Hotel: Aqua Aloha Surf
Location: 444 Kanekapolei St., Honolulu (Waikiki)
Type of hotel: Boutique condominium hotel
We stipulated: My high school friend Karen was getting married; she and Joe live in San Francisco, so we see them from time to time. They also came to our wedding; Maria designed their invites; and we've been itching to get back to Hawaii. So when we were invited, it was a no-brainer. I cashed in my American Airlines miles, so all we needed was a hotel and car for 7 nights. We checked Hotwire, and the Aqua Aloha Surf was among the cheapest.
They stipulated: Turns out, and we shouldn't have been surprised, that the Hotwire rate was for their crappiest, smallest rooms (with no balconies). If we wanted a room the three of us (yep, Evan came with) could breathe in, we needed to cough up an extra $20 a night. We did it -- but things were no longer super cheap. Also, parking was an extra $15 a day -- but we managed to find street parking throughout the stay. (Granted, our rental car was hit in the bumper as a result.)
High point: The Aqua Aloha offers free Internet in every room -- so we brought our laptop along. And that was indeed a great perk. At night after Evan went to bed, I could surf the web, check out restaurants we needed to hit.. and yes, blog, so none of you would start to wonder why Franklin Avenue was dormant. Also, the hotel offers a continental breakfast delivered to your room every morning -- yogurt, muffins and juice drinks (as well as coffee downstairs). Definitely a nice perk. And honestly, other than the car getting hit, the fact that the hotel was close enough to the free parking on Ala Wai Blvd. helped us save a bit of money. (Of course, if I ultimately have to pay for the damage to our rental, that perk is moot.)
Low point: For starters, the hotel staff really didn't know what they were doing. When I couldn't get the Internet to work at first, they were clueless -- and told me to call Verizon Wireless. I checked the wires and noticed that this was a cable modem -- so I decided to call the local Time Warner Cable outpost, and after calling around enough times, finally found someone to help me. Also, when I asked for change to feed the expensive Waikiki parking meters, they could've, oh I dunno, mentioned that it was a state holiday and that I didn't need to worry about it! (Argh!) Finally, for a hotel that just underwent a renovation, it's still kind of rough around the edges. This was a cheap renovation -- paint a few walls, throw in a new carpet and fresh fixtures, and that's it.
Overall impression: The hotel grew on me throughout the week, as I came to really appreciate the free Internet and free breakfast. But the weak service was disappointing -- no one filled us in on the hotel services (we didn't find out until the last day that we could have borrowed towels and mats for the beach).
Chance we will go back: Highly unlikely. By the time we paid to upgrade to a larger room, the hotel was suddenly no longer a bargain. By the way, we'll probably also avoid doing a package deal again with Hotwire. At the end of the day, I think it would have been cheaper to book the hotel and rental car separately online with the Aqua Aloha Surf and with Hertz.
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