A Royal (dis)HHonor: Aloft San Francisco Airport

Love to see a gym with some free weights. Have you ever come across one that had a real bench press and squat rack? I hope they start to appear more often as crossfit-style fitness gains popularity.

I really liked my stay at Alof at the Freddies! http://boardingarea.com/deltapoints/2013/04/28/hotel-review-aloft-dulles-airport-north-hotel-iad-washington-dulles/

I thought the SFO Aloft is a remodel of the former Clarion, with mixed reviews for basics like Hot Water. Also that it shares the shuttle with the Westin, not the Marriott.

@ Carl -- Whoops, Westin, you're right. Thanks.

Thanks for the heads up on the shuttle service.
I believe the Aloft shared with the Westin in the past.

Carl - No. I stay at this hotel frequently and used to stay at the Westin, watching the aloft bring built. The aloft is not a remodel. It was build fresh, from the ground up.

I find Aloft the closest thing to sleeping in IKEA.

The aLoft in Bangkok is much nicer and more "upscale" looking than this one.

I've always had great service at Aloft. Beds are quite comfortable. I just wish there was somewhere to sit other than the bed and the desk chair.

Wow, Ben complaining about pretentiousness? Lol, oh the irony

@Lucky I take issue on a different level. "Pretentious" is by far my favourite word and one hell of a pocket square.

-JRL

Stayed at two different Aloft properties and really enjoyed them for mostly the same reasons listed. Decent helpful people and simple rooms...

Stayed at an Aloft a few years ago when the brand was launched and found that it lacked any black out shades in the windows. Was horrible for jet lag and wrote the brand off (blacklisted).

Have they fix this? I had similar feelings about the brand until I actually slept the night and was woken up way to early by the bright sun seeping through the poor flimsy window treatments.

You might have a different opinion had you slept there after one of your long flights; maybe you should review hotels only if you use them for their intended purpose, i.e. sleeping...just dropping by is not very useful.

@ Hillrider -- Actually also stayed at the Aloft on the return for a night after landing from San Francisco, and found the curtains to be perfectly sufficient.

I've generally been happy with Aloft, except I wish that the Platinum breakfast benefit were more clear. I generally put Aloft in the same category as Hyatt Place, which have improved their breakfast offering.

@Lucky & @Hillrider I've stayed at this property (and stayed the night) as well as two other Alofts and have never really struggled with the curtains/shades and how well they block out light. Your review of the property matches mine and I definitely enjoy this brand. I'm not exactly the type of traveler that needs a fancy hotel though. 🙂

You should check out the Aloft in KL. The staff there is the dictionary definition of "peppy". Also it's 30 stories, has an infinity pool on the roof along with a bar and DJ. And a full service restaurant that does a mean breakfast buffet. Very good!

who is the genderless person with whom you are sharing the one bed? will all dozen installments coming mention we and never he?

@listen Why does it matter?

I really like aloft hotels. The design is modern, yet functional, staff friendly, and the one I usually stay at (YUL) also has great runway views.

Eight hours would be plenty of time to actually visit a city rather than hole up in a hotel room.

Have they stopped saying, "Aloha!" at every turn? It was something I found super-pretentious, and not at all related to the brand. Taking the first three letters of the hotel and turning it into a Hawaiian greeting, when the property isn't Hawaiian, bordered on offensive. And it was stupid. And I could tell employees at the 4 or 5 Aloft properties at which I have stayed didn't really enjoy saying it. So - are they still doing it?

Just thinking that those common shower soap dispensers kind of creep me out. But otherwise looks nice.
J

Goodness gracious, JRL bothering to comment on a blog post. Times must be quiet in pocket square land....

how late did you find and book F on CX, the reason is, i want to book F from Lax-hkg in early July but at this point nothing on the radar. also you said SFO cx flight was the best compare to other gateways. why?, i wouldnt mind take short hop from lax to catch that flight if its better experience.

I have found there to be some inconsistency with Alofts (the bed at the one at YUL was quite uncomfortable), but they have done a really good job with the public spaces, especially the gyms and pools. It's a very intelligently designed approach to putting effort into things that will really make customers happy, while cutting out things that add cost with little value (good shampoo, but get rid of the waste of a bunch of plastic bottles, for example).

@Seth I agree it is enough time, but if you were going to work for much of it (and it gives you a work blog entry) it seems a reasonable choice to make.

@ Wandering Aramean -- Yes, though in this case I've been to San Francisco dozens and dozens of times (so wasn't missing out on anything "new") and had a lot of work I wanted to get done before being completely disconnected for the next 24 hours.

@ Steve -- Hah, they didn't do that for my stay. Which is a good thing, cause I would have found it equally annoying.

@ choi -- I snagged this particular flight two days out. I was originally booked on the daytime flight the next day but decided to move it up a day.

To clarify, San Francisco is better than other gateways in terms of award availability and not anything else. That's probably because they have twice daily service and it's not a OneWorld hub, so there's not quite as much premium demand since most passengers are originating there.

@licky @David --thanks for the update on the shades. IIRC I stayed at the second property in the USA, so they probably have tweaked things--and my feedback to them was as brutal and direct as I was cranky tired due to the issue!

How do you derived the 60 USD value per stay of SPG? Thanks Ben.

@ Alan -- The number is somewhat arbitrary but figure you have to make 25 stays to earn top tier status. At $60 per stay credit that's $1,500, which is about what I value top tier status at with Hyatt or Starwood, not factoring in the benefits you get from actual stays.

i stayed at the aloft@sfo once and loved everything they offered, except that their morning airport schedule was bad. once every hr after 9am..