Aloft Dublin-Pleasanton — Hotel in Dublin

SERVICE & TRANSITIONS -- This Aloft pattern has grown on me. Each location has been impeccably clean; from the pool table to the elevator. The lounge felt especially hospitable & welcoming. Great customer service & hospitality was the icing on the cake. Cashless tips are supported, although they lack Tap Pay support for check-in.🤔 This would've made the process much more fluid, contactless, & quick. MVP employees: Denise was a sweetheart!

ROOM -- https://youtu.be/66D_wvO5oBQ I enjoyed their take on this layout much than other Alofts. It felt very contemporary, open, & homey, featuring some very eye-catching rug & wallpaper patterns. Hardwood floors were well-maintained & having functional windows is always a nice surprise. Seating was a plush-like velvet & the pillows were even softer! Cons: the stock is extremely contemporary, which can be hit-or-miss if you're hoping to get any work done on the irregular table for example. The light fixtures (sconces) were also a nice design detail, but functional weak; Acoustics are not ideal if sharing space with another; insufficient tabletop space.

BED -- Great sleep, with excellent Tech-forward bedside utility: USB ports, Alexa, 3-prong outlets. Our mattress was the ideal firmness, providing good support through the night. Sheets were clean & breathable. Pillows were sufficient in size & quantity. Duvet cover isn't great, but the materials are smooth.

BATH -- A Small split-bath configuration & streamline walk-in shower experience that was, ultimately, mediocre. The shower head was lackluster & is installed mockingly high. I had to use my full reach to adjust it; not great for the vertically challenged. On top of that, the water pressure was weak. Shower glass installation isn't sealed so there's existing water damage & leakage whenever used. Be sure to request extras towels in advance! The DryBar bath products were enjoyable to use at least.

TV/ENTERTAINMENT -- An amazing display with the status quo Marriott TV solution. I was impressed by the choice of mount & its mobility. The remote however, was cheap & often unresponsive/slow. A bedside Alexa is setup for extra convenience but we prefer to unplug these for obvious reasons. Lots of fun activities are available in and around the property, including: a pool, pool table, hot tub & a general-purpose lounge.

WI-FI & CELL RECEPTION -- just "ok". The wireless network really isn't configured well, evident by the packet loss. Its also insecure. Speeds are bursty though so it's 'tolerable' if you have a travel router. Cell speeds (Verizon) were horrible inside the room. --Performance-- Video streaming - average Online gaming - average Video chatting - average --Nerd Stats-- 22-124 Mbps download 33-74 Mbps upload 0.1% packet loss 16 ms latency 6 ms jitter

FOOD & DRINK -- DoorDash friendly for leisurely racking up more Marriott reward points. The breakfast offering is quite strong, but isn't included in the rate ($$$). A bar is also available in the lobby with some pretty decent drinks. in-room: ❌ microwave ✅ smart mini-fridge (small) ✅coffee ✅ tea ❌ wet-bar ❌ mini-bar

NOISE -- I would avoid inner-facing rooms, Especially overlooking the pool. Doors opening and closing can be annoying on a more-occupied floor.

LOCATION -- In general it's a nice looking area & felt safe. Some chain restaurants are also walkable in the vicinity.

RATING Its ok. Strong in-person customer service was the highlight for me. Unfortunately it's not enough for the rates to be what they are (highest among 10 other hotels in the vicinity). Lukewarm recommendation. 3.5/5...

This is a newer hotel, less than a year old I think, but unfortunately there were some pretty glaring design flaws. Our room was in the same wing of the hotel as the laundry, and our first night, they must have been running the dryers all night or something. There was a constant cycling buzzing noise for our first 24 hours in the building that literally vibrated our room and made it extremely difficult to sleep. For the rest of the stay, it was clear that the building HVAC hadn't been set up perfectly either - there was still a loud noise separate from the dryers that I assume was the building HVAC. There's no excuse for a central AC system to be that loud in 2019. In addition, the room AC system was nowhere near correctly sized. It would blast arctic air into this 250-sq-ft room for 5 minutes (again, at way louder volume than necessary), then shut off for 5 minutes to let the room heat back up, rinse, repeat. My parents have mini-splits that are whisper quiet and do an excellent job on rooms twice that size. I can't understand why a new-construction hotel would skimp on such basic equipment.

Also, despite it being a non-smoking property, the smell of cigarettes somehow filtered into our room at least 2 or 3 of the 5 days we were there. Luckily we were checking out on the day that it was worst.

Final major complaint is the room configuration. I've seen this in a few other newer hotels and can't figure out why people design rooms this way, but it's set up so that there is no way to use the bathroom in the middle of the night without waking up the other person in the room. The entryway doubles as the sink area, which is separated from the toilet/shower stall with sliding door, and from the bedroom area with a translucent partition. A single light switch controls that whole front area, so if you need light to pee, you either have to use your phone flashlight (which we both did at times), or you end up lighting up the whole entryway and waking up your partner.

Now for the good:

The staff are excellent. The building engineer/maintenance guy fully acknowledged the dryer-location design flaw and comped us some Marriott points, and Amanda was amazing about getting me a quiet space to work, free of charge, in one of their conference room when our room was particularly noisy (the room setup is honestly not great for business travelers, either - no real desk space, just a tiny table and corner booth-style setup, so be warned).

The bar is very nice, and the limited amount of food we had here was good as well. The bed is also super comfy - either down or down alternative, and even though I generally prefer firmer mattresses, this was really luxurious and tough to get out of in the morning (in a good way). We didn't use the pool or hot tub, but they seemed nice. There are also several restaurants within walking distance, and tons of other stuff on a short drive.

I would probably not stay here again because of the design flaws, but if you're a solo traveler and can manage to get a room on a higher floor and/or away from the laundry, and are not planning on working while in the hotel, it's probably not a bad...

This would be 3.5 if we could give half stars. I would even up it 4 stars if the cleanliness would have been a bit better in the rooms. So..... Overall this places vibe is if a modern hotel had a baby with a retro hotel. The decor is quirky and fun. The layout is pretty nice. It's in a great location which would be 5 stars by itself. It feels safe and is very accessible to lots of stuff. The front of the house staff upon checking in (Jean) was welcoming and very knowledgeable. The lobby was very eclectic. Pool table, game area, bar. I can see it being a fun place to hang out if you're with a group. They have a nice little grab and go area for snacks. They have a free coffee and infused water set up upon entering. You can set up getting breakfast the next morning. Grab and go simple menu choices. They feature recycling bins along side every trash can, in and out of the rooms which is nice to see. Our stay was 1 night, king bed regular room. The room was good on size and decorated bright and fun. Modern feel, like no closets only a hanging station and a 2 drawer luggage table. Makes the room feel more open without all the doors and cabinets. For short stays who really needs closets anyway. The bathroom is okay in size, with a huge shower. The water pressure was decent, the temperature was okay. Had to turn the knob to full hot to have it at what would be regular at home. The bed was very soft. Pillow top and super sinking in feeling. Okay by me, but my fiancé needs firm. For one night this was okay, but had we stayed multiple nights, that bed would have lead to severe back pain by the end of the trip for them. Nice large TV, although we didn't use it. Mini fridge and great coffee set up. 2 bottles of free water were included in the room. Unfortunately they're were a few things that could use attention. The room wasn't as clean as it should be. For the rating this property gets and prices charged, I expected better. The room had a musty scent, quite noticeable upon entry. Thought using the air conditioner might help but it didn't. really. Either we got used to it or it dissipated a little as the night went on. The air conditioner was a little wonky. When it was blowing cool air it was great. But when it got to the set temperature or just below it started blowing normal air, instead of just shutting off and on as needed. Kind of like it was self regulating or something. It was frustrating because I kept waking up hot, then cold and so forth. We did have breakfast there. We got a breakfast biscuit sandwich and egg bites, apple juice and coconut water. Prices were fair. Fortunately for this visit we were comped. The robot butler that delivers to the room was unavailable due to maintenance during the morning, so we didn't get to experience that feature. Kind of a bummer. Wanted to see what that was all about. Checking out was easy and again a very friendly staff member. (May....Jean's sister, haha... great attitudes just run in the family) Staff wise this place is 5 stars. Overall the stay was nice and would stay here again, but only for over night visits and if the...