Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel

No breakfast uncomfortable beds very dirty gave my daughter lice

Should be Less money for what is being offered I would never go again for the experience we had.

100% not a 4-star hotel, 1000% would not book again. Facilities are worn, tired, and much different than advertised--rooms are bare, with damaged furniture and the advice from other reviewers about needing flip-flops for the bathroom floors? Follow it. After asking to switch rooms because we booked a king, not a double room, we were told none were available. After complaints about state of the bathroom's floor and old toothpaste globbed all over the sink, the front desk was able to "pull some strings" and landed us in the room we originally booked, with a cleaner sink and marginally cleaner floor. Other guests were listening at this point, so I suspect that helped. After being frank with the front desk about our dissatisfaction with the bathroom (see below) We finally ended up in an "Ocean View" room, which was the exact same room with the exact same problems. Rooms are spatially adequate, but only include a bed and bar-height tables with stools--nowhere to comfortably sit. Bathrooms are barely serviceable, with towel racks, shower rods, etc. visibly pulling out of the walls. Caked-on dirt in the shower made it feel vaguely unsanitary, and once-white tiled floors were full of broken tiles, and grout stained with mold? urine? dirt? left me wishing I had brought those flip flops. The entire space has also clearly been painted over and over again, adding to the college-dorm feeling. Towels are scratchy and often have stains on them, as do the sheets. The worst part of the rooms was the sliding door/window system--our own door rattled and banged whenever one of our neighbors closed their doors. I was woken up at all hours of the night to what sounded like someone trying to break into our room, when in reality someone was just stepping outside. On-site parking is mandatory valet at ~$47/day+tax, considerably higher than surrounding properties after a quick web search. Valet is understaffed, so factor +15-25 min just to get your car. You'll also be forced into paying ~$39/day+tax "Resort Fee," for which you will receive absolutely no value. Even as they advertise that this covers all manner of services, good luck actually finding the amenities to enjoy. The only info given about these is on a slide which displays for 2 seconds every few minutes by the front desk (see photos). What we found was a motel masquerading as a high-rise hotel, with rooms that made me nostalgic for my old college dorm. I will caveat that all staff we spoke to were kind and polite, if not necessarily the most helpful. Despite our complaints about the bathroom, we heard no acknowledgement about our concerns, but were just continually offered an upgraded room with a view (an ocean view does not make up for the decrepit bathrooms). Staff's positive attitudes are not nearly enough to overcome the quality of the service and accommodations offered by the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel.

Anbushed in the lobby

Location is good.

The actual room we are staying in is smallish and dated, but the location is pretty decent - south end of Waikiki nearer to Diamond Head. Probably rates as 4 stars, but I have to demote it because of the aggressive timeshare people patrolling their lobby to intercept guests. After a long 13+ hours of travel, we arrived exhausted to be greeted by a young lady literally right off the elevator opening onto the lobby floor. She promised to help us get settled and seemed to be someone with the hotel. In fact, she works for Diamond Resorts, a company trying to re-brand timeshare scams into modern points-based vacation packages. What we thought was the hotel helping us get checked in and settled turned into a sales pitch about discounts on various tours, etc. if we just attended a presentation the next morning. The presentation was pitched as 2 hours, and no obligation, etc. We were pretty dazed from the travel and they were talking about saving hundreds of $ for a short presentation, so we agreed to this. You can (and should) google Diamond Resorts and educate yourself about them, and that's another story. We didn't buy anything, but they used super aggressive sales tactics and eventually basically insulted us for not agreeing to play ball and part with several thousand dollars on the spot. Here's the rub - as I was (later) researching Diamond Resorts, some of the cautionary tales about them I read were from people ambushed at other Aston properties - Maui, etc. So, I canned my plan to complain to the manager here, because clearly they condone, if not support, the Diamond Resorts people. Not sure, they might even be owned by the same private equity firm (Apollo). So, I recommend avoiding all Aston properties, as they allow their guests to be harassed and ambushed by overly aggressive scam artists.