Aqua Hotels & Resorts, a chain of a dozen locally owned "boutique hotels," wraps up renovation this month on the Aqua Coconut Plaza, the latest in a string of makeovers estimated at more than $42.6 million

The hotel will reopen June 1 as The Coconut Waikiki, but is probably best remembered as the hotel that overlooks the Ala Wai with a little gazebo out front.

A tour of the construction there last week showed some rooms ready for guests, but the lobby still a work in progress, construction workers still outfitting other rooms and a swimming pool waiting to be filled.

President and CEO Mike Paulin started the Hawai'i-based hotel management company in 2001. The company now hass 325 to 350 employees, said Elizabeth Churchill, the company's vice president of sales and marketing.

Churchill said the hotels emphasize customer service and "the little extras." The mid-priced and elite hotels offer a continental breakfast buffet, free apples at the front desk, free Internet and a welcome bottle of water. Some have a small kitchen.

Churchill said they cater to consumers, working to provide exceptional guest services, not a "cookie-cutter" approach.

"We focus on the fact that we are based in an urban resort destination," Churchill said. "We can focus on what we call beach-life-urban vibe."

Many Aqua properties are tucked among Waikiki's resort high-rises. Many look understated from the street and all are in Waikiki — none on the Neighbor Islands. The approach has paid off on the Web site TripAdvisor, which features reader-provided reviews of hotels across the world. The sometimes anonymous reviews run the gamut from glowing to ghastly.

Aqua's top property — Hotel Renew — rose to the top hotel listed after its renovations were completed.

The Web site includes comments on the property that rave about the staff, some by name, and praise the recent high-design makeover. The lobby offers a chic Asian ambiance with cymbidium orchids floating in a stone fountain bubbling slightly. But older reviews complain about construction noise, the age of the property and the lack of a swimming pool.

Churchill said their hotels generally are 200 rooms or smaller; some have spacious rooms but small properties; most renovated properties emphasize design.

And they try to stay responsive to their customers, she said. "We're small enough so that we're still very nimble. We tend to be able to change things or implement things must faster than a lot of hotel chains."

There are three categories of Aqua accommodations: the most expensive or elite, with only the Hotel Renew; then six mid-priced hotels; and five budget or "Aqua Lite."

Lite hotels range in price from $100-$150; boutique goes for $150-300; elite is $300 and up. But the hotel works to stay competitive and will drop rates on special and respond to the market.

The company reflects several recent travel trends, emphasizing spa services at several properties, offering kitchens and other amenities valued by families; and including Internet services to the increasingly computer-dependent traveler.

Churchill said the company also prides itself on finding that different niche. When hotel colleagues tell her that another chain does something a certain way, she's likely to respond: "Great — then we're going to do the exact opposite. We try to be as different as possible."