Originally Posted by
Baghoarder
@
MacMyDay, looking forward to a comparative review of Kokomo and Laucala (of contemporaneous stays), especially given some of the patchy reports on Laucala!
I'm afraid that review will not be forthcoming. You would not want to see a comparison between an Airbus 380 compared to a penny farthing, which is what you would get in Laucala vs Kokomo. This is not to say that Kokomo is a bad resort, it's just in a different league and even feels from a different era than Laucala. Laucala may have celebrated its 10th anniversary last month, with Kokomo just celebrating their first, but the latter already feels dated. I was hoping and expecting so much more from the latest-and-greatest, but the hard product couldn't put up a fight against a bound and beaten Cheval Blanc Randheli or The Brando, both of which are nearing 6 years old and similarly priced. We even found ourselves unfavourably comparing the majority of it to Miavana. Start comparing it to Laucala and it'd be like watching Megatron fight Bambi. The problem is that it felt cheap; cheap materials, cheap rooms, cheap facilities. The room a particular let down; failing to deceive that it was poorly thought through and badly maintained.
Looks like Long John Silver had a car boot sale
I get it: parts are rustic, but you can do rustic and be classy, see Messrs Island, North and Laucala. The story around Kokomo was Lane Walker coming in to save the day with $100m to complete the abandoned property, but I cannot help but believe that's a nice story rather than the reality. I fail to see see where the money went, other than on marketing boffins coming up with the innovative named restaurant: Walker d'Plank. And deciding how many stars they should have whilst rewording what all-inclusive means. Alcohol is an optional daily supplement of $150 per person, so I think they've taken the all-inclusive name in vain a bit there.
Welcome to Kokomo Island Fiji, where pristine reefs set the scene for an unrivalled, all-inclusive 6 Star experience
Their key differentiator is that the service truly was fantastic, with it being superior to Laucala on my 2016 stay, and so far on our current stay. Far superior. Truly wonderful, caring service throughout from everyone; GM down. When I told him my thoughts on the hard product, it broke both our hearts. I just don't consider amazing service enough reason to visit a property that takes over 24 hours for us Brits to get to and charges $3600/n for their standard room category. Sadly, with that the case, it means Kokomo has already peaked - it cannot get any better. No one became a billionaire by wasting money, so I doubt he'll want to restart all over again and build it to a competitive level, no matter how wonderful my feedback is.
It's a good property, it's just not a great one - and at these prices, it needs to be.