A new "serenity pool" at the Wailea Beach Marriott Resort & Spa scheduled to open Dec. 15 is part of $80 million in renovations being done at the Maui resort as the international chain updates its properties statewide.

By the end of next year, Marriott will have spent more than $253 million over a three-year period on properties across the state, said Ed Hubennette, Marriott International's vice president for Japan, Hawai'i and the South Pacific.

The company also just spent $55 million at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa on the Big Island and plans to spend $55 million on the Kaua'i Marriott next year, $28 million on the JW Marriott at Ko Olina and $35 million on the rooms at the Waikiki Marriott, he said.

He said the challenges are different on each island. "Waikiki is opening up. I think Waikiki became too dense," but that's been changing over the last decade amid hundreds of millions of dollars in continuing renovations.

Hubennette said the Neighbor Island properties are seeing the benefit of improvements that include state and county governments helping to improve the roads and other infrastructure, while individual hotels work to refine their images individually.

So why are pools so important at oceanfront resorts? "The pool is still a focus point of everybody's resort vacation," Hubennette said. "People really want to see the ocean," he said, and walk on the beach and enjoy dramatic views. But relaxing by the pool, having a cool drink brought to you on your lounge chair still ends up a central part of a warm-weather holiday, he said.

And some hotels — like at Wailea — allow you to do both at once. "You can lay by the pool and literally watch the whales in season," he said. "The pool is where people hang out and spend their time."

Hubennette said his chain and others need to keep up with the amenities that people now associate with a vacation: the size of the bathtub, the rain showerhead, the plush bedding, the flat-screen TV, the high-speed wireless Internet connection.

He said that idea keeps updating, such as the ability to sit in the lobby to check your e-mail through the wireless connection or "plugging your iPod into a sound system in the room to travel with your own music."

Hubennette said the Waikoloa resort on the Big Island also has added an "infinity pool" that spills over to the resort's other pool. He said the updates at that 555-room hotel also include the first new hotel ballroom built in the state in a decade. The Naupaka Ballroom is 12,000 square feet.

But he said Marriott works to ensure that its resorts reflect the style and the culture of the neighborhood and state. "We really get that the hotel has to be part of the community," he said.

Hubennette said Island resorts have an enviable place to live but must work to improve what they have while preserving the Island sense of place and culture. "It still is the dream vacation for people all over the world," he said.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.