Aloft College Station — Hotel in College Station

My 23 year old son was hit by a car that took off and left him paralyzed. He has spent six months in the hospital. He was released two weeks ago and it was his wish that we go to College Station to see his brother graduate from Texas A&M University last Friday. I made reservations at the Aloft hotel, asking for two rooms, one of them wheelchair accessible. On the drive to the hotel, my son called to let them know we were on the way and confirmed the wheelchair accessible room. There was a mix-up about needing two beds and not one king size. An assistant manager, Jaylynn told us our rooms were nonrefundable and we would have to take what was available at their hotel. When we arrived, she offered to put an air mattress in the room that needed two beds. An air mattress, not a roll away, they bring you a plastic float with a pump and you have to inflate the bed. Again she stated our rooms were nonrefundable and we could go stay someone else but we would still be charged for our rooms. It was getting late and we were tired so we went to our rooms. My son could not get through the bathroom door. He wanted to shower but his standard size wheelchair would not fit through the door. Even if someone had use of a walker, they could not fit through the doorway. Not only that, there were no grab bars located anywhere! We went back downstairs and told the assistant manager that the room was not a wheelchair accessible room. The assistant manager told us she was not aware that we needed a wheelchair accessible room, just an accessible room (I am not kidding!) She told us, "Your room is nonrefundable and that room is considered accessible." After standing there for a while and repeatedly asking for upper management, she left telling us she would attempt to make a phone call and kept us waiting at the counter for about fifteen minutes. While we were there, two other people came to the desk to complain about other issues. One man was very loud and very unhappy about his plastic float mattress because the pump they provided would not inflate the bed. The people got the same automated replies, "We are sorry you are not happy, your rooms are non-refundable." The assistant manager finally returned to the front desk and told us they would make an exception for us only because the hotel was overbooked at 105 percent. They would let us stay at another hotel even though they were going to be charged another ten dollars for the room. She assured us the room was wheelchair accessible and they had requested a roll out bed for us since there was not a room available with two beds. We left and drove to the Hilton Garden Inn located in Bryan, Texas. The desk clerk told us the assistant manager from the Aloft hotel had not let them know we needed a roll out. She wished they would have because they had just given out the last one. However, since our room was wheelchair accessible it was large enough to accommodate a mattress and they would take one to the room. They actually brought over a king size mattress and put it on the floor for us. My son easily rolled into the wheelchair accessible bathroom and got his shower. The staff even brought us an outdoor patio chair to put into the bathroom for him to transfer into if he needed it. They were amazing and very accommodating. I had almost forgotten what it was like to have true hospitality and wonderful guest services. After a couple of hours sleep, we went to Reed arena and watched the graduation. Despite the Aloft hotel fiasco, my wheelchair bound son had his wish come true. He watched his brother cross the stage. When we checked out of the wonderful Hilton Garden Inn, they printed a receipt of the bill which showed the room was actually billed at about $100 cheaper than what we paid for at Aloft. Enjoy your stay in College Station/Bryan, Texas. It is truly a friendly place, with wonderful kind people. Stay away from the Aloft hotel that represents a cruel mentality toward humanity. If you are elderly, disabled, handicapped and/or wheelchair bound...

For the most part this hotel was pretty good, nice staff when we checked in our first evening and friendly bartender for our night cap. The issues started with the day time staff though. We had our do no disturb on our door because we wanted to sleep in a bit and so when we left the room at 11:30am we made sure to remove the door tag so we might be able to still get service. As we were exiting the lobby, we asked the front desk gentlemen if we could still get service and that we had our door tag on the door in the morning but removed it. The front desk gentlemen assured us that we could still get our room cleaned and there would be no issue. Well we came back to the room at 4:30pm and the room was not cleaned. So we went downstairs to ask and a new front desk gentlemen told us ‘oh sorry, we’ll get someone up to clean it’ but my husband requested they come in an hour because we had to shower and head out for another event and the gentlemen said that was fine. 15minutes later as we are about to get into the shower, the maid knocks and basically tells us we have to get the room cleaned now or the staff is going home and they can’t wait the hour. She said we could have fresh towels but we couldn’t get maid service unless they did it now and it was because we had the door tag on the door. So we told her no because we couldn’t wait for them to clean it at that moment because we had to head out again. So on our way out again, we asked the gentlemen at the front what happened and he said that he hadn’t spoke to the maids before he told us yes. But we proceeded to ask why it wasn’t cleaned in the morning when we had originally talked to the staff? And he proceeded to tell us yet again that the morning desk attendant probably hadn’t talk told the maids either and that it was all kind of ‘confusing’ but could he offer us free breakfast? I’m in the hospitality industry and I’m not sure how getting our room cleaned is a confusing concept, the front desk should know how to communicate with the maid staff as guest are checking out etc. We declined the breakfast, as that wasn’t our goal, it was simply to get maid service. I think there are a lot of communication issues occurring. The day staff seemed very untrained and was very disappointing that something as simple as getting our room cleaned was such an issue. The rooms are small and I understand that is the hotel concept but when you haven’t had maid service and the towels etc start to pile up, the room gets much smaller. The hotel was clean and looked nice but again, just has...

I was deeply disappointed with this location. I made a reservation to stay at this Aloft location during my son’s New Student Conference event at Texas A&M. We had the second day booked at the TAMU conference hotel and figured that since it was only one night, it didn’t really matter where we stayed and I knew I could rely on Marriott’s quality hotels for this stay. I found this hotel on their website and it looked modern and clean so I booked it. However, I was a bit taken back when we arrived and noticed a particular smell (a mix of old, smoke & mold - even though there are signs saying not to smoke) as we entered the lobby. We figured maybe it was just the lobby. We were given a room on the second floor and as we entered the room we noticed that it was extremely cold (maybe 60 or lower degrees) and my husband said that perhaps it was set that way because of the smell, which I didn’t notice as much when I first entered. I went to use the restroom and immediately felt a urine odor and then saw some dripping stains on the wall in between the toilet and the sink, which appeared to be urine. We lowered the temperature and noticed the smell of mold and urine got louder as the room warmed up. We went to pick up food and my son, who is extremely allergic to mold, begin to sneeze and had a running nose. We called the front desk and told them about our experience and they offered to move us to another room but unfortunately the problem seems to be over the lobby and the hotel as a whole. We let them know that we simply couldn’t stay because the hotel did not meet our expectations of a Marriott hotel. I am a platinum Bonvoy member and have stayed at various Marriott hotels over the last decade, of all levels, and unfortunately this hotel has been by far the worst. What made it worst is that we were told by staff that we would get a refund but we never did. When I called to speak with the manager, James, he was unapologetically rude and didn’t seem to care much about our experience and more concerned about whether or not the staff had promised us a refund. I DO NOT recommend this hotel for anyone who cares about the condition and cleanness of where they stay or the customer service that typically comes along with a Marriott family hotel. Go down the street to the Residence Inn or any of the other ones in the area. It’s not worth it. It is also most certainly NOT a family friendly hotel. My husband said it reminded him of the low quality hotels in...