I stayed at the Aloft London Excel for a night last week.
Got a £79 rate online and used points to upgrade to a very nice spacious suite on check in.
When I first arrived, my first impression was that it is a lovely building, however from the car park at the back it felt like I was coming in to the service entrance as the door was quite small and almost unnoticeable.
At first I found the Aloft concept a bit strange as I'm used to hotels having things like a doorman, concierge, room service, minibar, little bottles of shampoo and soap you help yourself to when you leave etc, but by the end of my stay, I now totally get the concept. They have not skimped on the actual hotel itself, the rooms, the quality of the fixtures and furnishings etc but they definitely seem driven by keeping the costs as minimal as possible and eliminating waste as much as possible.
As a gold, I was not offered a free room upgrade which was a shame, however I was given a voucher for 2 welcome drinks at the bar. I was also glad Internet was free there so I did not have to use my amenity for it
^^
The pool area, although small was very nice, excellent changing area, sauna, steam room, showers etc. Good towels too, but no robes!
After our swim, I left my wife to get ready in the suite and went down to have a look at the bar menu to decide what free drinks we would be having after we went out for dinner. I was lucky enough to catch the head barman training a couple of new employees on how to make cocktails, ended up chatting to them for a while and being "forced" to try several cocktails including mojitos and cosmos. I got back to the room about an hour later mildly drunk and feeling a bit guilty I had taken so long!
After a very nice dinner at ROKA restaurant in Canary Wharf (which was fantastic 10/10), we came back and I went back to the bar where the friendly bar tender mixed up a lovely strawberry cocktail for my wife and a bellini for me.
I was looking forward to watching a film in the room as the AVOD system seemed pretty good at first glance, however when I got back to the room I switched on the TV and it was broken, not even the TV channels worked. This was fixed after a quick call to reception and waiting 15 minutes or so for it to reboot. Once it rebooted I wished I hadn't bothered as the selection of films available was a bit disappointing so we did not bother watching anything, which was a shame as it actually seems like a pretty decent system.
The next morning, we went to the restaurant and had a look at the buffet breakfast, It didn't look great to be honest, especially as it would have cost us £15 each to eat the hot stuff as this wasn't included in the room rate.
In the end we just went to the little self service snack bar by reception and grabbed a few of the (3 for £1) mini croissants and pain au chocolat which held our hunger until we got back to Canary Wharf and had breakfast at the Reebok Sports club.
After a bit of shopping, we went back to the hotel and for another swim before checking out around 3pm (4pm late check out would have been fine with them too).
I found the staff there really energetic and helpful. The room was excellent too, plenty of storage, decent shower, love the little espresso pod machine they provide.
Is it just me or do the staff there remind you a little bit of the apple store for some reason? Maybe it's the sweatshirts?
If I had an early morning LCY flight, I'd definitely use this hotel again and will be more prepared for the experience next time if I use the Aloft brand again elsewhere too.