When Four Seasons Resort Lanai closed for renovation in October 2025, the official line was a routine refresh — new soft goods, updated bathrooms, a re-landscaped pool deck. The actual project, as became clear during a hard-hat tour I joined on 4 April with general manager Patrick O’Brien, is something larger.
The reopening on 12 September 2026 will follow eleven months of work and a budget the resort’s parent company, Pulama Lana’i, confirmed at $200 million. That figure, O’Brien said, “covers everything from the back-of-house plumbing to the new villa cluster on the cliff edge.” Pulama Lana’i is the Larry Ellison-owned holding company that has controlled roughly 98% of the island since 2012.
Fourteen new oceanfront villas, ranging from 2,400 to 4,800 square feet, have been built into the western cliffs above Hulopoʻe Bay. Each has a private plunge pool, a dedicated butler kitchen, and an outdoor lava-stone bath. Rates have not been published, but a senior reservations agent confirmed that opening-month nights will start at $7,800 for the smallest villa configuration.
The most striking addition, structurally, is a 2,800-square-foot overwater spa pavilion at the southern end of the resort, the first of its kind in the Hawaiian islands. Built on driven concrete piles to satisfy state coastal-management rules, it houses four treatment suites and a meditation lanai that sits roughly seven meters above the water. The spa will be operated under a new partnership with the Tokyo-based wellness brand SHA, announced 18 February 2026.
For arriving guests, the resort is also re-introducing a long-rumored private-aviation transfer. From 12 September, a leased Pilatus PC-12 operated by Lanai Air will run scheduled hops from Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport to Lanai Airport on demand for in-house guests, at $1,250 per leg per passenger. The aircraft replaces the older Cessna Grand Caravan that previously served the route under a different operator and, importantly, will fly into Honolulu’s commuter terminal rather than the main interisland gates — a meaningful upgrade for guests connecting from long-haul first-class flights.
Existing guests, including Business Travel Today’s Loyal Reader Council, have been notified that all bookings prior to 12 September 2026 are being honored at the previously confirmed rates, even where new villa categories now exist. After that date, the rate cards are new. Standard rooms will start at $2,650 per night, up from $1,950 in the pre-renovation card, and the new Presidential Hale on the cliff edge will list at $24,000.
Whether the renovation justifies the increase is, as always with this category, a question of perspective. The pre-renovation Lanai was already, by most measures, the most exclusive resort hotel in the United States. The post-renovation version is something more deliberate — a cliff-edge enclave with its own air operation, its own spa pavilion, and its own shadow rate sheet. We will be back in October to see whether the operational standard matches the budget.