Aloft Buffalo Downtown — Hotel in Buffalo

Usually I have great experience with Aloft, however this location has one of the worst customer service you can imagine. I WOULD NOT RECOMEND STAYING IN THIS LOCATION.

Besides the fact of 2 severe technical issues with my room (AC/heater unit and phone), the Aloft employee behavior and reactions were unprofessional, rude, not realistic, and not feasible. Besides that, the executive team did not bother to address my issues and I felt alone in the dark.

I came on a business trip and checked into my room around 21:30 with very important meeting in the morning. Close to midnight, the AC/heater unit in my room starts making a very loud sound every 20 minutes. I immediately called the front desk and got the most unprofessional and rude attitude from your employee who eventually told me that she cannot do anything to help me since no maintenance guy is available and just to wait until the noise stopped. While I am very frustrated with your representative's response, I tried to avoid that, and get a few hours of rest before my important meeting. Between that, to 1:00 this occasion happened 3 more times and I had to call back to the front desk. The phone in the room stopped working for a few minutes in addition to disconnecting randomly and I could not communicate with the front desk appropriately. The front desk representative was much ruder and sounds like I am bother her from doing something more important. The front desk lady still sounds very annoyed with my issue and did not offer a realistic solution for me. At one point, she offered to change a room, but with the time being 1:00 and I had to wake up for my meeting in 4 hours I decided to nicely reject the offer. At 2:30, I could not take it anymore and decided to take her offer and change a room. I called the front desk and the lady was very aggressive and sounded annoyed that I need to make her do her work. The phone was disconnected again a few times during our call that was very hard to communicate with her. The front desk lady did not offer me any help in moving my stuff from one room to another and forced me to pack all my stuff at 2:30, come down to the lobby, take my new key, unpack all my stuff, and check in with the new room. I was very disappointed and mad but just tried to get a few hours of sleep before one of the most important meetings in my career. While I am packing and getting ready to come down, I received a call from the front desk that stated that they do not have a similar room available for me. A smaller bed was not feasible for me due to my height being extremely above average. I was so mad about this fact as she proposed this option multiple times during our communication but never checked if other rooms are available. With a not feasible solution for me and with a very bad attitude, the front lady offers to disconnect the AC/heater unit from the wall to have some quiet. With less than a few hours of sleep and a very important meeting ahead of me, I would do anything just for a few hours of sleep. As accepted, I woke up with a cold as the room temperature dropped to 55 degrees. While I am getting ready for my meeting in the morning, I am getting out of the shower and an Aloft employee walks into my room and sees me completely naked. She state that the front desk told her that the room is already checked out and quickly stepped out. I am not sure who provide her with this information, but I was so embarrassed, sick, and tired from a night without a night of sleep. I called again to the front desk and asked to speak with a manager. The manager was not available before 10:00 and I asked to be contacted as soon as he/she got in. The manager / a representative from the executive team, never bother to contact me back. I was very disappointed as I felt that no one from Aloft Buffalo cares about their guest and the quality of...

Mixed feelings about this location. Just like other alofts, the designer used every available space within the room to make it efficient and work. Room was clean and space was acceptable to an extent. Access to a balcony is a plus if you have time to sit outside and have a coffee. Unfortunately that's where the positives stop.

Motion sensing Light switch in the bathroom was working intermittently. Would not turn on, if on, would not stay lit and was flickering. Could be a short connection. The night stand with power outlets next to the bed did not have power. Had to move the night stand and pull out an unnecessary light plug to get space to plug my phone in. No coffee maker or water provided. Keep on mind, it was not a cheap room. Bare minimum bathroom amenities. The worst one for me are the next two. People traveling for work rely on certain amenities provided by the hotels. For example, a closed space to hang your clothes like a cabinet. With the space saving architecture Aloft uses (never translates to the cost of the room though unfortunately), there was no space to put your clothes away. Just a metal bar with hangers right as you enter, that's it. Any food you consume in the room, now the clothes will absorb and save the smell for you later. Want to use a napkin to clean your face after shower? Nope, here is the last two pieces that was shoved back in for the next customer. It is clear that it was showed back in based on the wrinkles you see on the last piece. Not sure if it was the staff or the previous occupant. Either scenario is bad for a customer who came in next to use that room. Now I am questioning everything else that looks cleaned in this room. An iron and an ironing board to iron your clothes one last time to remove the wrinkles from travel and look neat for the meetings next day. The designer/architect did not leave space to put an iron and ironing board in the room. I can see many spots in the room they could put one, but I guess the management decided not to. First Aloft I stayed at with this issue. No worries, I'll call the front desk and request one. Called few different times from the room and no one picked up. After a while I went down to the lobby to find no one at the front desk. Waited...and waited some more. Took some snacks from the pantry and waited some more. Eventually someone came and I put in the request for the iron and paid for the snacks. Was told that someone will bring it up soon. 11:30pm, still no iron. Went to sleep around 12am. Next morning at 5am, opened the door to see if someone left the requested items by the door. Nope. Called the front desk around 7am asking for the iron. Response I got with a tone, verbatim, "Sir all the available irons are currently being used and we will bring it over as soon as one becomes available". The whole hotel chain does not have enough irons for the patrons? With the number of room and people using this place daily, they don't have enough irons to spare? 7:30am, I am using the hair dryer at max heat setting to remove wrinkles from my business clothes. Left the space at 8:15am for good. Will not be using this place again during my...

We stayed here for an Outer Harbor Concert on a Sunday night in June. ||First the good: It's in a good spot downtown, close to a lot of great restaurants and bars, and events. This building is shared between the Aloft hotel, a restaurant called Vice, and residential loft apartments, so you get the benefits of all of them - including a great rooftop bar called Patrick's Rooftop. The balcony rooms give you a great view of downtown. ||Now the rest: I think most of what I'm about to complain about is an Aloft design that I just don't align with, so take it how you will. I'm a minimalist by nature, so I appreciate what this sub brand is attempting to do for Marriott with its basic and sleek designs. Aesthetically I think it gets there, but functionally it just doesn't work, especially if you have a travel companion. ||The carpet free rooms are an echo chamber. There just isn't anything to absorb sound, so after bouncing off every surface in the room, it's headed right for your eardrum untouched.||The weird "wall" (that doesn't go all the way to the ceiling), acts like a light panel when you turn the bathroom light on in a dark room (pics attached). My wife said my 2am trip to the bathroom (to try to quiet a leaky shower), which triggered the motion light, was "jarring" it was so bright. ||Speaking of the bathroom, can we give up on the sliding barn doors that don't seal? Or should no couple ever plan on having the tiniest bit of bathroom privacy or modesty when staying here? In an Aloft it's especially egregious, because again, there is no full physical wall separating the "bedroom" from the bathroom, so the toilet is essentially "in" the bedroom acoustically. ||As far as challenges at this actual location: the shower had steady drip, which in this echo chamber of a room sounds like a drummer solo. The smoke detector in this room (1243) had a very bright, and frequent, green light flash. I travel regularly, I know about the green flashing light, and it's not usually a big deal. This one was directly over the bed and was overzealous. The balcony room is probably nice in better weather, but ours had a dirty coffee cup and a spent cigar butt on it. I asked for extra pillows at check in and didn't get them, so I asked a different desk person when we returned from the concert and he took care of them. ||EV drivers, there's a relatively cheap ($0.35/kWh as of 6/2/25) ChargePoint dual charger on at the entry way of the 2nd floor of the attached parking garage. I recommend pulling into the parking garage first and then walking to check in. They add the $17/day parking fee to your room, so no worries about tickets.||The overall feel, location, and aesthetic of this location are really quite cool, but functionally, it just doesn't hit the mark unless you're traveling alone, with earplugs, and a sleep mask. Honestly those three metrics would likely make all the difference...