MSPeconomist

So, I stayed here last night; the hotel was supposedly full despite being only in soft opening stage. The bar opens today, but everything else seems finished.

This is a (four year, I was told) renovation of the Wyndham and shares shuttle buses and parking lots with a new Ibis Style hotel (said to be the first of that brand in the USA) in the round building owned by the same outfit. It's seven stories and most rooms seem to have a short almost square window above the desk and a floor to ceiling window beside a chair. I was told by the manager on duty that it's a six minute walk to the DL C terminal at LGA, but I didn't try it.

I would suggest avoiding rooms on the second floor for several reasons. First of all, the lobby is two stories high, including the front desk and bar area, so that I would anticipate noise problems. Secondly, from the elevators and alternative entrance signposted for the shuttle, there are about five steps up or down to the hallways containing rooms. This would be awkward with wheeled luggage. OTOH, when one looks at the outside of the building, one has the impression that the second floor rooms are about three feet deeper than rooms on other floors.

I was preassigned a room on floor six, but greeted as a Plat (Plat50 in my case) upon arrival and asked whether I preferred a larger room. The front desk agent apparently found such a room for me and changed me to the seventh floor, but the room was small (aka cozy) and I learned later that it was not one of the larger rooms. I saw no SPG floor signs. Upstairs hallways are dark (W style) with charcoal on gray wallpaper. Rooms are the newer aloft style with squares rather than stripes on pillows and blinds, plus a wall of grayish wallpaper with the geometric design based on overlapping circles. What was new to me is the red swivel easy chair, unfortunately with no reading light.

Two tips:
1. The cushion taking up about two-thirds of the bench can be removed to provide a level surface for your suitcase.
2. The "round table" near the chair is really an ottoman with a removable round wooden tray on top.

No bottled water in rooms, even though the front desk is aware that it's a brand standard. I was offered one or two bottles of water when I asked.

Food offerings appear minimal even by aloft standards, but a sign offers free regular coffee and tea for all in the "morning." Espresso, etc. isn't included in the offer and I saw no signs of decaf. At breakfast time, a window was open with a cook preparing made to order hot breakfast sandwiches for $12.

The free wifi (you're given an access code at check in) seems fine, but the two new Apple computers in the business center off of the lobby are hopelessly slow for doing even the most simple things, such as printing boarding passes.

Last night I overheard I guest being told to just park in a handicapped space as the hotel's parking lot was full. YMMV.

KENNECTED

@MSPeconomist Any photos?

Keyser

what is the surrounding area like????any restaurants within walking distance????

MSPeconomist

Sorry, but I'm not a photographer.

Unfortunately, I didn't explore as I had a good dinner on my flight and then the next day it was raining. However, I didn't see anything from my window or from either the main lobby or the second floor entrance on the other side of the building. Across the street I saw a building that seemed to be an extended care place for seniors. On the drive back to the airport in daylight, I saw at least one other hotel and lots of construction at LGA.

Something that some people here could do easily would be to either take the shuttle or try walking back to LGA to go to the AmEx Centurion lounge there (landside on the second floor in about the middle of the Central Terminal, which I think is called B) for F&B, assuming that you have the Platinum or Centurion charge card and a same day boarding pass.

Overall the surround area looked pretty safe but uninteresting.

Horace

There are two other threads about the same hotel on this forum:

[NEW] Aloft New York LaGuardia Airport, opened August 2017

Aloft New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA, NYC area) opening soon? [Master Thread]

Perhaps these will be combined into a single master thread.

In one of these other threads, I noted that Aloft New York LaGuardia Airport is using a building that was previously the LaGuardia Airport Hotel. Before that, it was the Wyndham Garden Hotel - LaGuardia Airport.

Keyser

thanks for the update....

MSPeconomist

Some further comments about my stay and the hotel's airport shuttle bus service:

Part of this might be soft opening issues and some due to the road construction mess at LGA airport. The hotel was also filled with tennis people during my stay as it was located very close to the tournament location, so perhaps the airport and subway station shuttle bus was diverted to accommodate those going to tennis events.

1. I was instructed to call the hotel for the shuttle (basically upon demand) upon arrival at the airport. I did so and the service was reasonably quick--based on one data point--but where one gets the shuttle is confusing. I arrived on DL and walked outside from the baggage claim area, but didn't see any signage for hotel shuttles, just airport shuttles, public buses, etc.

2. I asked several staff members about using the shuttle to return to the airport, not only in the evening when I arrived but also early the next morning. Everyone said to just contact the front desk, which suggested to me that the service was essentially "on demand" and did not need to be planned/scheduled far in advance.

3. However, when I called down to the desk as instructed to say that I would want to use the shuttle pretty soon, I was told that the shuttle only departed for the airport once per hour (which I consider to be ridiculously infrequent for an airport hotel that is so close to the airport), on the top of every hour. This caused panic as it was almost the top of the hour when I called, while waiting for an additional hour would be much tighter timing for my flight than I would like. [One of the staff members I asked in the evening was the assistant manager on duty, not just a front desk agent, but the front desk agents said the same thing.]

4. The problem was resolved by the hotel holding the "top of the hour" shuttle for me for about five minutes as I checked out. I was the only passenger so this didn't inconvenience anyone else, but it did cause me considerable panic and anxiety.

BOTTOM LINE: Ask, check, recheck, verify, and verify yet again the shuttle return schedule to the airport at least four times to make sure that wheat staff members communicate on this important issue is indeed the correct information and allow lots of extra time just in case there's a unexpected problem in this regard.

EuropeanPete

Stayed here over the weekend. I've been spending too much time in airport hotels over the last few weeks.

I'm an infrequent user of the Aloft brand, but overall I was really happy with my stay.

The downstairs lobby is slightly youth hostely, but had a reasonably nice bar, a pool table and the Aloft brand standard 24hr food store thing.

As Plat I was moved to a larger room on the top (7th) floor. Looking at the floorplan, the smaller rooms look really, really small. My room had more than enough space and was configured in the Aloft brand standard way. I liked the simple touches like easily accessible power sockets either side of the bed as well as Netflix (requiring an account) on the TV. Bed was very comfortable, few issues with noise despite construction site being noticeable during the day.

As per MSPEconomist's experience, the shuttle is only every 1 hour sometimes (like when I wanted to go), so I just took an Uber instead.

I'm not familiar with other LaGuardia airport hotels, but overall this Aloft is better than the usual in-refurbished Sheraton or Marriotts often at twice the price.

Antonio8069

The shuttle is call on demand - as MSPEconomist suggested.
The property is so close to Terminal B that another option is to walk - depending on luggage.
The breakfast option for Plats is a sandwich wrap. Otherwise, its $12. I took the 500 points.
The rest is run b a company called Good Eats Bistro with one other location in the city.
The computers are Macs but one was not working during my stay.
I haven't experienced a true suite upgrade at any Aloft property and I have been to two - SYR & YUL. If the rooms on Floors 6 & 7 are big, I am happy I don't have one of the smaller ones.

EuropeanPete

Interesting - that is definitely not what I was told.

maggiew

The website for this hotel says the shuttle can take you to the subway. Any more details on this? Do they take you to the Astoria/Ditmar stop? Thank you,
Maggie

oceanscape

How long is the walk from Terminal B? Assume it is safe and easy?

blackavar

I haven't walked from here, but I regularly walk from the National Car rental just down the street. For that, I usually take the 94th street bridge with ease, which goes to united terminal pretty easily

looks like aloft is close to 104th street bridge, and closer to terminal C

I would feel comfortable walking from there, but I would just figure out which way you're going to determine the best route

BA_Jfan

Any recent experiences here? Looking for an LGA hotel for 2 nights in May.