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Ritzy Mauna Kea Beach
to offer specials for
40th birthday

THE Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on the Big Island will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2005 with special rates, events and surprises.

Does that mean the room rates will roll back to 1965 levels? Well, no.

"For a double (-occupancy room with) breakfast and dinner, it was $43 to $48," said General Manager Charles Park. The resort, developed by the late Laurance S. Rockefeller so long ago, was charging luxury prices, comparatively speaking, Park said. Other hotels' accommodations cost $15 to $30 at the time.

Rooms at the island's first posh resort now start around $450 per night, but the hotel is offering 40 percent off published rates throughout 2005, with the exception of dates around major holidays such as Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The term published rates means something different from kamaaina rates.

"We're going to do something special for kamaaina," Park said, without going into detail. "It's a party for everybody."

The hotel has drawn celebrities from the Hollywood elite to the otherwise rich and powerful since its opening and still does, as evidenced by a recent visit from Red Hot Chili Peppers front man Anthony Kiedis and the wedding of Mossimo Giannulli, chief executive of the apparel company bearing his ubiquitous first name.

"I almost never see a limo here," because the hotel's guests generally want to remain low-key, Park said. "They don't want the fanfare."

Park praised the aloha spirit of long-term employees, which they demonstrate by bringing leis for departing guests and home-cooked dishes to share with co-workers.

"When you come from plantation communities and rural communities, you share your whole house; you share everything," he said.

Keeping the hotel fresh through the generations has been just as important as keeping the beach the same as when Rockefeller first envisioned the view with a hotel behind it.

Transmitter trouble

KHNL-TV is having difficulty getting a clear signal to some of its over-the-air and satellite viewers due to problems with the station's main transmitter atop Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki.

Engineering staffers have been working to fix the problem, but there are few companies that still manufacture parts for the aging equipment, said John Fink, vice president and general manager.

The station may have to order equipment from the mainland, adding duration to viewer woes.

Nielsen, the ratings service, estimates that some 20,000 to 25,000 viewers watch KHNL via its over-the-air signal, which is also how DISH satellite TV picks up the station's programming.

Oceanic Time Warner Cable picks up the signal directly from KHNL studios through a fiber line, so cable customers are not affected by the over-the-air broadcast problem.