Is this a snazzy hotel fitness center...

Hotels in this story

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Aqua Oasis

South Seas Hotel

…or my parents’ basement from the ’80s?

We’ve previously shown you photos of people suspiciously smiling in gyms that are anything but smile-worthy. First there were the overly happy ladies at Jamaica’s Runaway Bay Heart Hotel; then there was this deceptive backdrop at the Holiday Inn Resort (also in Jamaica), and finally there was this doofy guy at Hotel Nash in Miami.

Today, sadly, we’ll continue documenting misleading hotel gym marketing photos. We turn, now, to the in Hawaii. The photo on the left is from the hotel’s website. We shot the one on the right.

Yes, the treadmill and stationary bike are in both photos, as are the glass doors. But what the Aston’s marketing photo doesn’t show is that you’ll be working out in your parents’ basement circa 1988. You know the drill: a few chairs from the old living room set, the lamp that was in your sister’s dorm room, dad’s unused barbells on the floor. (There’s also this out-of-place coffee table complete with a Bose alarm clock radio.)

After the jump is another gym photo fakeout.

There are lots of windows in this gym…

…but unfortunately there’s not much else.

This is the fitness center at the in South Beach, Miami. It certainly has many windows that look out onto the sand — we won’t dispute that. But the hotel’s marketing photo conveniently shows the gym from only one angle. What you don’t get to learn is that you’re seeing the entire gym. One treadmill, one stationary bike, one bench, and a few dinky barbells in the back. Thought there was more behind the camerman? Nope. Enjoy the abundance of natural light, though!