Aloft Portland Downtown Waterfront ME — Hotel in Portland

Keep searching for your Portland, ME hotel. This by far was the worst experience. From check-in to check-out, nothing but issues. Like most who have reviewed, soundproofing is a huge issue at this hotel. Between the toilets flushing and the doors slamming, it was loud weekend stay. Don’t bother with the upsell for the “water view” unless you’re looking for a view of the tent city and litter across the street.

Our final night of our stay we were awakened by loud screaming and police in the hallway. I called down to the front desk and they confirmed that the police were there. I asked if we needed to leave and she hung up the phone. Next day on checkout, the overly-stressed clerk acknowledged the issues and apologized and said the general manager would be in touch. Form email alert! I responded to the generic email and cc’d the general manager, Marcin Gorski, and not one reply after four attempts to speak (except for one out of office response stating that he was traveling). Hope he wasn’t staying at an Aloft!

This was a horrible experience. Let this review be a learning lesson for the hotel and its absent general manger. Never again.

Here is the feedback sent to the hotel with no acknowledgment:

Hello,

I'm writing to share our recent experience during our stay at your hotel from November 2nd to November 6th, 2023. Unfortunately, we were quite disappointed with our overall experience, which began with the check-in process. Our flight arrived a bit earlier than the standard 3 pm check-in time, and our room was not ready. The desk agent kindly offered to hold our bags and promised to notify us via the app when the room became available, but we never received such a notification. Frustrated, we called the front desk around 5 pm to inquire about the room's status, and it was ready. The two gentlemen who assisted us at that time were very pleasant.

When we made our reservation, we specifically requested a room with a king-sized bed and a water view. However, upon entering our room, it became clear that the view was more focused on the street and tents/a flood of litter rather than the water view that was advertised.

On Sunday of our stay, we received a knock at the door with a question about whether we were planning to check out or extend our stay. We showed the staff member our reservation, and she updated her paperwork and scheduled room service after we requested additional towels and other supplies.

Unfortunately, our sleep quality throughout our stay was far from ideal. The hotel in general is very loud. We were frequently disturbed by the noise of toilet flushes from neighboring rooms and loud hallway disturbances. The most concerning episode occurred on Monday at 2 am when a loud commotion and police presence in the hallway woke us up. We promptly called the front desk, inquiring about the situation. Regrettably, the woman on the other end hung up on us, which we found extremely rude given the circumstances.

At check out we mentioned to the women working the desk of the issues. She apologized and said someone from the management team would reach out. Still waiting for...

Brand new hotel, open less than a year, yet one of the least appealing hotels I've ever stayed in. Obviously training lots of new staff, which isn't a problem, but encountered a lot of employees who didn't know what they were doing (thankfully there were a couple good ones who never seemed to leave) Pros - location; great spot, walking distance to most restaurants in Portland Lobby is brand new (just finished in the last month or two after a flooding issue) Pool table in lobby. Great bartender. We found the beds decent, no complaints. Each room has a small refrigerator, it was nice and seemed to work.

Cons - parking is valet only, $35 /day (fyi there are self parking options cross the street for 10/day - such a better deal - thank you to the person who posted about it on another review) Room layout - we had multiple rooms and learned that some rooms are layed out in such a way that there is NO spot you can get changed w/out being visible to all other occupants unless you're in the small toilet. There is no wall between the shower /sink area, rather a screen. Not only does this allow all the noise from the shower / sink, but there's no wall behind the sink, so the water can easily spill down the back of the sink, which as described earlier, isn't a wall, and all the bedroom cords run there. Doesn't seem great to have water dripping back there. The shower is kind of cool, but needs shelves. There is no where to put anything. Thin walls, you can hear EVERYTHING going on in the bathroom. We could also hear the dog 2 doors down. Our companions with street view could hear a lot of noise from the street and from ppl playing pool below in the lobby. Our room layout was small and cramped, but other rooms were laid out differently and seemed less cramped. No free breakfast (plenty of good breakfast options in Portland though)

Overall, this hotel can meet the basic needs of most travelers, but the layout and design of the hotel is disappointing. If all the things I listed above don't bother you then give it a go. I will likely stay in one of the other, must nicer hotels...

Let me start off by saying that this would have been a 4 Star rating before all the issues I'll be listing below. This was our first night staying at any Aloft hotels. Not knowing what to expect the first day/night was good, the desk staff was welcoming and informative. The room is sparsely furnished and decorated, again not knowing much about this chain I was fine with it. Now here is the part that changed my opinion and the fact that I will not again stay in another Aloft hotel. Yes, I know that this falls under the Marriot Brand of hotels. So around 2:30 in the afternoon I received a call that required me to cut our stay short and head home. So we packed up our things and headed home. After about 45 min on the drive home, the situation was not as bad as it was initially presumed to be and we decided to head back. We called the hotel to ask if our room was still available and the front desk informed us that the room was never closed out and everything was the way it was before our departure. We arrived back at our room around 6:15 pm after some stops on our way back. After entering the room I went to use the facilities and noticed that it had been used. Yes, I could tell it was used. At the same time, my wife noticed that the drinks we had left in the fridge were gone and the leftover food container was opened. There was also a towel on the bed that was not left there by us. I immediately called the front desk and after repeated rings, the phone was finally answered. They were able to accommodate my request to be moved but there were NO apologies for what happened. We get to our alternate room but found additional issues here as well. First, I again went to use the facilities and noticed that the underside of the toilet seat was dirty. It was not even looked at during the cleaning process and there were clearly no follow-up inspections. At the same time, the flushing handle was not connected so I had to fix it to get the toilet to flush. Lastly, the Dead Bolt does not work.

It seems that this brand is Marriot's...