Halekulani Hotel management apologized in person on Tuesday to a well-known Hawaiian entertainer whose social media claim that the hotel discriminated against him and his family during a weekend getaway went viral.
Weldon Kekauoha posted Monday on Facebook that he and his family were offended when a security guard, who was acting on the request of another guest, interrupted their pool time to verify that they were staying at the hotel.
The Grammy-nominated and Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning musician wrote that an "older, Caucasian woman" asked the security guard to check on his family because she believed "we (my family and I) were local people and couldn’t be guests and wanted us removed."
Kekauoha continued, "It’s quite obvious that we were singled out purely because of the color of our skin by the lady."
The security guard told Kekauoha that it was part of the procedures to follow up on a complaint to ensure only guests were using hotel facilities, Kekauoha wrote. Upon hearing that, Kekauoha asked the security guard to check whether the Caucasian woman was actually a guest. Kekauoha said he waited for 90 minutes and did not see the guard check the woman.
"Security’s blatant disregard for my request, as well as disregard to following their own procedure, only added ‘salt to the wound’ and further insulted my family and me," Kekauoha wrote.
More than 4,000 social media users shared Kekauoha’s Facebook post, which also generated nearly 500 comments.
After investigating Kekauoha’s claim, the Halekulani determined that the security personnel involved failed to follow established standards and practices. Halekulani General Manager Ulrich Krauer sent an official letter of apology and personally met with Kekauoha on Monday to express the hotel’s sincere regrets for what Halekulani Director of Public Relations Diane Ako called an "inadvertent and unfortunate misunderstanding."
"The inappropriate and unacceptable handling of the matter by the security personnel involved was interpreted as biased, even though their actions had no such intent whatsoever," Ako said. "Halekulani has never, and will never, tolerate bias or discrimination of any kind."
Halekulani Chief Operating Officer Peter Shaindlin said a similar incident has never occurred at the property.
"This is the first such incident of its kind and we are making every effort to ensure that it’s the last," Shaindlin said.
After the Halekulani took steps to rectify the situation, Kekauoha thanked the hotel’s general manager for "your willingness to fix things." He also thanked social media supporters, who included Melveen Leed and other local musicians, for their heartfelt responses to an unfortunate event.
"What an incredible 48-hours it has been. Lessons learned for a lot of people," Kekauoha posted on Tuesday. "In the end, that’s what it’s all about. Now we use those lessons to better ourselves and the people around us. Mahalo everyone. Life goes on."
Shaindlin said the hotel is grateful to Kekauoha for sharing his concerns, which he said will lead to improvements.
"However, isolated or not, we take this incident very seriously," Shaindlin said." We will work vigorously to improve any such situation and accept responsibility squarely for what takes place on our property."