Aloft Mount Laurel — Hotel in Mount Laurel Township

My boyfriend and I wanted to stay local for the new year so we decided to look into aloft for New Year's Eve night.

We tracked down what we thought was a good deal on a king bed room that supposedly included "breakfast". It was part of the flexible rate plus breakfast special. The price online seemed too good to be true so my boyfriend had called to confirm. The prices online compared to what they were told to us over the phone were a little different but overall pretty reasonable being that we thought we were getting a room plus what we thought would've been continental breakfast. Well.. We thought wrong and we weren't thoroughly explained to otherwise.

While booking the room over the phone one of the employees that handled reservations asked for a credit card # to keep on file to basically just reserve the room. We asked several times not to charge this specific card and that we would be sure to pay cash in person. When we arrived at the Mount Laurel location the person at the desk asked to see the card that was on file as well as the card holders license(which was mine) so I handed this person both cards and mentioned again that we were paying cash and that my card wasn't to be charged. Apparently I wasn't clear enough because in a two second span of me looking over at the "refuel" bar my card was swiped. I said again "No.. We are paying cash". This person said "That's right". I did not sign anything so I assumed that that charge did not go through and was not told otherwise. My boyfriend then handed over 150.00 in cash because after taxes the room had come to 148.35. The worker finished the transaction loaded our room keys and sent us on our way. Didn't bother explaining the breakfast portion that was supposedly included with our stay and when asked what it consisted of he said that we were not put into the computer as having access to the breakfast refuel area. He then said I can either provide you with two $5 vouchers or one $10 voucher. After looking at the breakfast bar menu we had alreAdy seen that everything had its own price and items were not cheap. The voucher would have done no justice between the both of us. We were told over the phone that breakfast was included . The next morning after check out we figured we would use the voucher for the heck of it. We grabbed two small fruit smoothie juices and a small fruit cup. I handed over the $10 voucher thinking that would've been more then enough but again I was wrong. I was told I owed an extra $4. Needless to say we left on a not so good note.

The lady that handled our reservation couldn't even tell us if there was room service available. I would think that any customer service assistant at a hotel answering phones,taking reservations should've been able to answer that right away without being put on hold to get an answer.

We were pleased with the look and comfort of our room for our over night stay.

New Year's Day I noticed a paper that was slid under our door with our room # on it. Here it was just a copy of our receipt. I looked over it and seen the total cost payed in cash,my boyfriends name,room number,etc. We checked out around 11:30am and handed in our keys after encountering an epic fail experience at the refuel bar.

Later on New Year's Day, I just so happened to log into my bank account to make sure my bill payments were up to par and for some unusual reason I had a withdrawal in the amount of 175.15. I clicked on this total to view more info and sure enough it was a withdrawal from aloft. What was extremely weird as well was that wasn't even the cost that we payed in cash for the room. It was about 27.00 extra dollars tacked on to what our cash total was. I showed my boyfriend and he was more upset then I was. Called the Mount Laurel location right away to see what this charge was for? He was told that it was their fault and that they had charged the card on top of the cash transaction when they were given specific direction not to do so. My boyfriend asked how to go about getting that amounted credited back to my account ASAP and was told it would take 5-7 days. Well, neither one of us was going to take that for an answer. He was then told that we would have to get a fax # for my bank and explain to them the mistake and they will walk me through any other information I would need to give to the hotel to get this money back into my account. I then asked the customer service rep how long it would take before I would see the credit and was told as soon as they receive the fax from the hotel it would be credited within two hours. Sure enough it only took a couple hours but it was very inconvenient! Granted mistakes happen everyday but this wasn't a little "boo boo" if you will. Something that could've and should've been easily prevented.

Needless to say my boyfriend and I will probably not be back anytime soon to aloft and it's sad because we at least were pleased with our room but not at the cost of being over charged and inconveniently agitated on what was suppose to be a happy...

Let me start off by saying that I am a frequent traveler and visitor of Starwood Hotels and have never felt strongly enough to leave a negative review. The reason for this review is two fold.

1. Service: The service at this hotel was subpar at best. The employees manning the check in counter were curt, and did not appear to care about anything beyond checking a box with each guest, spending the minimum time and energy possible. My fiance and I arrived early around 9:30AM on Saturday morning, having just gotten off a red eye flight where neither of us slept too well. I explained our situation to the girl at the desk asking if it would be possible to check in early, we would take any room/no other requirements. Without even hesitating or checking the system, she informed us that there were no rooms available, and that the cleaning staff had only just arrived. Okay we said, would it be possible if we could get into the first room that gets cleaned? "No, the earliest you can get in is at 1:30PM" just like that we were dismissed. The employee did the minimum possible to get rid of us, and returned to chat with her co-worker while sipping coffee. While I realize trying to check in at 9:30AM is out of the ordinary, I would have appreciated the employee to have put a little bit more effort in trying to accommodate me. I've been a platinum Starwood member for 5 years straight and have never been so rudely dismissed by a staff member. Later, I noticed there was a shuttle parked outside and asked where it could take us. I was curtly informed that normally it runs within a 5 mile radius, but today there would not be a shuttle driver, so the shuttle was not available. No explanation, another dismissal. The staff members manning the desk are not professional and definitely are not putting any effort into their jobs.

2. Guest experience: After having gone to bed around 11:30pm that night, I woke up at 2:45AM to loud whooping and yelling. In my delirium I thought people were simply passing by in the hallway, and that it would calm down once they were gone. To my surprise, I realized the noise was actually coming from the courtyard outside, where there appeared to be a party going on in full swing. I called down to the front desk to ask about it, and it appeared that the staff member at the desk seemed aware. When I told her that this was highly unacceptable, she reluctantly indicated that she would shut it down. How can this be real? what kind of hotel condones late night partying in an area that is highly exposed to at least half of their rooms? Anyone on any floor with a window facing the back courtyard would have been disturbed by this, and yet the hotel does nothing about it. Later when I checked out the next day, I saw that this hotel actually has a calendar of events/parties listed for each night of the month, many of them listed to end at "1AM". I highly question the priorities of the management at this type of hotel, as it certainly appears that they would rather be running a night club.

I believe this hotel needs to get its priorities straight, and spend more time training its staff members on professionalism. I for one will never return to this hotel again, and frankly if this behavior is akin to the entire Aloft subchain, I will be avoiding Alofts on the whole. This experience has been a huge departure from the Starwood service i've come to know, I certainly hope it is not a representation of where the...

I found this hotel online when I was looking for one in the area for a decent price. I decided to try it based on the pictures of the various rooms, description of the room and the bed. The picture showed a nice looking room of a decent size for the price I selected and the description of the bed made me want to go there just to try it out.

Upon arrival, the first thing I noticed was how different the view of the exterior building is from the pictures. It was very boxy and matter-of fact, and looked as if it could be located in NJ or a not so pretty part of Miami. It was also smaller. The lobby and waiting area was much nicer than I expected based on how the exterior looked, but again, it was compact and small.

The service at the desk was good and the people were nice. I overheard that the hotel was booked for the next day, and I saw quite a few young guests walking around in team uniforms, so I thought of all weekends to stay here, I had to pick one when it looks like it would be noisy.

Once I got to my room and found that it was 1 floor up from the ground, and just around the corner from the elevators, I thought that my plans for a 1-day get away for some good rest and privacy would be overshadowed by the noise from the guests.

As I left the hotel in the evening, I saw that a DJ was setting up in the lobby and that there were a lot of guests at the small bar. I thought that this was a good sign that the hotel was well liked and patronized but was setting me up for more disruptions because my room was right over the lobby.

To my surprise, there was little noise from the elevators, DJ, and the guests in the area. I heard some thumping from the music, but it was pretty well muffled. The most I heard from the guests was from 1 room just across the hall when they opened and closed their doors and random knocks from visitors.

The room itself was very small and not at all what I expected from the picture and for the price. The king-sized bed took up most of the rectangular room. It was not as clean as I wanted it to be, but it had been a while since I stayed in a hotel, so maybe my expectations were too high, not sure. The table in the room had a food stain on it, the shower had visible stains in the grout, and the black tiled bathroom floor looked like it had been cleaned with a white paste and wasn't rinsed very well. The room phone and remote controls looked like they hadn't been cleaned in a while, so I cleaned them pretty thoroughly before using them.

The best part of the room really was the bed. It was as comfortable as advertised. The bed linens looked clean, and the pillows were the best part! There were 4, that were soft and thick and could be laid on or cuddled.

The second best thing about this room was the Bliss Spa shower gel and lotion, although I would have liked a larger tube of the lotion, as there was only enough in it to cover half of my body.

Also, there seems to be a decent restaurant/bar next door, so an out-of-towner wouldn't be confused or limited to trying to navigate the loop of the nearby highways.

Overall, the hotel was adequate for a (very) short stay. I'm not sure how the other rooms look, but if a coupon or good booking deal were part of the equation, it would be okay to...