Where $2,500 Per Night Is the Cost of Doing Sustainable Business
With its extravagantly priced, solar-powered rooms, Kona Village resort raises the question: How much should you pay for responsible tourism in Hawaii?
Kona Village’s Moana pool.
Source: Kona Village, A Rosewood Resort
Kona Village, Hawaii’s most ambitious resort in decades, isn’t exactly new. The hotel first opened in the mid-1960s in an improbable location on the Big Island—between 300-year-old lava flows and fields with ancient petroglyphs—that at the time could be reached only by boat or plane.
Guests loved the lo-fi, castaway-cool vibe: Phones were banned, coconuts functioned as “do not disturb” signs (still a thing), and the staff felt like family. Then, in 2011, a tsunami decimated the resort. A campaign to “Save Kona Village” cropped up on Facebook, raising $125,000 for its employees; some past guests banded together to try to buy the property.