Slice over a third off the regular price, plus get a free night? That makes for a tempting pupu-platter of savings, and that's what is being advertised right now by the Honua Kai Resort and Spa on Maui. Its  Summer Special promises 35% off published rates plus a fifth night free for a studio or one-bedroom suite. If you opt for a two- or three-bedroom unit, you can’t score the free night, but you supposedly still get 35% off.

Booking a condo-like suite on vacation means lots of family-friendly convenience—separate rooms, full kitchen, washing machine—but often that comes with a trade-off where you forfeit a lot of resort-y perks such as a kids' club, golf or gym. Yet this 628-suite resort, located on Ka`anapali’s North Beach, also boasts plenty of amenities, such as a beach with water sports, an “aquatic playground” with pools and slide, golf, a fitness center and a kids' program for ages 3 to 12. There’s a full restaurant and also an on-site market and deli, so you can make the most of your suite’s kitchen.

Deal or no deal? It's impossible to know if you're truly getting a deal when the “published” rates are nowhere to be found, and there's a troubling lack of transparency here. When we checked late-June dates online, we could see that the fifth night had been factored out of the package price: a $341 rate for a one-bedroom suite with mountain view, cut down to $272, reflecting a 20% difference for that free night. So where's that 35 percent savings?  A reservations representative told us that the rack rate is actually $525, but we couldn't find that information anywhere on the site, and even the reservations agent wasn't sure where that rate might be published for the public. And here's one annoying resort-like feature we could do without: a $25 daily resort fee on top of the room rate. 

Still, you do get one free night in the studios and one-bedroom suites. And if you can wait until late summer, when the offer ends, you will get a better price. In late August, the rate for that mountainview one-bedroom goes down to $263 a night, before the resort fee. 

The Summer Special is good from June 13 through August 21, based upon double occupancy for a studio and one-bedroom or for up to four people in two- or three-bedroom suites. You must stay at least five nights to book the offer. Book online or by calling reservations at 888/718-5789.