Aston Waikiki Sunset — Attraction in Honolulu

We stayed at this hotel in room 1906. We just left and I could hardly wait to write this review. This hotel experience was bearly tolerable. Upon arrival, the entire front of this hotel was blocked off/dug up for construction, which happened to be plumbing related. The lobby smelled like feces the entirety of our stay. Parking was difficult because a great deal of the parking structure too was dug up for construction, and the remaining area filled up fast, accommodating 35+ floors of people in a small 4 floor parking structure. The people sitting in the garage giving and checking parking tickets were unpleasant, to say the least. And the front desk people seemed unhappy with life as well. The hotel was extremely dated, looked ran down, and the energy lacked from the very start. There are over 35 floors sharing 1-2 elevators because 2-3 of the 4 elevators were down at any given time. Every time we had to take an elevator, we waited nearly 10-15 minutes to get into one and every time it was packed full of people/luggage/pool floaties to over max capacity, definitely a hazard. As for the room, it was disappointing. The kitchette was the star for sure. Stocked well with almost everything we needed to cook and clean up. It lacked salt/pepper/coffee filters, but what we were missing, we were able to pick up from the market located in the same building. It was very disappointing to have a room with an uncomfortablely close/direct view of another apartment building that had offensively intrusive outdoor lighting penetrating our windows. The curtains had to remain closed as soon as the sun started to set, which defeated the purpose of the balcony and paying extra for a "view". The construction also made it impossible to enjoy the balcony...I went out in the mornings to try to enjoy what little of the ocean I could see through the building(s) but all I could hear was loud jackhammering/drilling at 730am. The bed was extremely hard. The pillows were cheap cotton filled atrocities that were offensively flat. The tv in the bedroom did not work. We had to move the common area tv into the bedroom. The walls were paper thin. We could hear noises around us and especially above us. The wifi was terrible. The air-conditioning was LOUD and woke my partner and I every time it came on. ALSO, the air conditioning liked to turn itself off completely, seemingly at random, and I awoke several times in a puddle of my own sweat. I had some of the worst sleep ever on this vacation. To add the cherry on top of this experience, around 1030 pm on December 4th we were startled from our slumber to the entire hotel being evacuated because of a false fire alarm. It was not fun being jolted awake in the middle of the night and trekking down 19 flights of stairs in fear to sit in the rain for 30-40 minutes to discover it was for no reason at all. To pay the price we did to stay at this lackluster spot at baseline would have been a hard enough pill to swallow... but to pay the price we did for a hotel that was actively falling apart and being glued back together during our stay is almost unbearable to think about. This hotel should be ashamed charging what they do to stay there and definitely shouldn't be charging the usual price during this terribly inconvenient construction period. This hotel was hell, not paradise. I wouldn't recommend the Aston Waikiki Sunset to even my worst enemy....

THIS IS NOT A 4 STAR PROPERTY AND I EXPLAIN WHY BELOW!

Lets talk about the Property. The floors just have some kind of smell in the hallways . First the room. Had a 1 bedroom w/kitchen. The carpet and laminate is so dirty it turns your socks/feet black in a day/night. The kitchen refrigerator seal around the door is barely on and rusted all around the door. OLD. The oven is all greasy inside and they are not cleaning it. The bottom of microwave above stove is so greasy and dirty and missing a vent screen. The toaster did not work had to request a new one. The furniture is old all scratched up pealing and very dated. The A/C unit will not cool off the room even if ran 24 hours a day. Both telephones in the room did not work . Probably because they are so old. When i needed TP, Paper towels, Coffee etc. I had to go down to the desk to get them because i could not call them!!!

The property did say on websites that there is construction. But when you book a room w/kitchen you expect to be able to use it. I checked in and was told no power till 4:30pm then the next day no power for 4 hours in the morning. So how i am to go buy food and keep it in a refrigerator that don't work? And for that matter even cook . That Is the reason i Booked a room w/kitchen?

And keep in mind your still paying full price for these rooms PERIOD! when i went to the front desk to talk with a manager . The person went to the back and then came back picked up a phone handed it to me and the manager talk with me on a phone. I have never stayed on a property where the management would not come talk with there quest. That is the most disrespectful and rude thing i have seen management do on a property. This happen twice. I asked to be compensated and or discounted for not be able to use the room correctly as advertised and received nothing but excuses.

The room was cleaned once in 7 days by a maid. On the 4th morning a maid came. She left the past 4 days of towels on the floor in a pile. They sat there with other towels for the week . Till i left on the 7th day in the bathroom wet smelly and probably starting to mold . . Left 1 bag of coffee for next 3 days ?? Really . And i asked to leave extra . Humm . The sheets on the bed had stains on them. Not sure the maid even changed them on the 4th day. Looked like blood stains on them also.

The FIRE ALARMS go off multiple times 3 time in my 6 days. This property has 37 floors . Now if your elderly or disabled. You will be going down multiple floors of stairs. A police Officer told me this happens all the time due to the kitchens in the rooms. And has been happening a long time this property is famous for this said the police officer. And may be other issues ?

You can make you own choices when booking this property but i would seriously look at the low star reviews . I have gone over a lot of reviews for this property.. Personally i believe the low stars over the high stars now that i have actually stayed there now.

This is how i would rate this property, 1 STAR...

SPEND YOUR VACATION STAY DOLLARS ELSEWHERE. While I completely understand COVID issues and how that has changed the hospitality industry (I am a small business owner in the service industry), when it came to this part of our much anticipated vacation, we were disappointed and honestly quite fed up with the Aston Waikiki Sunset at every point along the way. Some of the issues we encountered: The rooms are just “meh”. ESPECIALLY for paying over $3k to stay here for a week, I expect an overly clean room, plenty of blankets and towels, cookware, usable balcony space, solid interior doors (not ones that have slats in them and can be peered through), working windows, hot water, open and accessible amenities as advertised, and the list goes on.

Additionally, these items were also ridiculous and or need attention:

griping at people to pull up a mask while their security staff weren’t wearing one at all. telling guests they must reserve an OUTDOOR POOL time, but failing to answer the phone when guests attempt to call to make said reservation. (And also sending your pool Bouncer to boot people out when there was NO ONE ELSE THERE, if the “time had expired”.) allowing only 5 people at the pool, and only for an hours time, to then require 30 minutes after to sanitize. How bad are your chemicals that they aren’t working in the first place? Also, do you not think that we are all swimming together in the ocean, right next to each other? ALSO.. having us sign our life away in a waiver to swim in your pool would negate your liability should someone “contaminate” your pool.

the trash, dirt and grime in and around your building needs to be addressed. I understand you can’t do anything about the homeless community hanging out, but if you don’t take care of the outside issues, how can you not expect them to Use it as a garbage can also?

The “market” in the hotel is basically an offering of a smelly replica of a third-world open air market. Had almost nothing, crazy over priced (as expected), and I’ve honestly had better experiences in actual third world countries with markets.

*your parking pass system is in dire need of streamlining. You should simply add a daily charge for parking to the room for the duration of a guest’s stay rather than having someone attempt to navigate through a broken stall with different directions from whomever is working that shift on how to insert one ticket, but grab another, but pay for the last hours you were there, but you need a new ticket when you come back, but also it’s prorated when you come Back so you’ll need an additional ticket. What the heck.

All in all, if I could do it again, a thousand times over I would stay somewhere else. I’ve been to Oahu before, but this was by far the most...