sorry, now i understand what you mean. yes i think the chances of any of these hotels giving up their revenue to lcy is slim to none. maybe that works in a location where the hotel on survives because of the airport. but here the situation is more vice versa - lcy needs to improve it's own infrastructure to survive against the might of lhr

Perhaps they plan to build a hotel onsite at the airport? The location, as you have noted, is a bit unique however.

LCY have had years in which to build a hotel and have chosen not to. The Ramada, Aloft, Premier Inn and other new hotels I saw nearby are there to serve Excel. LCY would be doing itself a favor offering to ferry the guests in.

Agreed. Even when the Marriott had the program for LCY arrivals from JFK there was not a shuttle.

I ended up using the bus from just behind the DLR station, which gets to London City in about 5 minutes. Only �1.35 using an Oyster card. Not as convenient as a hotel operated service, but pretty good.

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.

Thanks for your review. I was just wondering how much it cost you in points to upgrade to the suite? Glad you enjoyed your stay!

the aloft brand worldwide does not offer upgrades to gold or even platinum members....

I just booked the suite at this hotel, and noticed afterwords that the room allows smoking in the room. Does anyone have experience with this room? Does it reek of cigarettes? Any information would be appreciated. Thanks

Followup - I just spoke to my ambassador who assured me that the hotel is 100% smoke free and it is a glitch in the website..

Am at the hotel tonight.. but due to an earlier incident at check out last week, which I had encountered, the management decided to give me a one-off upgrade to a suite. Which is nice.. but now that I see it, see the living room as a total waste of space!

FYI for people planning to visit here through to the Olympics. The driveway has been closed and is barricaded off due to 'security' for the Olympics. Cars may drive up to the entrance of the driveway for now, and you'd have to schlep yourself to the door.. or you may ask the cab to drive you through Premier Inn's carpark which apparently leads to the ALoft's carpark and you can enter from there.

All I can see is chaos to a terribly planned Olympics Games. It will make Athen's games look organised by comparison.

I stayed last night and it is perfectly possible to access Aloft by going down to the Premier Inn and driving down to the car park. One side effect of the barriers they are dropping in place is that the car park is effectively free at the moment but missing a barrier.

Yeh, don't worry about the sign that says they will destroy your car if it's there unauthorised

I'm sure they don't really mean it!

How can it be unauthorised when I was a hotel guest? It isn't my fault they didn't have the barrier.

Another couple of observations re: this stay. I received no pack of nuts as a welcome Plat amenity, I thought this was an Aloft brand standard?

FEDE the attached restaurant does now allow meals to be charged to the room (unlike my first stay) but the menu and wine list have been decimated and are a pale shadow of that you will see online and which I remember from my first stay. The quality of food wasn't as high as on our first visit either although the service was attentive and friendly enough.

are you sure????i've stayed at alofts in india, thailand & the us, but i've never received a pack of nuts as a plat amenity....

same here. stayed in maybe a dozen alofts and never seen or heard of a pack of nuts. Land-of-miles sure you aren't mixing up Southwest Airlines? lol