Aloft Manhattan Downtown - Financial District — Hotel in New York

I stayed at this hotel for 3 nights around August 2021 and this is by far my worst experience staying at a Marriott hotel. I have silver status with Marriott and have a good idea of what to expect from their brands. I generally do not leave hotel reviews as my experiences are usually positive to varying degrees, but my experience here was so bad that I could not help but write something.

I had booked a king sized room but immediately upon entering the room realized that the bed was queen sized and the room itself was extremely cramped. I immediately called the front desk and the lady who answered did not seem (or want to) understand the problem. I went down and discussed the issue and her only response was that everything was booked and that she was unable to do anything and that I should speak with a manager the next morning. In addition, she had the audacity to tell me that the room was indeed a king sized room, thereby turning the problem into me being fussy as opposed to there being an actual problem. This was totally unexpected and the behavior was rude. I tried pursuing many different avenues including pulling up the room types from Marriott's website and showing her that right at that moment I was able to book a new room from the website (as such there should be availability). I asked her whether I would be compensated for being given a smaller room when I had already paid for a king sized room. She appeared to almost be in shock as to why I should be compensated for anything. As a regular guest this kind of service would be quite shocking to me but the behavior was magnified further given that I am treated extremely well at most Marriott locations due to the silver status.

Being in that room that night and going in for a shower the following morning, I noticed that there was a horrible smell coming from the sink and that there was hair both in the shower drain and walls (see pictures). At that point I decided to inspect the room a little closer (something I never do), and noticed that the air vents in the bathroom looked like they hadn't been cleaned in a year. I also noticed from the fire escape map that the room I was in (1503), was literally the smallest sized room so there was no way that it was a king sized room.

I checked with the front desk again the following morning and this time a different lady at the front desk seemed slightly more understanding although not by much. She agreed to request that I be placed into a different room but said that she cannot guarantee anything as people were still checking out and they had no idea of what rooms would be available. This made no sense as they should have a clear list of who is checking out and which rooms would be available. I left my luggage with them and offered to return my keys so they could clean my current room while they allocate a new one to me but she refused to take my keys.

Thankfully, when I returned a few hours later, they did have a new room for me (1506) which was an actual king sized room (see picture). This room was far more spacious and what I expected in the first place. Although this room appeared to be much cleaner generally, there was a ton of dried up rice all over the carpets (see pictures). Before heading out again, I checked at the front desk as to whether they could get someone to just vacuum clean it, but was told that I would have to request room service the following morning before 9. That would already be my 3rd day staying at this hotel.

Given the combination of issues and absolutely horrible service, I have to give this hotel a 1 star rating. Had I been placed in the second room from the get-go, and had it been clean as one would expect a hotel of this standard to be, I would have been a happy customer. Even if that wasn't the case, if the staff were at least a little more accommodating and understanding of the issues, I would feel far better.

Aside from my issues the hotel is in a good location and so...

I had one of the worst hotel experiences of my life here. Please, do not book this hotel — spend a little more and stay somewhere else.

We arrived late on Thursday night, April 25, 2025, around midnight, with a confirmed reservation. When we gave our ID to the front desk agent, he found our reservation but asked us to wait a moment. We were starving, so we asked him to hold our bags while we grabbed a quick bite to eat.

When we came back, he told us there was a “problem” with our reservation and that he had moved us to another hotel just for the night, saying we could come back the next day for our room. It was clear to me they had overbooked and assumed we wouldn’t show up. I don’t like to cause trouble, so we reluctantly went to the other hotel.

The next morning, we returned to check into the room we had originally booked. However, it wasn’t ready yet. A woman at the front desk, who seemed completely unaware of our situation, apologized and said she would expedite the process and asked us to wait just half an hour. We agreed — we were tired and desperately needed a shower after the long night.

Half an hour became an hour, and still nothing. We ended up leaving without a room and without a shower because we didn’t want to waste more time — this was a short 3-night trip to New York, and we wanted to make the most of it.

Keep in mind, we paid around $350 a night for this hotel, and by now, we already felt cheated and mistreated.

Later that night, we finally checked into our room after returning from a long day out. As soon as I walked in, the room felt unusually hot. At first, I thought maybe it just needed a few minutes to cool down, so I set the AC to 65°F. But when I looked around, I noticed something odd — the window was open.

Now, it’s almost 5 a.m., and the room is still a sauna. The air conditioner is completely broken — and clearly, the hotel knew it. They had left the window open hoping we wouldn’t notice or complain. But they said absolutely nothing when they checked us in.

I haven’t slept at all. I went downstairs to speak with the front desk agent, and all he could tell me was that he “couldn’t do anything until tomorrow.” His brilliant solution? Open the window. Seriously — open the window… for $350 a night!

I asked him to call someone who could fix this immediately, but he said the “general manager” was on a plane at 4:30 a.m. — which is obviously a lie.

This entire experience has ruined my trip. I can’t rest, I’m exhausted, and this hotel has wasted my time, my money, and my energy.

Please, do yourself a favor: stay somewhere else. This place is completely unprofessional, and they do not care about their guests at all. Worst hotel experience...

I booked Aloft for two reasons:

1. it's centrally located to public transportation, eateries, etc.
2. the hotel I usually book for stay cations in the city was expensive for this weekend....

However, now I wished I paid the extra money. This was WORSE staycation I ever had:

This place is HORRIBLE with a capital H....

The rooms are small, cramped, and outdated. It feels like a shelter. If you are with someone you are literally on top of them. If you try to make any moves, you are bumping into something and hurting yourself. There is no refrigerator or microwave in the room which is an inconvenience to anyone going back and forth down the stairs to utilize the microwave. And God forbid, you ask for ice. You might as well go to the 7-eleven and pay for ice. There is not adequate amount of towels. They are also outdated and rough.

The customer service in this place is so unprofessional. I arrived on time to check in and waited between 30 to 45 minutes to so. Why? Because there was a system issue but none of that was communicated to me or the other 12 people behind me. We had to ear hussle to get any kind of answers. And when you get to the counter to check in, you barely get a hello or apology. But you are told about the gym and area to play pool and to provide your credit card to pay for incidentals. Ummm, really?

I was never told they had wifi in the hotel. When I finally inquired about it I was told to look at the sign on the counter which I found annoying. As a hotel professional, you are supposed to inform all your guests what your hotel has to offer. I shouldn't have to look around and guess. And then when I tried to use the wifi, the site was not secure and does not give you the option to use the wifi password. When you inform staff, they say they will inform staff to get the site resetted. At the time of check out, wifi was still not working and still not secured.

In addition, I requested an additional blanket because my room was freezing. I never got it. I called downstairs to remind them, I was told in quote " it's kind of busy down here, I didn't forget about you. Obviously you did because I had to pick up the blanket when I asked about it at 4 am when I was leaving the hotel for a bit. I requested the blanket around 11 pm.

In addition, at check out " three staff" just asked me if I was checking out and what room? No inquiries about my stay, or said " Good Morning", nothing. I've never wanted to leave a hotel so fast.

This hotel is the worse. No one should pay their hard earned money here. It's not worth it. Going forward I will stay elsewhere. I've been staying at hotels for years I will say this is my third worst experience. :( so...