Aloft Harlem — Hotel in New York

When looking for a place to stay in Harlem for a week, I was looking for convenience, affordability, and cleanliness. At Aloft in Harlem...I got so much more! I was pleasantly and humbly surprised that I was in THE MECCA of The Harlem Rennaisance and historical African American ideology that changed the fabric and thought of American history. For example, it is located on Frederick Douglass Blvd which ran adjacent to Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Malcolm X, Ruby Dee and Martin Luther King, Jr. road ways. Across the street is the Harriet Tubman memorial. Around the corner is the Apollo. In fifteen to 20 minutes you can walk either to the New York Public Library's Schomberg Center for Research in Black Thought, the Dance Theatre of Harlem or the Ralph Ellison Memorial. In addition to the historical and cultural significance, is the convenience. If you are not up to the walk, there is the M10 bus right outside the hotel or a 1 minute walk to other bus routes and the subway. Across from the Harriet Tubman memorial there is a grocery store that has reasonably priced/brand named products, kosher foods and freshly baked bread. Also, a 7-10 minute walk on Malcolm X and 125 Street brings you to Whole Foods. Looking for souvenirs and fresh produce? It is everywhere. Looking to wash laundry during your extended stay? The 4th floor of ALoft has a laundry mat and for added convenience there is also one next store. As far as food and entertainment...you have 4-5 star restaurants, cafe's and night spots. You can take a bus, subway, Lyft or Uber to Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn or Queens. If you're traveling with children...you can get a temporary library card or take advantage of the multiple state of the art parks, pools and playgrounds! All that said..kudos to Marriott for their location choice! And kudos to the staff they hired! The staff is friendly, knowlegable, accommodating and hospitable! The only downside to ALoft is I am not sure Marriott understands what they have. I understand ALoft is a boutique part of its' brand. But perhaps they would want to treat it like a Ritz Carlton boutique. The ecclectic nuance of ALoft can easily be compared to the significance of the higher end brand of Marriott. ALoft can still be an affordable , convenient boutique but with the treatment of a 5 star stay due to all of its' positives. Marriott does itself a disservice by not paying attention to much needed site upgrades. It sells itself short by not embracing its' location and treating ALoft as a high end hotel. Instead of marketing, "The Notes From Harlem," NFC which features some of the last photos of Michael K. Williams or bragging it abutts "Sugar Hill," it lets its' consumers down with a lack luster outdated interior. For all its' marvelous pros, I give ALoft a 9 out of 10 because Marriott misses the mark on what it has with...

Staff was very friendly and did everything they could do to make us feel comfortable. aloft is a bare bones property with no restaurant (I knew this before I went.) so it is what it is. It's nicely decorated in a minimalist hip style. they have a food bar where you can buy simple things for breakfast, ie. cereal, muffins, breads, coffee, wraps, drinks, etc. there's also a bar area and another area to sit. as i said, it's minimalist at it's best and worse. it is what it is. the beds are rather hard, sheets were a little rough and the down blankets were very heavy for both of us. the shower area was large enough for two with a very nice rainfall shower head, the water was sufficiently hot but I noticed there was less of it in the late evening hours. we liked the body gel dispenser in the shower stall but neither of us cared for the shampoo mixed with conditioner. towels were mid level quality. lighting controls for the room was sort of strange. if you got up in the night to use the bathroom and turn on the bathroom light, it would turn on the light to the entrance area also, which would shower light into the bedroom area. not a great design from that one perspective. also, with all the shelf area, you'd think there'd be outlets everywhere for your computer, phone, etc.. but there was one outlet underneath and one outlet on the shelf in a unit for plugging in other electronics. the tv was very nicely sized. i had one incident of a couple in another room near by the first night re-inacting an adult movie with all the verbiage. i was sound asleep and they were so loud yelling obscenities with each other that it woke me up at 2am from a sound sleep. i only hoped that it wouldn't awaken my 14 year old daughter. and i couldn't call to complain for fear of waking my daughter. after listening to this krapt for an hour, they finally finished their business and apparently left the hotel because i heard the door open and shut and there was no more sounds. thank god. i wondered if the hotel was being used for hourly patrons. I told the manager the next day and she was very apologetic about it. I'm sure the staff would have done something had I been able to call them when it was happening. but as i said, i was not in a position...

I arrived in New York City on January 24 and had already booked Aloft Harlem for January 28-30 months in advance to make a permanent move into Harlem. I had booked a hotel in midtown closer to my office for January 24-28 but decided to make the move uptown to be closer to my new residence for the weekend. But once I arrived at Aloft with all my bags, my room was not ready. Even past the advertised check in time of 3pm, my room was not ready and I had to keep calling the hotel to ask when my room would be ready. This is completely unacceptable and I did not even get an apology. I was exhausted and had more moving to do the next day so I went to my assigned room 420 in this NON-smoking hotel. Immediately off the elevator, the Hallways reeked strongly of cigarette smoke and the smell seeps into the hotel room so I was nauseous and felt ill. I called Marriott Bonvoy Elite and the front desk and I was then assigned 522. Once the front desk gave me the key to my new room, no one helped me move all my bags. I flew internationally to relocate to Harlem and had 6 bags with me. The staff left a broken cart in room 420 for me to take all the bags myself and when I did, the broken cart that wouldn’t move forward, only backwards, got stuck in the elevator door on the 5th floor. I understand this is “COVID times” and hotels have leaner staffing, but why doesn’t the person assigned to help you actually help you, whether that is holding a door or an elevator for you while you carry your own bags!

The Heater is also so loud and disruptive in both rooms, you either need earplugs or make the TV so loud to be able to hear it over the heater noise.

I would’ve stayed at the hotel I had been staying at since Sunday if I had known how bad this hotel was. I was dealing with an international move and I did not need the extra hassle, stress and issues. I would never stay here again or recommend this hotel. The hotel decor is dated and the common areas are not very inviting This hotel is certainly not up to the Marriott brand standard and was extremely disappointing in...