Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel

We had a issue with a scratch on our car in the valet. Basically, it was unclear how it got there, and we were pretty sure it wasn't from us. The manager Allan told us not to worry, they would take care of it with Enterprise. Sounds good right. WRONG! Now that it is time to pay Enterprise, the hotel has gone silent and won't respond to Enterprise or us. How unprofessional! At least tell us you are no longer going to take responsibility. Very unprofessional management. Read less

When I booked this hotel I knew it was near the beach but I did not realize it was actually right across the street. Such easy and quick access. It is also near great shopping and dining options. So location was great- but a very busy tourist area so be prepared for crowds. The hotel staff was friendly and since they didn't have a king bed room ready when we checked in, they upgraded us to an ocean view room for any inconveniences this caused. I appreciated that little but of customer service. The view was awesome. The room was clean. They also gave us some refillable water bag/bottle things and there are a couple of places in the hotel with nice cold filtered water available to fill them up. They also have complementary sun screen available in a big pump by the pool. I have seen reviews complaining about the elevators and ran into a couple of other guests while we were there who were having trouble figuring it out, but honestly, I didn't think it was that complicated and never had a problem or a long wait. We preferred the time we spent on the island's North shore but I would definitely stay here again if I wanted to stay in the Waikiki area again. Read less

Thanks to Paula at Travel to Paradise for setting this up for us. Great location at Diamond Head end of the beach. Friendly and helpful staff. Room with an ocean view. Yes, there were homeless people across the street from the hotel. Have some compassion for these folks who are obviously less fortunate than us. Mahalo Paula for finding this little gem! Read less

It's really hard to say definitively whether we enjoyed staying at this property or not as the pros and cons are equal. First off is the location. For us, having never been to Waikiki Beach we wanted easy access to the beach - you can't get better than Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel for this. Yet after several visits to the beach, we didn't want to be actually on the beach so much due to 1) crowds and 2) homeless/drunks. We couldn't believe how many drunks were loitering around, right next to where kids are playing. We are from NZ where there are some beaches you can pretty much have to yourself most of the year so it was weird squeezing your beach towel on the sand next to somebody! So having now been to Waikiki Beach itself, a hotel ON the beach/directly across from the beach would not be a top priority for us here! If it is your number one thing on your list - you're not going to get much better in terms of beach location, The elevators/reception are at the best of times - FRUSTRATING! The front desk/reception is on the 3rd floor, so when you arrive you either have to take the elevator or escalators up to the 3rd floor where the front desk is - by the pool! IF your room is ready early, you'll then be introduced to the strange elevator system where you press what floor you want into the keypad, swipe your room key and it will tell you which elevator (A, B, C etc) you will need to get into. At times - given that there were only 3 elevators that serviced the ENTIRE hotel (another 3 went up or down from the pool level (3) only) - it was chaos on level 1 waiting for an elevator and it made us not want to pop down or out for coffee etc, knowing we'd have to run the gauntlet of the elevators each way. The rooms are very small, quite dated - and this was a bit one for us - seemingly ZERO noise proofed. You can hear every little thing going on down on the street - and we were 10 floors up! It took brute force to open the ranchslider to go onto the balcony. The bed had NO blankets and just a sheet with another sheet on top. We were cold most nights. A note had been left from the housekeeper saying to let her know if there was anything we needed during our stay. So I left a note asking for some blankets - to no avail! There is NO laundry on site. Never thought this would be an issue for us, but we were there for 8 nights, in and out of wet bathing suits - boy how we could have used a laundry! The closest laundromat was a good 15 minutes away and everything I read said to be careful for the homeless coming in and stealing washing from the machines. Luckily we moved on to Aulani in Ko Olina on our 8th day where the front desk even gave us free tokens for their laundry so we could do some washing while we waited for our room to be ready, The front desk at Aston were always friendly and helpful. Front Desk don't seem interested in going above and beyond for anything though (like the example with Aulani above) When we asked for a luggage trolley to come up on the day we were leaving, they said we'd have to wait 30 minutes at least! So we just struggled with the ridiculous elevator system and 11 items of luggage ourselves! The pool is so over powered with chlorine that we had super red eyes every time we had swam and it's shaded by the hotel itself, which is great on a super hot day, but get's chilly on a colder day. Nothing special about the pool area really. The activities that are run pool-side are great though. The good stuff - the little gift shop on level 1. Given that there are ABC shops what seems like every two steps in Waikiki, I much preferred the little gift shop at Aston. Same prices as ABC on a lot of things, cute little gifts and the ladies that worked there were so lovely. We had selected a partial ocean view room. For a partial ocean view - it was a pretty good view! The NYE fireworks were right in front of us and that was with a SIDE room. So no need to upgrade to an ocean view room if you are offered the chance really. Wolfgang Puck Express was a good, cheap alternative to dining out. Staff are great there and you never have to wait too long. We did miss Wolfgang once we left Waikiki! Right across the road from Honolulu Zoo, short walk to Waikiki Aquarium, a five minute Uber ride to Diamond Head and a few minutes walk to the bus stops - all great points. So we're mixed on this place really. I wouldn't rush to stay there again but it's not the worst hotel I've stayed at. For the price, it could be better though, Definitely in need of a face lift!!! Read less