It Takes a Village to Host a Tourist

11:38 a.m.

Already awash in historic materials, marketing director Lora Gallagher is on the hunt for more trivia to add to the hotel’s “history wall.” What do Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and President Barack Obama have in common? They’ve all stayed in the Presidential Suite on the top two floors in Alii Tower; in fact, the White House booked the entire 348-room tower for U.S. delegates during the APEC Conference in 2011. Three months before his murder in Dallas in 1963, President John F. Kennedy stayed here, after an open-car motorcade through Waikiki.