The name Halekūlani is a combination of Hawaiian words (hale + kū + lani) meaning "House Befitting Heaven".

[8] It brought luxury hospitality executive Peter Shaindlin to Hawaii as CEO of the Halekulani Corporation, overseeing the hotel.

The Kimballs enlarged the resort over the years, purchasing a neighboring plot of land and adding additional buildings.

On January 15, 1981 the hotel was purchased by Mitsui Fudosan USA and incorporated as the Halekulani Corporation, a U.S. based company.

Later it grew into a more conventional hotel with numerous buildings containing several rooms each and two well known restaurants; one being the House Without a Key made famous by the Earl Derr Biggers novel of the same name.