Aloft Houston by the Galleria — Hotel in Houston

I came to Aloft Houston Galleria on January 16th, 2021 and checked out on January 17th, 2021. I booked and paid through Expedia before I checked in. When I checked out, I was sent an email and noticed that my card was charged once again for the hotel. So I ultimately was charged twice for one reservation. I called the hotel on January 18th and spoke with a guy named Julius who told me that sometimes this happens when you book through a third party (I always book through Expedia but this has never happened to me). He then went on to inform me that the system had already caught the error and that my card would automatically be refunded the money that the hotel charged me and the amount should appear back in my bank in 3-10 business days. So then 10 business days passed and I still hadn’t been refunded. I called the hotel back on February 3rd around 11:30pm and spoke with a very very unprofessional young lady. Of course she refused to tell me her name because she’s an adult and she knew that her behavior was out of line and very unacceptable. But she did say that she was the desk supervisor. I am unhappy with her service because she didn’t even allow me to respectfully communicate my issues to her about being double charged. She continued to disrespect and interrupt me. She verbalized that they do not issue refunds, and they have a lot of new employees that always give out false information. She emphasized that she would NOT refund me my money because she doesn’t have to if she doesn’t want to and that I need to call back in the morning and maybe one of the untrained employees would go against the hotel policies and refund me the money. I told her that there would be a serious issue if I don’t receive my money that I was wrongly charged. She then proceeded by saying that I was threatening her which is very untrue. I am an adult and I have no reason to threaten a rag doll that works at a hotel. The issue really isn’t even that serious for me to threaten someone. But I do have a problem with being disrespected by one of Alofts employees for a mistake that THEY made. I am the customer and I received the bad end of the stick. This specific Aloft location needs a serious reality adjustment because they treat their guests terribly. I did not deserve to be treated the way I was treated. The fact that this young lady holds a management position is very concerning. She is a “desk supervisor” and she acts like an undomesticated animal. I believe this is the same young lady that was yelling at a group of guests in the lobby on the day that I checked in. The hotel itself is very nice. It’s sad to say that I won’t be returning and I am a huge fan of aloft hotels as I have been to many. I’m not really upset about being double charged because people make mistakes. But I am very very upset about the trouble that I am having to put up with in order to get a refund. It is a pandemic and people need their money. This is not the time to be hateful. The hotel itself is very nice. But the staff is the reason why I won’t be coming back. What is the point of having untrained workers that regularly give out false misleading information? At what point are they going to be trained? At what point is the hotel going to be able to work with third party bookings without double charging the lovely guests ? I always go to different Alofts and book through Expedia and this has never happened. It probably happened at this location because the employees are untrained and have no etiquette. I need someone to reach out to me and refund me money because this is terrible. I am in total shock. The employee is very very out of line for her behavior. She literally argued with me. Who even does that at work? I also want to point out that these people hesitated to give us extra towels during our reservation. When I booked I said 2 guests would be staying so how can 1 small wash cloth and 2 large towels accommodate 2 adult...

This was, without a doubt, one of the nastiest hotels I have ever stayed in. The hotel overall suffers from neglect, poor maintenance and poor housekeeping.....its dirty, in disrepair and poorly maintained. When we arrived, the lady at the front desk was sitting at a table on her cell phone, eating and when she came to check us in, she had food stains on her shirt - not a great first impression. After check-in, we got on the elevator to go to our room - there was trash on the elevator and the floor was sticky - something had been poured or dropped on the elevator floor and no one had bothered to clean it up. After we got off the elevator - the first thing we saw was dirty carpeting, trash on the floor, torn wall paper on the walls and stains on the wall? When we entered the room - it was dank, damp and had an odd smell to it. After putting away my luggage, I went to sit down in the chair and noticed a huge piece of mucous stuck to the back of the chair - it looked like someone had sneezed on the chair and no one had bothered to clean the chair since. The chair cushion was dirty and stained. I reported this to the front desk and the lady said she would have the chair changed out. We had to run an errand and when we returned, there was another chair in the room (the one with the mucous on it was still there) and the additional chair had a damaged back and the cushion was dirty and soiled - sad! As we became more oriented to the room we began to see more signs of neglect and poor housekeeping. There were stains on the wall, the floor in the bathroom and in the shower was dirty, there was dirt and mold in the bathroom, the toilet seat was broken, the glass shower door was cracked, the molding on the shower was peeling away, the carpet in the sleeping area was dirty and stained - the list goes on. I thought about complaining to the front desk but, after seeing the overall condition of the hotel, I knew nothing could be done - its systematic neglect. I ventured onto other floors and though I did not enter any rooms, the other floors and passageways suffered from the same neglect as our floor. At one point, as we left our room, we were faced with a huge stack of dirty towels, sheets, blankets and trash stacked in a corner in the passageway?? It is evident that this hotel is not taking any extra precautions as a result of Covid-19. Again - I contemplated complaining but knew it would come down to me having to find a new hotel and then fighting to get my money back since the hotel had already pre-charged my credit card for a two nights stay. I decided the effort was not worth making and to try to make the best of a nasty situation. I even tried posting a review on the hotel's website but, the option is not available (notice the last reviews were posted in March). I would advise against staying at this hotel unless you have absolutely no other option! I put my way through college working in a 4 star hotel - first as a night auditor, then desk clerk and then as a front office manger. I recognize when a hotel property is suffering from neglect - and this one is just that! I also know trying to deny a hotel charge is a huge nightmare and unless the hotel is cooperative that the charge almost always go through anyhow. They also know that most customers won't go through the hassle of trying to relocate and then fight with them and the bank to try to recoup charges against a credit card - in short, they know they have your business once you are there whether you want to give it to...

Let me start by saying I will not be staying here again location aside. I was a guest here from may 30 - June 1.

I have stayed at other alofts in Texas and by far this was the worst one. The hotel is already looking very dated and unkept on the inside and I would suggest a heavy cosmetic renovation.

Most repairs are just painted over, the walls are heavily scuffed, the lighting fixtures need to be cleaned and some have fabric tears. The elvators could use a deep polish and the snack/sundry area culd stand for a deep clean ..It was all visually atrocious I can't imagine that this is in line with marriott brand standards. The evening front desk agent was very polite and pleasant both days of my stay and the only one that answered the phone in a timely fashion.

As for the rooms although clean also had cosmetic issues. The refrigerators were not cooling in either room. There is no ice machine for public use on the property and we were not made aware of this until we asked for ice. Even though they have on site coin laundry they do not have detergent or dryer sheets to sell you.

Now for the staff...

The morning front desk agent was avoiding calls like the plague and would answer depending on her mood as we called several times to get assistance with special billing/ check in situation we only got an answer after 3:30 PM. The evening Agent was amazing very friendly and helpful. The bartender seemed very tired and uninterested in serving her customers. Houskeeping staff was wonderful. A companion of mine who was also staying there left an item behind and we called the desk to see if it was there the morning front desk person said it wasn't and I'm assuming she just didn't check again with the avoiding phone calls because we went back and recovered the item no problem.

If you happen to be thinking about ordering in from the kitchen...change your mind. Everything tasted like it was air fried in some type of oven that hasn't been properly cleaned in ages... even the burger patties and they are not very enthusiatic about presentation when it comes to serving you your food.

I was told that parking was $25 for the whole stay but it was actually 25 per night. The incidental was not set at one price which this is the first time I've ever heard of an aloft doing this. The highest they can charge you is $100 for the whole stay so it's at their discretion how much they charge.

I'm only giving them a three for the combination of location, the kind evening agent, and the great...