani in The Maison: the brand's idea, history and every house on the atlas.