Aston Waikiki Joy Hotel Rating: 2.0 Pearls

Waikiki, Honolulu, Oahu

Book now by phone with Hotels.com – Call 1-800-246-8357

The massage chair

Oh, Joy. I knew I was in for trouble when I saw this hotel on my itinerary. Any place that calls itself the "Joy" must be compensating for something.

Okay, so the most trouble I encountered at this small hotel in the heart of Waikiki was missing the free breakfast because it ends at 9 a.m. (and I was up late, um, writing hotel reviews). But the 93-room Joy was far and away the worst hotel on my trip to Oahu -- and not even the cheapest. (The Sheraton Princess Kaiulani offers much more for less.) The saddest part is that the Joy's failures aren't from lack of effort. The koi and turtle ponds, the welcome coupons, the brand-new fitness center ("Now available!" say the signs in the elevators), the effective but totally random massage chair in the middle of the open-air lobby... You can tell they're trying. The overall effect is that of a fourth grader who studies his heart out for the big test and still comes up short: You can't help feeling sorry for the kid.

It could very well be that the Joy's many Japanese guests didn't find the hotel as depressing as I did. (Alas, no way for me to know -- a bit of a language barrier there.) With bilingual signage, a lending library filled mostly with Japanese titles, and a Japanese restaurant that doubles as a karaoke bar (plus 16 private rooms upstairs, open until 4 a.m.), the Joy does everything it can (that effort again...) to appeal to its Japanese base. And it has succeeded to at least some extent: When I was there, business was pretty good, and I was often the only American around.

But most American travelers would likely prefer any one of the following hotels, some of which are comparably priced, several of which are even cheaper: the Park Shore, the Aston Waikiki Beach, Hotel Renew, the Aqua Palms, the Aqua Waikiki Pearl, the Waikiki Parc, the Ohana East, or the Ilima.

The front desk

Generally, you get what you pay for when it comes to service. The Joy is no exception. It doesn't compensate for its lack of frills -- yes to bellmen, valet parking and daily housekeeping, no to a concierge or activities desk -- with personalization or over-the-top warmth. But everyone I encountered, from the front-desk clerks to the wait staff at the restaurant, was competent and solicitous. When I tried to check in early, for instance, and my room wasn't ready, the woman at the front desk took down my cell phone number, gave me a recommendation for lunch, and called me when the room was ready.

• No room service
• No concierge or activities desk
• Bellman and valet parking

View on a Larger Map

The Joy sits on one of the many side streets that span Waikiki's two major arteries, Kuhio and Kalakaua. So the immediate area is less heavily trafficked (by car or foot) than those main drags, giving it a decidedly suburban feel. Starbucks is across the street. Down the block is a Whaler's convenience store; around the corner, an IHOP. Indeed, were it not for the Nani Aloha Street store next door selling schlocky signs ("NO CLOTHES BEYOND THIS POINT") and Obama bobbleheads, you wouldn't even know you were in Hawaii.

A block away is Kalakaua Avenue, a touristy, milelong stretch of shops, restaurants, and high-rise hotels that runs along Waikiki Beach on Oahu's southeast coast. It offers a curious blend of mainland creature comforts and local flavor. On the sidewalks, Japanese tourists intermingle with tanned locals, surfboards under their arms, on their way to the beach to catch a few waves after work. On both sides of the street, high-end retailers -- Tiffany, Cartier, and yes, even an Apple store -- are interspersed with indoor malls and streetside vendors hawking cheap seashell jewelry and T-shirts. Seemingly every mid-market chain restaurant can be found here -- Cheesecake Factory, California Pizza Kitchen, Tony Roma's -- along with more than a handful of Starbucks and fast-food joints. And towering above it all: 40-story, thousand-room hotels dotting the landscape like pins in a cushion.

• Wide variety of shopping, dining, and drinking -- all within walking distance
• Cheap and easy to get around Waikiki via "The Bus" ($2.25/person to go any distance)
• Honolulu International Airport is a 15-minute, $35 cab ride

Loosely speaking, the entire 1.5-mile stretch of sand alongside Kalakaua Avenue is known as Waikiki Beach. In reality, it's more like three separate beaches, the borders of which vary depending on whom you ask. The Joy is located five to 10 minutes by foot from the Fort DeRussy section, which is far less crowded than its more famous neighbor to the southeast, Queen's Beach. The water is shallow, warm, and calm, making Fort DeRussy a decent place to swim, especially for kids.

• Public beach
• Ocean bottom is rocky, unlike neighboring Queen's Beach
• Lifeguards monitor the beach throughout the day
• Free towels, provided by the hotel
• Umbrellas and lounge chairs must be rented from one of the many Star Beach Boys stands; chairs are $5 an hour, $20 a day; for two chairs and an umbrella, it's $10 an hour, $50 a day.
• Water sports equipment like surfboards and boogie boards available for rental at the Star Beach Boys stands

The Standard Room

The Joy's 93 rooms are divided between two buildings. The guest rooms are in one tower, the suites in the other. The main difference is size; either way, you won't be sleeping in style. The standard rooms start at about 320 square feet -- pretty, well, standard for Waikiki. They're bright -- credit the large sliding glass doors to the balconies -- but the charms end there. The walls are chipped, the AC blows onto your head while you sleep, and the balconies offer views of the street. The desks, which are big enough to set a laptop on, are paired with short padded foot stools, so you have nothing to lean back on.

Everything about these rooms screams 1986, from the tape decks built into the dresser (yes, really) to the faded floral motif. Dig those coverlets, that two-seater. And check out those flowers painted on the mirror. Even a name-brand feature that sounds impressive -- the Bose speakers built into the desk -- are as outdated and beat-up as the other technology.

• Beds are what you'd expect for the price. The Serta Monitor 266 mattresses are filled with polyester urethane foam. The result? Untoward springiness. Ditto the pillows (100% polyester fiber filling)
• Dan River Hospitality sheets are standard-issue 55% cotton-45% polyester blend.
• The TVs, 24-inch Sony Trinitrons, show about 35 channels of basic cable.
• Wired Internet costs $10 a day; no Wi-Fi
• The room's highlight (granted, not saying much...) is the Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom, which might also be your best bet for bathing, as the shower head's water pressure is subpar.
• Bath products are hotel brand.

The pool

The Joy has the feel of a roadside motel, and the pool deserves 50 percent of the credit, if that's the word, for that aura. Check it out, and don't say I didn't warn you. Shades of Motel 6. The gym, meanwhile, is merely a converted guest room with a few cardio machines shoehorned in at odd angles. To be fair, the machines are modern and well maintained (perhaps "rarely used" is more apt). I even saw a piece of equipment I'd never seen before: a PowerBlock ("World's Best Dumbell") variable-weight dumbbell.

• Gym is $5 per day -- the only hotel on my trip, which included $300-a-night places, that charged extra; rental of the entire room for "exclusive 'private' use" for $10.
• Shuttles to Hanauma Bay ($12 round trip), Pearl Harbor ($11), and the airport ($9 per person)
• Valet parking costs $20 per night -- pretty standard for Waikiki.
• One fun little bonus at check-in: $5 (i.e., five songs) worth of karaoke credit at Cappuccinos
• Honor-system lending library, mainly stocked with books in Japanese (plus a few Danielle Steels and such classic beach reads as Business Policy: Text and Cases (Third Edition)
• The best feature -- probably the best thing, period -- is the free massage chair in the lobby.

I wouldn't recommend the Joy as a family place any more than I would on the whole, which is not at all. But if you do bring the kids here, note that rollaways cost $30 extra per night and will fit only in superior-size rooms and above. Cribs are free and can fit in any room.

Balcony in the Standard Room

For a place so badly in need of a renovation -- the technology and decor need a complete overhaul -- the property is quite well maintained. Even the pool, otherwise devoid of appeal, is perfectly clean.

The only time that cleanliness (or rather, the lack thereof) bothered me was on my balcony, where the chairs were dusty, the railing was marred by avian dive-bombings, and the floor was too dirty to walk on with bare feet. Apparently balconies aren't on the daily housekeeping checklist. In the Joy's defense, however, they don't seem to be on many other hotels' daily checklist either.

Cappuccinos

The Joy's restaurant, Cappuccinos, an Internet cafe and coffee shop by day, moonlights as a karaoke bar. Cappuccinos is actually a fun place to spend an hour or two in the evening. Even if you don't plan to get tanked and belt out "Livin' on a Prayer," it's entertaining to watch fellow (mostly Japanese) tourists try it themselves.

• Cappuccinos serves decent and very reasonable Japanese food throughout the day. A bento box and large beer cost me $20, including tax and tip.
• Free continental breakfast daily
• No room service
• Near the epicenter of Waikiki, so you can find pretty much anything within walking distance to match your budget and preferences.