Waikiki’s newest HGV tower is open, mostly. Ka Haku, a Hilton Club, the 32-story building on the old King’s Village site on Kaiulani Avenue, was opened by Hilton Grand Vacations on Oct. 2, 2026, according to HGV’s opening announcement. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports that the first guests arrived a day earlier, on Thursday, Oct. 1. Its general manager puts the full opening at New Year’s Day. We are longtime HGV owners based at Hokulani, elsewhere in Waikiki, and our first reaction is the practical one: if you are booked there between now and the end of December, you are booking a building that is still warming up.
What happened
HGV’s Oct. 2 release calls Ka Haku its 14th resort in Hawaii and the first Hilton Club-branded property in the state. The Star-Advertiser’s John Berger reports that the $490 million tower opened after delays tied to the pandemic, changing building requirements and permitting pushed it well past its original early-2022 target. HGV bought the King’s Village property in 2018 (the circa-1972 King’s Village was razed in 2019). In its November 2024 sales announcement, HGV said it expected to open by summer 2026. It opened in the fall instead.
A few details, with who said them:
- Size: 205 units, per HGV’s October 2026 release, and the Star-Advertiser gives the same number. HGV’s 2024 sales announcement had said 213 suites; the 205 figure is the current one.
- Rooms: Studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom suites with ocean, mountain and city views, per HGV. HGV’s resort page lists the address as 133 Kaiulani Avenue.
- Open now, per HGV: The release says the property offers an arrival and departure lounge, a fitness center, a pool and a bar, plus an owners’ lounge for Ka Haku owners and what it calls Waikiki’s first Japanese-style bathhouse, with a large communal bath, sauna and cold bath. The Star-Advertiser describes separate baths for men and women.
- Ramp-up, per the manager: General Manager Robert Ishihara told the paper, “We’re still hiring, so we’re in a ramp-up period right now.” He named a bar, a lounge, full valet service and two retail outlets as part of what comes with the full opening on New Year’s Day.
- Sales: Ishihara told the paper the tower was about 40% sold as of Thursday, split roughly evenly between buyers from Japan and the mainland.
Those two descriptions of the bar and lounges are not quite the same, and we are not going to reconcile them for HGV. If one specific bar or lounge matters to your trip, ask the resort which one is open on your dates.
What it changes for a Waikiki stay
For most visitors, the change is on the street, not in the lobby.
| What | Status, per the sources | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Kaiulani Avenue | Now two-way for its full length, with left turns onto Kalakaua | Star-Advertiser, Oct. 4, 2026 |
| Public pocket park | Expected to open “within the next two months,” per Ishihara | Star-Advertiser, Oct. 4, 2026 |
| Japanese-style bath | Called “public” in HGV’s 2024 announcement; neither HGV’s Oct. 2026 release nor the Star-Advertiser says whether non-guests can use it | HGV, Nov. 2024 and Oct. 2026 / Star-Advertiser |
| Bar, lounge, full valet, 2 shops | Coming with the full opening on New Year’s Day, per the manager | Star-Advertiser, Oct. 4, 2026 |
If you drive, the two-way Kaiulani is real news: Waikiki Neighborhood Board chair Bob Finley told the paper the building’s parking is off-street and the left turn from Kaiulani onto Kalakaua is done. We don’t rent a car, so for us it mostly means watching for traffic coming from both directions when we cross.
If you are an owner holding an October-through-December reservation at Ka Haku, the ramp-up is the part to read twice. The building is open and taking guests, and HGV lists a pool and bar among its amenities; some of the services that make a club tower feel like a club tower are, by the manager’s own description, still on their way.
What we would do — and what we wouldn’t
We would not move our stay. We already did the point math on this building in Ka Haku or Hokulani?, and an opening date does not change a point chart. For the way we travel, long stays with takeout in the suite and a 2 pm happy hour, more nights beat a newer lobby. That has been our view since we settled on Hokulani and it holds today.
If you are an owner who wants Ka Haku, here is what we would check before using points on it this year:
- Your dates against New Year’s Day. If the lounge, full valet and the shops matter to you, a stay after the full opening gets you the building as designed. If you just want a new suite with a kitchen and a view, the fall may be fine.
- How booking works from your ownership. Neither the Star-Advertiser piece nor HGV’s release and resort page spell out booking rules for owners at other HGV properties. Look in your member portal or call HGV owner services rather than assuming.
- The bath. If the Japanese-style bath is the draw, confirm whether it is open on your dates and who can use it. The “public” description dates from 2024, and HGV’s opening release does not repeat it.
About the sales pitch. A tower that is 40% sold is a tower with a sales team, and a brand-new building is a persuasive place to hear a presentation. We have one rule for that, and it is in our resale-vs-direct question list: a legitimate offer survives a week of thinking. HGV has not published a Ka Haku-specific price in anything we read; the price ranges printed at the bottom of its pages are its general legal disclosure for all of its timeshare products, not a quote for this tower.
What we will probably do is walk over once the pocket park opens and have a look from the sidewalk. That is about as far as our curiosity travels on a warm afternoon.
Before you plan around this
Everything here was checked in early October 2026 against HGV’s Oct. 2 opening release, the Star-Advertiser’s Oct. 4 report, HGV’s resort page, and HGV’s November 2024 announcement. The opening date differs by a day between sources: HGV says it opened the resort Oct. 2, and the Star-Advertiser says the first guests came Oct. 1. The New Year’s Day full opening, the two-month pocket park timeline and the 40% sales figure come from the general manager as reported by the Star-Advertiser, not from an HGV release. Hours, amenity access and booking rules can change during a ramp-up, so confirm with Hilton Grand Vacations before you plan a day around the bath, the bar or the lounge.
Details
- Name: Ka Haku, a Hilton Club
- Address: 133 Kaiulani Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96815 (per HGV)
- Opened: Oct. 2, 2026, per HGV (first guests Thursday, Oct. 1, per the Star-Advertiser)
- Units: 205, per HGV’s October 2026 release
- Full opening: New Year’s Day, per the general manager
New buildings are good news for everyone who likes the old ones, too. Please, go enjoy it.
This is our owner experience as of October 2026, not financial or legal advice; verify current terms with Hilton Grand Vacations.
