Aston at Papakea Resort — Hotel in Maui

I hate to leave a negative review, but my experience here has been awful. It is by far the most unfriendly and odd place I have ever stayed. It's not a place you would go for a family vacation, or bring children under any circumstances. They charge a daily resort fee no matter who you book with but there are absolutely no resort amenities. The front desk is not available when we call during posted hours, they claim to have a concierge service, but in actuality they don't. They claim to have two pools open for use day and evening, but they don't. One pool is open only for a few hours in the middle of the day. same issue with the BBQs. Every guest is required to show ID and their orange Papakea card with room # if on the grounds or using the pool. This rule was elevated to creepy and very "brown shirt" several times.

The pool only has palms around it, so there is no shade. When we booked the place they claimed two pools open until 10:00 so we figured we would use it in the evening, same with the BBQ for dinner. They promptly kick people out at 6:30 even if your BBQ isn't done. Their attitude is "tough luck" it's our new rules. Rules you didn't know about, pay for or sign up for, but they really don't care. This place is basically a retirement home and it would seem they really discourage familys renting and having guests. They don't want anyone using golf course and no playing toss with your kid except by the deadly sea wall. How they justify a "resort fee" is beyond me. I'd like to see them give me one reason to justify a resort fee.

It's basically a condo retirement residence, not a resort, so be prepared for a lot of maintenance noise. Our neighbors have been remodeling all week so constant drill sounds next door during daylight hours. We have a very loud water fountain to keep us up at night. This is combined with the CONSTANT gardening. I'm not exaggerating or being unfair, it's constant mowing and machines. The majority of guests usually leave to go basically anywhere else during the day, so all you see on the grounds is a constant fleet of golf carts. I never realized before I stayed here that you could over manicure a landscape. They claim they don't have enough staff to work all the things they promised. I have an idea for them: Cut down the amount of gardeners, get rid of the ground police and hire some friendly people to work the closed areas.

I asked two of the many people enforcing the orange card rule when they came over to explain the COVID rules (we weren't breaking any rules they just kept interrupting spa, pool, walks and every other family/private activity to remind people of the rules) about why masks need to be worn by the ocean if I was alone, not near anyone, which is a legit question. They were both clearly annoyed I even asked, so from there out singled me out. One of them stopped me while holding two bags of groceries to see my orange card. He knew I was staying there, it was to make his point. I had to put down my groceries on the ground and show him the card. This happened more than once at the pool with an attendant who had met me several.times. It was a total power trip and not about security at all. The other ground watcher walked right past an old couple not wearing a mask to walk almost 40 feet to tell my husband to put his mask on properly. My husband was walking along the shore with me but my mask was on properly so he went after my husband instead, plus he got within about 2 feet distance from my face so we could make sure to properly hear him, which shows it's not COVID he's concerned with. They LOVE power tripping here, but they seem to be the only people enjoying themselves. The guests we met here were all having a miserable time and going next door to the other hotels for dinner and to relax. We met several families who opted for leaving and staying at other places. We are thinking of doing the same but I rented through Airbnb & the lady I rented from was so nice and professional I feel bad asking her for a refund. None of this is her fault & she had no idea it got...

Papakea L401. We stayed there from Sept 3-10, 2024. I've stayed at this resort every year since 1984. Over the years the Aston managed properties have gone really downhill. So I started booking through various AirbNB type sites. The location of this condo is one of the best on the property--corner unit, larger lanai, 2 br. and 2 ba with the loft (unusual on those plans). There was a person bed in the downstairs bedroom and a two person bed and a single in the loft. Both bathrooms had showers, but no bathtubs. The kitchen and bathrooms have been updated and there is a bosch dishwasher and washer and dryer. It comes with plenty of sand chairs, a small cooler and some pool noodles. There's even some other things, but we didn't use them. In the upstairs closet there is a baby gate for the very steep stairs and a high chair. All this was absolutely good. However, it was ruined by the following things--the door had obviously been kicked in or broken and there it was kluged together with some raw wood showing, making us feel less than safe with a broken door. The handle on the refrigerator was literally taped on. While we were eating dinner one night at the table, the fan blade randomly flew off the fan, over our heads and straight into the window. Someone could have really gotten hurt. But that wasn't the worst of it--the place is absolutely, positively filthy. Our feet got black every time we went without shoes because the floor was so dirty--same with the carpeted stairs and bedroom. The upstairs bathroom shower is so slippery you are taking your life into your hands using it. The couch literally smelled like cat pee and even when we added blankets to it the overwhelming smell and filth of the couch kept us from really using it. The couch is also a bed, I can't imagine sleeping in cat pee if we used it, which we didn't. Even the small things, like the fake flowers, had cobwebs in them and didn't look like they'd ever been cleaned since they day the were purchased. Forget figuring out how to turn the TV on--they have instructions in their welcome book, but the instructions didn't work. That didn't matter to us since we're not TV watchers, but if you are, you better be a TV repairman too. There is no TV in the upstairs loft. Having said that, the owners seem to care to give you a better product than Aston does, I think maybe they're unaware of the extreme flith of the place. We also arrived to other people's half used food in the cabinets and their unused food in the refrigerator. Be sure to leave yourself about an hour or so to do all the cleaning (even though you paid a hefty cleaning fee) they want you to do before you leave. I seriously think their cleaners don't even change the bedding as in the singal bed upstairs, one which a child would use, the sheets smelled again, like cat urine. Our only thought is maybe it was used temporarily as housing for fire victims and they had a cat that pee'd everywhere. The mattress on that single definitely needs to be replaced and the entire place needs a deep cleaning and the couch just thrown out and replaced. This could be a 5 star room easily if it was deep cleaned, the door fixed properly, the refrigerator handle actually repaired rather than taped, the fan blades checked to make sure they won't fly off and cut your neck off, and the mattress, bedding and couch replaced. Probably a $1500 fix for the owners. The three mini splits kept the unit nice and cool even in the loft, so that was a great bonus, and they left us a cute welcome gift, which we appreciated. If the items I listed were fixed, it would be my go-to place very year due to the location and amenities in the unit. You really can tell the owners care, but they are probably unaware of the condition...

What an absolute joke this place is! Aston at Papakea is NOT a resort and shouldn’t even be considered by anyone planning an enjoyable vacation to Maui. The money you pay to stay at this place should deserve better services and include things that they charge you separately for. Parking is not included in your stay if you choose to get a rental car. $17 per day you’re there and you’re not even guaranteed a place to park. My wife and I attended a luau and didn’t get back to our room until 10:45pm. We were in building A which is the furthest building away from the main entrance. We couldn’t find a parking spot anywhere except in front of the check in office so we parked there. Upon going to the car the next morning at 9:30am we noticed our rental car had a parking violation under the windshield wiper because the space we parked in was only 15 minute parking. No signs or anything say that, just little red letters/numbers on a dark green curb that can’t be seen unless you’re really looking for it. Never once did we receive room service during our week long stay. Anytime we needed more towels or any other “amenities” if you can call them that, we had to go to the office and get them ourselves. Upon checkout they charge you a $100 cleaning fee automatically, but they expect you to do the following. You must wash/dry all towels that you used in the tiny stackable washer/dryer they have in your room. You must strip the bed of its bedding and wash those as well and if you fail to complete those tasks before checkout, the $100 cleaning fee you’re already being charged for will not cover that. They will charge you an additional fee to cover their ridiculous request to do their jobs for them. The island of Maui was fantastic during our stay! The food was great, snorkeling trip was amazing, food was to die for and the views from multiple lookout points around the island were incredible. Only negative thing was this wannabe resort that doesn’t seems to care about your stay and only wants to collect as much money from you as they can while providing some of the worst service I have experienced during a vacation stay. I’ve had better experiences at Motel 6 and they only charge $60 each night. If you’re looking for a nice place to stay while in Maui, learn from my mistake and don’t choose Aston at Papakea! Unless of course you want to spend your final day doing their laundry for them. Do your research before you spend a lot of money on something you’re hoping will be an...