Aloft Silicon Valley — Hotel in Newark

SERVICE Swift checkin under 5m. $8 self-service uncovered parking. No tap/electronic payment options. Staff were consistently courteous & professional. Phone calls answered promptly. Automatic robot delivery for towels & things. Late checkout offered (1hr). FREE washer (1) & dryer (1) laundry service

ROOM The room quality & hotel stock vary quite widely: different mattress firmness ranging from a "2" to "perfect"; some rooms don't have curtains; bathroom tiles buffed to hazardous levels or not at all; 40" Phillips TV or a 50" Samsung TV; etc Phones were a uniform failure. The handsets do not charge (despite what the LED indicator says), so you're forced to use the speaker to workaround it. The Do Not Disturb signs could use a redesign or more consideration. It's a frustrating designs that regularly slides down the handle and lands on the entryway floor. After crossing the threshold of a well-appointed room, its smooth sailing. Comfortably spacious for 2 with plenty of drawer + shelf space. The workspace was productive: a huge wood (lament?) desk & ergonomic desk chair, although the port/outlet availability is lower than the hotel norm. The window treatment is surprisingly strong: functional windows that open for fresh air & roller shades that do a excellent job at light control, insulation, aesthetic, & privacy.

BED The Beautyrest mattresses aren't from the Black Collection or another notable tier & the soft/firmness level was ultimately a lottery so give it a lie-down test before settling in. Sheets were cozy, clean, and satisfactory while the Standard/Twin pillows on a king mattress were a comfort killer. The headboard design is pretty awesome though: a grandiose wooden adjustable panelling.

BATH ⚠️Over polished tile was very dangerous to walk on with every combination of shoes, socks & barefeet, so be careful!⚠️ Walk-in shower is quite cramped (I'm 5'11" for reference) & the design of the door is a maintenance nightmare (it was falling off the hinge in the first room & it's clear why). Nevertheless it's a solid cleaning: the 4 spray-pattern shower head delivers great water pressure & heats fast. Drybar bath products (meh) are also provided. The tub is less impressive bc it's not deep enough for an adult bath but it's functional. Aloft/Marriott appears to have discontinued the robe amenity in the Bay Area 💔 and, to add insult to injury, towels are on the smaller side. HVAC wasn't noticeable in here & there's no manual exhaust switch either. The toilet paper holder fixture is very non-functional (like an airport or Starbucks bathroom), please change this... 2 solid design patterns I did appreciate: chromatic cross handles on the sink & blue accent lighting above the vanity.

TV At least 2 Configuration that I'm aware of: Phillips 40" LG 55" Standard ~40 channel Basic programming + streaming integrations that include Netflix, YouTube, showtime , & prime Connectivity: Bluetooth, HDMI, Painful slow UI navigation The Phillips TV broke down during our stay, but they switched our room & gave us a breakfast voucher for the trouble.

Wi-Fi Complimentary unencrypted wifi behind the usual Marriott portal. Video Streaming: Average Online Gaming: Poor Video Chatting: Average Nerd Stats...: Download bandwidth: 12-19 Mbps Upload bandwidth: 7-25 Mbps Latency (idle): 17-29 ms Jitter: 1.65 - 3.74 ms Packet Loss: 1.2%

FOOD Not DoorDash/UberEats friendly, but you can still earn bonus Marriott points... it's just a tad inconvenient. Room service is available with a menu that includes vegetarian options are but not much else readily available for other (e.g. wheat)/multiple dietary restrictions. ✅mini coffee bar ✅wet bar ❌minibar Frigidaire microwave & (medium) mini fridge for storing plenty of drinks and microwave meals, but remember to bring your own silverware because none are provided (despite all that cabinet space).

NOISE Sound dampening/isolation is very good --...

Disclaimer: it is common that only negative things are being put in focus. So from the beginning on I would like to mention that beside negative experiences below, the remaining was positive. Staff was always friendly and responsive.

Check in: Arrived at the hotel after long flight. Was the only person checking in. Check in took about 20 minutes to activate keyless. After this I was told that keyless is not working and issued a normal key card. In-between the check in was interrupted by guys asking for late check out, and attention of the only front desk staff was shifted from me completely. Apparently there was some event going on: a high school year end party I assume. A bunch of very drunk teens where circulating from event room to lobby-street exit. My rimowa suitcase for some reason attracted their attention and some of them approached me with questions “how much did it cost” and “what are you doing for living”, which after a while became annoying. I was polite, but somewhat expecting the security guards (there has been 2 of them in the lobby) to interfere. Did not happen – both where just looking how the situation develops.

Room: When I entered the room I found dirty plates and glasses on the desk. Have put them outside door and called front desk about it. The staff said they are going to collect it and apologized for this. When I’ve put a do not disturb sign outside door 2 hours later this stuff was still there. The room was generally clean (apart from these dishes), but there was rubbish in the waste bins.

Getting to sleep: At 12 midnight the party was still going on. Apart from music basses, that shook the whole building, screams outside as well as in the corridors.

In the following days (in total I’ve stayed around 10 nights), I would like to note a few points:

Maids don’t really pay attention to “Do not disturb” or “Make a green choice” signs. I was frequently up until 5-6 am due to communication with Europe. Almost every morning at 9 I was woken up by someone entering the room. Internet cuts off in irregular intervals (access is free, but the sessions expire). Meaning that if you are on a, say, skype call – you get disconnected, need to open browser, reconnect. Room service staff was very unpredictable as with each interaction I discovered something new: a. One evening I was told that I can not order breakfast and have to call in next morning. b. Another time when I ordered extra strong espresso, it was ignored. When I called to follow up: the reply was “you have a coffee machine...

Staff is great and super accommodating however,mine and 4 other guests vehicles were burglarized and windows busted out.They got all 3 windows on passenger side of my vehicle and the other guests vehicles windows as well.Fortunately it is all on video but recovering my losses won't ever happen.$800 to replace windows $110.00 for breakfast at hotel because I couldn't drive my vehicle for fear of being ticketed,the best thing about breakfast though was the pineapple and orange juice....(spoiler alert ...eat somewhere else...way cheaper and probably tastes better...Manager J.Ransom was helpful but gave the vibe that he really didn't want to be doing it...but agreed to comp us one night as we couldn't get windows replaced until tomorrow morning and said he didn't want us to sleep in our car...but I'm assuming that's because we parked my car directly in front of the office with all of my windows busted out it may have been for fear of how it would look .... I feel like he could have comp'd both nights and high price breakfast but hey he helped?? .....all in all this night at the hotel wound up costing me a little over $1,000 and that's minus repairing my column shift where they tried to hotwire my vehicle but again the staff was super accommodating... I just have to wonder how security never heard the people ransacking five vehicles and taking items out of vehicles after busting out all of our windows and yet no one heard a thing hmmm..... I wonder if security walking the premise only once an hour is sufficient enough?? The manager Mr Ransom stated himself that this hotel is in a hot spot for theft and now I wonder why they aren't warning customers when they come in of the possibility of this happening? I was never warned and I feel like had I been I would have taken measures to have not parked in this parking lot.Would I stay here again probably but next time I'll leave my vehicle somewhere else.Edit Mgmt did comp outrageous breakfast and comp'd one free night due to bad experience because of vehicle break in..... Again STAFF are GREAT!!!! Just beware of vehicles left in parking lot! Security obviously isn't sufficient and do not under any circumstance leave valuables in your vehicle!! Break ins are a known issue,as confirmed by PD and Hotel Mgmt...it is apparently just a site and release ticket to the criminals if caught,even if caught in the act!! It will cost you more than the fine that will be imposed on them!! Heed my warning...park elsewhere or just keep a very close eye on...