Aloft Austin Northwest — Hotel in Austin

Aloft

Very nice hotel…. HOWEVER, this review is in reference to Aloft Austin Northwest (Lakeline Mall area)— Austin, TX location “MANAGER” on duty name SUSIE… the name she gave me.

Back story— I wanted to extend my stay and in the end they stated they didn’t have a room avl (I was told, VERY RUDELY). I ask the manager Susie what was her name, she said Susie, and I asked what was her last name…. and I was told I don’t need her last name, she is the only Susie there. Yes, pause! I did too (what kind of manager actually tells a guest this! A guest that has not been rude or disrespectful at all.

So proceeding I realize I am dealing with a manager who has absolutely no training on dealing with customers and communicating professionally. So, I let Susie know just that— she is rude and I asked for the corporate number for customer complaints. This manager Susie, told me to “GOOGLE IT, she don’t have the number.” Again, pause! I did too!! What manager tells a guest/client/customer to google a number.

By now, enough was enough. I was pretty much done talking to this lady and her last thing was… “You can leave now because you are not a guest here anymore.” I was so teed off at this point. First off, I stayed there for 2 NIGHTS and now that I have checked out, this young lady had the audacity to tell me “I’m not a guest and to leave.” By now, it was best for me to go before it went any further.

At any rate, I have never been so humiliated by a manager… A manager within Marriott at that. This hotel does not deserve any of my paid money and I WILL BE SEEKING LEGAL ADVICE. For the record— Marriott nor any other business, should employee anyone of such caliber representing their team. This manager was SO RUDE and it was so unnecessary. I have never came across such poor management communication skills ever in my life. However, they will hear from me again.

/————— FURTHER BACK STORY I initially called the front desk to see about extending my stay for an extra night. The front desk clerk, Vanessa said she needed to speak with her manager Susie. Vanessa called back said they did not have any rooms available…. Great, no problem! I ask if I could call back shortly and see if anything may have come up, Vanessa said yes of course, that will be fine. So I took it upon myself to check their company website online shortly after and it said they have rooms available, so I booked it. Before I could even call the hotel back, SUSIE their manager called my phone and was RUDE right off the top saying, “We don’t have any rooms available, I need you to check out”. I calmly told Susie it says you all have rooms online on the aloft website, why is that!

She automatically jumped to defense saying we don’t have any rooms, can I get there in 30 mins or do I want them to pack my things and put it in the back office. I told the manager no, I do not need anyone touching my things, I’ll be right over and if I can have her name because she was so rude unnecessarily. After arriving back to the hotel, I spoke with Susie face to face to let her know the way she spoke over the phone was very unprofessional and her response was “I’m sorry you feel that way”. She then threatened to call the police as if I was refusing to leave. I told her I didn’t have a problem with leaving, my reason for being there is to speak with MANAGEMENT about the service and I was receiving, her lack of communication skills, and how to better serve customers in the future— ALL WAS A COMPLETE FAILURE. But like I said, they will hear...

Stayed to get out of town for the weekend and had by far the worst experience ever, the concierge was rude the moment we got there, he asked for our credit card first, which was unusual cause we are never asked until we check out, then find out we paid for someone else's room then he immediately corrected the problem. Lucky for him our credit union put the money back into our account immediately. Then we get in our room, no towels, the soap dispenser that are always on the wall was missing. Then when we called to request all of these items he had a attitude and insisted that we had to come down to the lobby to retrieve them. Irritated, I went down stairs to get them and he was not there. I waited for 10 mins and he finally showed up asking what I needed and I stated why I was waiting. He got the towels and when I asked for soap he gave me two tiny bars of soap and that's all he had.

At this point I was beyond irritated, then I go change and maybe I could get in the hot tub right? Nope! at 10 pm it was FULL of kids and adults. So this trip I didn't even get to soak in the hot tub. So we go back up to our room to relax and get ready for bed , but then our neighbor next door was talking on the phone so loudly and right next to the wall I could literally hear everything she was saying. That lasted till about 1 am. Then someone let their toddler lose in the hallway and was running up and down the hall screaming at 2:30 am. Not to mention the people in the floor above me were slamming cabinets? (these rooms do not have cabinets so I guess they were throwing stuff?) I was not happy at this point and was debating on canceling the whole trip and going home. In the morning I immediately packed everything and went downstairs to speak to the manager to let her know what was going on, they said they would comp the first night and discount the second and move our rooms, which was fine. The only thing was was the other rooms wont be done getting cleaned until after 3 pm. That's fine considering we had things we wanted to do. Around 3 pm we called the manager to check in, she said she had a room ready for us so when we arrived after 3 pm there was a new lady at the front desk that had no idea of what was happening. Of course no surprise to us this manager didn't leave any notes with instructions for the next person. So we had to explain what happened again for the 4th time to someone new, eventually she went to the back and I'm assuming made a call to the manager to confirm the allegations and we were quickly taken care of. This is why I left 2 stars instead of one because some of the employees tried to correct the issue but they lost 3 stars to not regulating the hot tub, letting kids run around the bar and hallways screaming and terrifying peoples animals and elder guests. I will probably not be returning to this hotel any time soon because we paid a lot of money for this room and did not get that value out of this stay even with the discounts. This is disappointing because we were frequent at this hotel and have spent thousands of dollars staying here and since COVID happened it has gone down hill and all management can blame is the shortage of staff to the reason of...

Very nice and modern hotel. I loved the look, decor, and feel of the place, it has a great ambiance. The room was clean with a comfortable bed. Pool area, gym, bar, lounge, and patio all looked nice but I did not use any of that so I can not comment on that aspect of it. We literally used the room for a place to sleep and shower and that was it.

I would really love to give this place 5-stars but cannot due to having additional charges and the difficulty I have been experiencing getting it resolved. On 9/18 I booked three nights 9/21/17-9/23/17 via their website and paid the entire amount with a credit card. The amount cleared my account on 9/21. Well, the morning of checkout I had a note slipped under my door stating that the card on file was declined and I needed to go to the front desk to resolve the problem. Went down to the front desk and after a few minutes and 2 reps trying to figure it out, they said everything was fine and I was good to go. Great, perfect, no problem, I understand things happen or what not so it was no big deal. Everything was fine until I checked my account that night and noticed I was charged for an extra day. I called numerous times (at least 4-5) on separate occasions and asked to speak with a manager, which never happened, but the reps on the phone assured me each time that I would get a call from the manager and an email showing the amount had been refunded. Which also never happened. At this point I was fed up and on the following Tuesday 9/26 I called the corporate number and explained my situation. They were very helpful and said that they opened a case which basically meant that someone from that location HAD to contact me by phone within 5 days. Great, now I have to wait 5 days longer to get a refund. So the following day 9/27 I did receive an email with a ledger that apparently shows that my balance was zero. Okay, great. I'm a college educated man and still I could not decipher if this ledger was a receipt of a refund or just a receipt of being charged an additional night. Who knows. I gave it the benefit of the doubt and waited a few days to check my account again, still no action. So Saturday 9/31 I called the location again, asked to speak with a manager, which never happened. I inquired to the rep about the refund and she said it went through on their end and it could take a week or so to see it on my end. A week? Okay lady, fine. All the while I am thinking that we all know transactions are pretty much instantaneous now so how could it take so long. I should at least see the refund pending in my account. Who knows? Well today 10/3 I received a follow up email from corporate apologizing that no one from the location has contacted me and that they will be issuing the refund straight from corporate. Only thing is, that it will be in check form and they have to mail it to me! I'm glad corporate is assisting me to resolve the problem but now I have to wait who knows how long to get the check in the mail. Even after all of this, I would stay there again but I will be very adamant about making sure that my charges are correct before I...