bigguyinpasadena

OK-so here is a live first person report from one of your own
Location is less than lovely stretch of fourth street. If you don't have a car it would be tough finding a place to eat/things to do.
This property is connected to a very large business park-so I am thinking that is the target market here.A little too far from the airport to be considered an airport hotel.

Public space first impression is great-very friendly check in.Ambient music is at a decent level."Refuel"snack counter/mini mart and bar were empty.There is a pool table and lots of lounging space

My room on the third floor is very cool blue/gray with wood laminate accents=laminate not that bad but I might have gone with a dark ash or even Grey/black finish.

Room is not as small as I was expecting.Also seems rather solidly built as I cannot hear any out side noise from my room.

Bathroom DOES have a door on the shower/toilet area. The sink is right inside the entrance door,
The closet"ette"is very,very small.They also need to spend a couple of bucks and put doors with piano hinges on the closet instad of the third world curtainin place now.otherwise a nice use of space-which also provides the headboard space and a room divider.

Side walls are bare gray vinyl-bit industrial-as is the painted concrete ceiling=a float coat of plaster would be ok-or finish the concrete perfectly if that is what you want-this looks bad and cheap.

Air conditioning is a loud/cheap window unit-Inexcusable in a new construction hotel.

The desk is a little small to do any real work on.The desk chair is the ONLY chair in the room.A comfy chair/reading lamp combo is necessary in any hotel room IMO. The bench beneath the tv is useless in it's location and too heavy to move.

Window covering are shades only-let in a lot of light when down

Bed is comfy-there is a third pillow if needed stored above the clos"ette"Staff will be happy to bring up more,The linens ar a little scratchy-they will soften with a couple of launderings.I slept well.The faux cow skin above the bed is dated and ugly.

Connectivity panel is great.Nice to see these in more places. Nice HDTV

In all it is not anywhere near as bad as some of the postersabove might imagine it to be-but there are some problem areas that shold have been addressed before the roll out.

I also think this will be going for cheap on weekends.So that will be good for mattress runs

My car is the only one in the parking lot !

bigguyinpasadena

Stayed at the Sheraton ONT last night .Tired ugly room on the C' floor-and this is after the renovation last year.

Standard old fashioned Sheraton that needs a lot of TLC and a good management team to get the staff excited about where they work.

NBSPGMEMBER

Well, I guess I'm going against the group here, because I actually like the way it looks and can't wait to stay at one. However, like others were saying, the Hyatt Place does look better; contemporary yet everything is done in good taste. If there is one thing that Starwood should tune up, it would be to price these properties right. If the rate comes to or above a Sheraton or Marriott rate in the area of the aloft, I won't stay here. Oh, and please Starwood do not, I repeat do NOT put boom-boom/club music in aloft lobbies, I'm in my 20's and I think this is so tacky. If people want a club they can go there, this is a hotel.

bigguyinpasadena

Music is softer and played at a lower volumethan a normal W.
The worst ever IME was the W NO-you could hear that a block away.

itsaboutthejourney

At the aLoft party they gave me a copy if the CD, it's NOT "club" music, it's just cool, chill, contemporary music.

lebowski2222

I've stayed at a couple Hotel Indigo's which are very comparable to Aloft and by looking at this video I will continue to stay at a Hotel Indigo over Aloft, the bathroom alone is a reason to say no on this.

cmhua777

I stayed at this hotel last week and enjoyed it. The aLoft fits the mold of a good select-service hotel and, like the Hyatt Place (HP), promises to be consistent across all locations. It is the lack of consistency that has me avoiding Courtyard and Hampton Inns whenever possible.

Comparing the aLoft to the Hyatt Place -- its closest competitor -- is a subjective one. In short, if you care about the lobby and common areas, the aLoft is for you. If the room means more to you, Hyatt Place should be your choice.

The aLoft's lobby is certainly its best quality. The snack bar area is well-stocked and the lobby bar is open, comfortable to sit and chat in and the prices are reasonable (though I don't know if prices will fluctuate in higher priced cities). There is a pool table, lobby computers, a decent workout facility (the treadmills were still being installed when I was there), and pool. Even the entryway is enhanced with a waterfall of sorts and check-in kiosks that allow you to select your room (according to the check-in staff; I didn't try them).

Once inside your room, I have to give Hyatt Place a slight edge. The TVs in both are the dominating feature -- and they even share the same menu music -- but beyond that the differences start to appear.

Positives:

Power Outlets -- there must be 15 power outlets in the aLoft room. You can power a small office in there!

Bathroom -- I like the separation of the bathroom from the bedroom and the modern look is more my style compared to the HP. I received a bar of soap and lotion in the sink area and the shower had the shampoo/conditioner blend and shower gel dispensers mounted inside (a la Europe).

Water -- my room had two bottles of water that were free of charge. This is a perk over the HP.

Negatives:

HVAC -- similar to the HP, the AC unit is window mounted. While the thermostat was digital (and the HP is not), the noise this unit put out was incredible. Once it turns off, you have to adjust the TV volume! I am not saying the HP's units are quiet, but these are even noisier.

Window Shades -- each room has two windows. The window shades are thick pull-down screens, but they are not wide enough to block out the sun on both sides -- think a 24" inch wide window with a 23" shade. So, in the morning, I woke up to an unexpectedly bright room. If you are trying to sleep in, get a western-facing room.

Bedding -- as others have posted, there are only two pillows and low thread count sheets.

Iron -- each room has an iron, though the ironing board is of the miniature variety. I prefer the standard board from HP.

All in, the hotel is going to be welcomed by some and loathed by some. Personally, I would choose an aLoft over any other select-service hotel except an HP. And even that will be dependent on if I need Gold Passport or SPG points/stays. It is certainly better than the average Holiday Inn Express, Hampton, Four Points or Courtyard/Fairfield.

fitch609

I stayed at the Aloft Rancho last Wednesday night. I was looking forward to staying here for quite a while after all the hype. I stay at a variety of Starwood properties and am generally happy with them.

Overall, I am a little let down after staying there. That being said however, I would definitely stay at another Aloft. Here are some more detailed comments.

Pros
-Lobby space was really nice... a subdued W feel (which is exactly what they were going for)
-Liked the Re:charge area where you could buy food, they had a lot of nice healthy choices
-Abundant amount of power plugs and the in room electronics hub was nice. Next time I will bring a VGA cable to hook up laptop up to it. The TV was also very nice.
-Free Wi-fi
-4x SPG points until the end of the year
-I like the fact that instead of giving you 10 different shampoo bottles, the shower has a shampoo and body wash dispenser mounted on the wall.

Cons
-The Air Conditioning unit was extremely loud!! I've stayed in a lot of different hotels, but have never been woken up by the A/C unit turning on. I swear I was woken up at least 4 times during the night by that big thing. I don't know what they were thinking.
-I really didn't like the laminate. It looks pretty cheap and I didn't expect it at all.
-I'm used to having drawers to unpack my clothes and I didn't find any.
-The bedding wasn't that great compared to the rest of Starwood. The sheets felt like they were the cheapest they could find at Target and they only had 2 pillows on the bed. Luckily they give you an extra pillow in the room, but as others have said, Westin's and Sheraton's usually have a ton more pillows

itsaboutthejourney

Diversion from travel plans allowed me a quick stay at the aLoft Rancho Cucamonga:

overall, I echo bigguyinpasadena, fitch609 and cmhua777's comments (especially the loud AC and the cheap quality bedding) and add my own:

Pros:
- For a hotel in the form factor of a Hampton, Clarion or Fairfield, this is pretty cool and has a lot more character than those other brands. Public areas and rooms are well designed spaces.
- Liked the less-wasteful shower soap dispensers (one is soap and the other is a "conditioning" shampoo) and even mini-er versions than real W of the other bliss products.
- An empty mini-fridge!!! Finally, a place to chill the water they give you as well as store anything you buy downstairs.
- Liked the high ceilings and high windows, helps give the "loft" feel.
- The lobby is someplace you could spend lots of time in, it's comfortable, low-key, has lots of different places to hang out and does an amazing job of transitioning from day to night.

Cons:
- Kiosk: Once again, Starwood's customer-facing technology disappoints: it's not clear where to put your credit card, turns out is a lot in the cabinet below the monitor that isn't marked very well. light yellow and light green lettering over white is cool, but not too readable on the screen's menus. Machine checked me in ok, but couldn't make me keys so I had to go to the desk where a confused agent took 10 mins making me a new ressie since she had no record of my being checked in (even those the kiosk printed me a sheet.)
- Lack of iPod port/charger (the "box" with VGA, HDMI, RCA inputs is cool and all, but who travels with those cables? (Almost) everyone travels with an ipod so why not add a dock to what is not a cheap box?)
- Slightly overpriced re:fuel eats. $6 for an Odwalla/Naked Juice smoothie?

I didn't mind the lack of drawers, there is plenty of space for a suitcase and to hang shirts, etc. and the curtain closing off the storage area is a bit cheap, but I don't mind not having an actual closet. The door to the bathroom is a non-issue: there is one.

I do wish there was a better desk/reading chair. The bench is great for putting your stuff on, but not sitting.

With that said and a few refinements, I think Starwood has hit a homerun with aLoft.

bigguyinpasadena

As I suspected this property is going for cheap during weekends-I am staying @$79-great for mattress runs.
I have been staying in a lot of limited service Marriott's this past month(their 30k promo) and while I would appreciate a little more space and a few upgrades to the fixtures I must say that I would stay in an aloft over a Courtyard.If their was a free breakfast offered I might choose it over other limited service brands.

Also-the food offerings have been repriced lower-I did not balk at the prices,get in my car and drive to a quickie mart this stay

All in all-If I got this room in NYC/London/Paris I would be happy-otherwise it makes for a nice occasional change of pace.

fokker50

^

In the end of my stay at Aloft Rancho Cucamonga I took hotel shuttle to the Amtrak station. It was very nice from hotel staff to offer me a ride. Unfortunately, as I soon found out in the deserted platform, I was brought to the Metrolink station instead and so I missed my train to Palm Springs - only daily train from Ontario to PSP.
Infuriated, I walked three miles back to the hotel thru midday heat as there were no cabs and my cellular refused to work. Staff was extremely apologetic, gave me bottle of cold water and eventually offered to transport me to Palm Springs with hotel shuttle instead. And they did. It was about one hour ride.
I am so amazed about their willingness to sort out something that was only partly their fault, that I would like to extend them my thanks here. Very energetic, young, friendly staff with can-do attitude. During my stay I had another little problem (don´t go to the details) and they promptly offered me 7000 Starpoints as a compensation on their own initiative. All in all, an hotel with extremely good attitude towards clients. Also liked their rooms, albeit hotel is bit out of the way.

bobsgt

All I can say is "WOW". I have stayed a few times there on mattress runs, and really like the young, energetic staff there, but this is an exceptional act on the part of the aloft- with 7k *points to boot!

When I stay there next, I'll be sure to mention how impressed I was with the service you received. If they know it earned them goodwill with more than just you, I trust that it will help them decide to go above and beyond the next time a traveler gets stranded. ^ to aloft Rancho Cucamonga!

dhammer53

I wrote this after the aloft party in the spring of 2008.

You can consider it a report on the actual property now that I've stayed here. I've added info where was necessary.

Rancho Cucamonga . A short drive from ONT.



A choice of a king room, or a queen room with 2 beds.
Some rooms are 350 sq feet

Rooms are W ish, and expected to cost USD $150. I paid $61 on a Saturday night using Starpicks last minute rates.

No W attitude here. The front desk folks on check-in, and check out went over an above the call of duty in the 'professional' department. I called the manager to compliment them.


You enter the room, and the bathroom is on the right. It's a long galley bathroom. The counter is roughly 5 feet, or slightly less than 2 meters. The sink is one of those new sleek round sinks. Below the sink is a mini fridge. Immediately behind you (in the bathroom) is an area with shelves for placing your clothing. One complaint I heard is that there's no closet. This may or may not matter to you. YMMV. There is a curtain that you can use to close off the 'storage' area. Coffee maker on a shelf next to the 'closet'. Magazines for reading.

Separated from the sink is the toliet/shower area. No tubs at this brand. SPG says that only 10% of guests like/use bathtubs. The shower had a rainfall shower head. There's an opague window (full length) that lets in natural daylight. ^

FYI, the soap and shampoo dispenser in the shower will help reduce all those non-green bottles that never make it to the landfills.

Bathroom seemed spacious.


The Room.

W bedding meets Sheraton bed. Comfortable pillows. The room has a 42" plasma screen tv, and an IPOD docking station.
Also, a cool old fashioned circa 1950's S&H greenstamp type clock.

Each room type has 2 desk/work areas opposite the bed, adjacent to each corner. In the middle is a 5 foot settee. It's a bench seat where you can hang out and relax. If you've been to the Sheration Belgravia, you know what I mean.

Over 500 of these properties to come in the next few years. Looks like a point building opportunity.

Even the lobby looked cool. It sort of has that W feel. I did notice a vending machine selling all types of electronic gadgets, such as IPODs, headphones, and the like.

Free computers in the lobby, adjacent to the bar. They also have a pool table. The folks at the front desk double as cashiers if you're inclined to purchase light breakfast foods and coffee.

Mel's Diner is about a half mile (1KM) away on the same street.

Easy access to I-10 and I-15. I'd go back in a heartbeat.
My northern facing room had a view of the snow covered Mt. Baldy.

dh

NDDomer86

Thanks for the report. I don't recall an IPod docking station in my number of stays here though, just a very spartan clock. It does have the jack pack box though if that's what you're referring to.

To add to what's around, there's a pretty decent little Italian Cafe across the street caddy-corner to the hotel.

holtju2

Personally I couldn't stand the clock at all and had to unplug it so that I would hear the clicking noise.

Also I absolutely hated the window unit. Why would they have these and W'ish hotels?