Land-of-Miles

LOL no seriously, my only other Aloft experience was shortly after opening at the Aloft London. Then upon checking in (and finding that there were no upgrades at Aloft) we got the 2 coffee vouchers and a silver bag of nuts/cracker mix. I assumed this was a standard Aloft thing but perhaps it was an opening offer thing?

ma91pmh

I can only assume it was some kind of opening offer. As I say I have never had it at any of the Alofts I have stayed at, including the Excel one here in question.

Land-of-Miles

I have just noticed an issue with the posting of points from my recent stay. Mrs LoM and I spent circa £8o in FEDE at the Aloft which we charged to the room but we do not seem to have received any credit for this spend.

I always thought that anything charged to the room was eligible for points credit, is this another deviation by the Aloft brand from the general Starwood standard?

Starwood Lurker

Hard to say for sure. What is FEDE?

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

penlin

FEDE is the restaurant at the Aloft London Excel

http://www.aloftlondonexcel.com/excel-london-restaurant

Starwood Lurker

Then it sounds like a request for Program Services to do some research is in order. In that case, the folio can be scanned and sent to an email to [email protected].

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

Shantanu

We left the Aloft this morning - they asked all guests, irrespective of status, to check out by 11am, due to the Olympic security lock-out, and now, they won't accept any more reservations until September 10th!

The Gurkha regiment are based at the Excel, and for a few minutes, the lobby was teaming with armed police and police dogs this morning. Apparently, they are undertaking a floor-by-floor sweep of the property today.

fptxenemit

One night at Aloft Excel with no SPG status.

Check-in. The desk agents were very friendly and enthusiastic. Computers seem to be extremely slow: every time I arrived at the desk, I was told that a computer was just starting up and that I would have to wait a few minutes.

Room. The room was quite impressive. I had an accessible room (don't know why -- certainly didn't ask for one) which was very spacious and nice. A large desk with windows and a King-size bed.

Gym. Large gym on the ground floor.

Location. Rather depressing. The walk from DLR to the hotel (very short) feels unsafe during the night. View out of the window shows an empty square.

Access to airport. I think that this was the biggest minus: there is no arranged shuttle to LCY. The desk called a cab for me which was not a metered cab, but a regular car which charged 10 pounds.

Breakfast. I had a rate that included breakfast. This means that you get a voucher for three items in the convenience store. Not exactly what I call a breakfast: I picked cereal, coffee and a sandwich and returned to my room. I was expecting that a rate including breakfast means breakfast at a restaurant.

Summary. The main reason why I booked this hotel was that I expected to get to LCY quickly in the morning. The fact that the hotel and LCY are on different DLR lines makes it inconvenient to use DLR. The fact that there is no airport shuttle makes it expensive to use a cab. I think that if I have to catch an early flight at LCY the next time, I'll pick a different hotel.

Stoontje

Bus 473 stops a few steps from the hotel, and right in front of LCY. Travel time is 5 minutes or less (it's just two stops) and it's very frequent - at least every 10 minutes. Cost: £1.35 with Oyster, £2.30 cash.
If you need to stay around LCY, I think the Aloft is really the best option given the facilities it has.

correctioncx

Just want to see whether this hotel is ok. I managed to get a 60gbp rate for 8 nights.
But seeing all the comments, it appears to be a bit....
So what are the toiletries on offer here?
Also platinum a definitely no upgrade?
Breakfast is just some cheap vending machine thing ?

RAPC

The Aloft is absolutely fine, especially at £60 per night. I'd happily stay here again as the rooms are a decent enough size and modern.

Can't remember the brand of toiletries, but they were pretty standard.

No Platinum upgrades at Aloft properties as a brand standard.

Breakfast is a selection of items from a small shop / cafe (minus the seating) area. You can choose from fresh pastries, fruit, bagels, cereals, coffee etc. It's fine for a reasonable size breakfast, but it isn't a buffet.

Oxon Flyer

Though, of course, there's plenty of seating and tables in the lobby directly outside the cafe/shop where you can sit and enjoy your breakfast.

+1.

correctioncx

I actually stayed in an elements before and the offered upgrade to me.

However given 60gbp incl tax, my original option is le Meridien which will cost 220gbp so almost 4 times cheaper. Even if I take blackcabs every day I will save a lot

Oxon Flyer

Even though there's no official plat 'upgrade' available, I've always been given a room on the top (8th) floor, many of which have splendid views over the docklands and river Thames, a few also give you a view of the LCY runway and apron too.

Indeed, but unless there are specific reasons to use a black cab, taking the DLR from the station right outside is much cheaper.

correctioncx

Yes I know. I used to live in the neighbourhood, but if I am lazy or carrying a lot of shopping I will take can. From memory blackcabs should be around 30gbp ish

Also I saw the hotel offer shuttle service to canary wharf.

There is an ok Chinese restaurant near this hotel.

Pity the Thames clipper doesn't go anywhere close by.

Oh also Stratford is not too far so I can track backwards on the central line to avoid the dlr transfer there.