The Shiatsu Massage Center — Local services in Honolulu

We came in late on the day we flew into Waikiki to inquire about massage appointments for our party of 4. I understand it can be hard to fit in 4 people for same day appointments, and even next day appointments. So we agreed to 11:30 am slots 2 days from then. The guy at the reception had us fill out paper slips with our names and everything… but then something odd happened. Where he had originally told us a 50% deposit would be required, and we’re pulling out our cards to pay, he then tells us ‘oh you’re all set, you don’t need to pay a deposit’. So we retire back to our hotel…cause you know, we’re bone tired from a dozen hours of flight travel.

True to OUR word, we show up for our 11:30 am appointment. That’s when the receptionist tells us there’s no appointment booked in the system. We’re like yes we did book appointments, filled out little paper slips and everything. She then rifles through a pile of these paper slips that are off to the side and true enough, she finds the 4 slips that we had filled out. When we describe the man who had taken our reservation 2 days prior, we find out that he’s the owner. So this behavior is coming from the top folks.

The irony is that as we walked out of his shop that night, we suspected he might do something like this! And it’s exactly what he did lol. When you’re a POC, you become attuned to these things. He should have gotten rid of our appointment slips though, so there would be less evidence of his bigotry 🙄. Like, why the duplicity? Why waste our time? Reading some of these other reviews after the fact, this man claims to be going for this ‘soothing vibe’. Well, this ain’t it. The vibe was off from the get go. It was this weird, manufactured, fake Zen vibe. That’s some fake Aloha when you’re treating patrons like this. Partition your space better with enclosed spaces if you’re worried about protecting the people getting massages from excess noise.

POC, please patron elsewhere. There are plenty of wonderful massage shops in Waikiki. We ended up being accommodated with wonderful massages by Lana Kohola Massage on Royal Hawaiian Ave after this man...

I’m in Oahu on vacation and decided to splurge and get a massage. i walked by and saw the massage place. They were clear with their prices including tax and gratuity up front. I was skeptical spending more than I normally do for a massage, but I am so glad I did!

Matt really is a gifted massage therapist. He gave me one of the best deep tissue massages I’ve had in my life yesterday, and I‘ve had a lot of massages! I was hesitant to have a man give me a massage, but I’m so glad I had him do it. He was totally professional and I never felt uncomfortable. He used the perfect amount of pressure for me, which is a lot. He has really strong, nice hands. He used some techniques I’ve never had before and they felt amazing. Like massaging both calves at once. Or one part of my arm, and another part of my back at the same time. I am a Hairstylist & group fitness instructor and my muscles get really tight. He worked them so well without hurting me and got all of my tension out. He used a small pillow under my head and it was wonderful! I’ve never had anyone use a pillow under my head during a massage. He also covered my hair while he was doing the massage. I’ve never had that either. My hair is long and gets in the way sometimes during a massage if I don’t have it pulled back. The atmosphere was nice there also. It was clean and relaxing, with good lighting, relaxing music and a sound machine to block out anyone else in the other rooms around us. I would highly recommend a massage from Matt! If I lived near him, I would be a...

Received a massage from this place and there was a luau that started 10 minutes into my massage, and I could hear everything because the luau was in front of the shop. The massage wasn’t relaxing due to the constant drums and singing taking place in front of the establishment. I requested a discount due to the inconvenience and the front desk insisted that the massage is already discounted (which you get an automatic discount for booking over a certain amount of time) there’s a message on my appointment stating that and said perhaps they should’ve told me prior to my massage. Yes, they should have provided this information before I did my massage because if you don’t frequent the area you may not know the schedule for luaus like I didn’t.

I reviewed my booking and there was no note that this luau was happening. I understand the massage center has no control over the luau but as a returning customer they were inflexible as I tried to resolve it with them directly, so make sure you know all events that are going on during your massage that may affect the quality.

Lastly, the Massuese that worked on me for 75 minutes had nails that needed to be cut down that kept digging into my back. I addressed this directly with her in case she didn’t know. She did a great job despite this. The biggest issue I had was the luau and the way the owner went about it but that can be avoided by knowing the...