Aloft Arundel Mills BWI Airport — Hotel in Severn

Never book your wedding hotel block here. Save yourself the headache and stay far away!

We negotiated our block through the Element and Aloft. They failed our contract so spectacularly.

SHUTTLE SERVICE -there’s only one 11 passenger shuttle. We had some guests wait almost an hour for a pickup at the train station (a 10 minute drive away). They would be told the shuttle is on their way, call again 30 minutes later, then be told “oh actually the shuttle is at the airport.” -we were told that it could go anywhere within a 5 mile radius and that we could use it for some transportation to our wedding venue. Then a few weeks before, that its actually only a 3 miles radius, and because there’s only on it’s not a realistic option to use that day. So we had to scramble to find some last minute solution.

GUEST CHECK IN -The sales director of the hotel offered that the front desk staff could hand out any welcome gifts we had for our guests checking in. Because of that, we put some important information included with those gifts. Many guests had to go back and ask for their gift and some guests never even received those gifts. The front desk had no idea what our guests were even asking about. -in our initial contract, we negotiated that our bride/groom room would be comped. When we checked in, not only was our room booked under the wrong name, we were told it wasn’t comped. Eventually, the front desk called the sales director and got it sorted, but they gave us such an incredibly hard time about it.

THE BAR -The biggest failure of them all. This bar is not equipped to handle any amount of guests. We negotiated, confirmed with numerous emails, and in person that the bar would stay open until midnight both nights. We wanted to have our welcome party and after party there. Both having close to 100 people. We were told that it would be appropriately staffed. We said great because a bunch of our guests are bartenders and the bar will make a lot of money. Coming from service industry, we were concerned that this detail would fall through the cracks and boy oh boy did it! The first night, the bar staff had no idea we were even going to be there and that they’d be closing at 10pm. There was one bartender (who was brand new) and a manager (who was incredibly rude ). It took guests 30 minutes just to order a bottled beer. They told us they couldn’t serve any draft beers because they take too long! The bar manager said we should just go get our own alcohol. We said we were told we couldn’t because it’s illegal (it is.) So instead of having our guests in a fun bar, they had to pour their own drinks and hang out in a brightly lit conference room. What a great vibe! We were assured the second night would be properly staffed.

Second night, it was the exact same staff and the exact same wait for a bottled beer. Friends told us that they were straight up ignored at the bar. I personally went to the bar and stood there for 10 minutes without a single word spoken to me. I eventually saw the big problem with the bar. They don’t run tabs. They have to check out on every drink and there’s only one, very slow, POS system that neither of the people using them were very familiar with. Every time someone ordered a drink they had to grab the drink, grab the person’s card, run the card, give them the receipt, get receipt signed, then close out the transaction on the POS. Each order took like 5 minutes. And again, on top of all of this, the staff was so incredibly rude. Luckily, our guests rallied and went to buy outside alcohol for the party. And the bar manager closed the bar (lights out and locked up) at 11:45, not midnight as we had negotiated.

The worst part of all of this is that we never get those moments back. Instead of being able to enjoy these parts of our wedding, we had to scramble to fix a problem that had been so diligently confirmed over and over again.

I don’t blame the bartender or the front desk staff for any of these failures. This is a complete failure...

It’s…not great. Don’t come expecting typical Aloft rooms and service. The hotel is about 15 minutes from the airport, but the shuttle will typically take in excess of 45 minutes, and not in a logical way. The phone system- honestly, I have no idea what’s wrong with the phone system. The first time I came, it took me 6 phone calls and 20 minutes of waiting on hold to talk to someone. I tried every reasonable selection to get in touch with someone and none of them seemed to work. I was willing to count that as a fluke, but it’s been so hard to get ahold of someone every time I come. One guy is very nice, everyone else acts like you’re bothering them.

The rooms are decorated the same as any other Aloft, but with an added layer of grime. The grout in the tile in the bathroom makes me want to barf. Every single room is bad. H wear my flip flops, not even sock feet. The amenities are bare bones, even by Aloft standards. It’s like someone bought the Aloft name and tried to run it like a Days Inn- but even they have free breakfast!

Edit: I stayed again. There are no pros, but here are some cons: -They made us wait for 30 minutes at 1 am in 34 degree weather. When our reservations are made, the hotel knows exactly when we land and when we leave. EVERY OTHER hotel we stay in tracks our flights so we aren’t standing outside alone at night. Not this one! They don’t care. -When we got the the hotel, the door was locked and the front desk was facing the wrong way. She couldn’t open the door from the desk and had to run over and make the auto door open. Really, y’all? Again, it is COLD. -there was no trash can in my room whatsoever. I did three laps. -despite turning the heat to 73, my room was FREEZING all night. I had to burrito in my blankets, which are very thin, and put on all my warm clothes. -Every other Aloft has two window shades. Not this one! Only one, and it doesn’t fit in the window properly. Which is the second thing that woke me up from my very short rest. -The first thing was loud banging of metal at SIX THIRTY IN THE MORNING for about ten minutes. Dumpster maybe? If your rooms are right above the dumpster, you need to put some kind of sound proofing in the rooms. Or maybe just realize you’re a hotel and people are trying to sleep? -Which brings me to wake up number 3, housekeeping yelling and slamming doors at 9! I didn’t get more than 3 hours uninterrupted sleep all night. one half of the outlet next to the bed didn’t work, so my work devices didn’t...

I requested early check-in when I booked the room and received a message stating the hotel would do its best to accommodate my request. I arrived at the hotel between 9:30am-9:45am and there was a man outside smoking something smelly right in front of the hotel door. This should have been my sign to leave. I walked to the front desk and had to wait to be greeted. I asked the young lady if a room was ready per my request with my registration. She said it was but I had to pay $50 extra to check-in. The extra fee was not listed on the website! I needed the room to prepare for my bestfriend's wedding therefore I went ahead and paid the fee. I was checked into room 629. The room was clean but really cold. I attempted to adjust the temperature but the thermostat was not working. I just figured I would deal with it since I was going to be getting ready soon. I sat on the bed and watched the tv and heard water constantly running. I checked the bathroom and it was the shower which did not stop at all. I dealt with this as well and turned the shower fully on so I could take one before getting dressed. I let the shower run for over 20mins while I was getting my wedding attire together. The water was still ice cold! I had enough and decided to call down to the front desk to complain but I could not because my phone was broken! I checked to make sure it was plugged in but it was and still did not work! I packed up my belongings and headed downstairs. This time it was another lady there, who did not even acknowledge me at all. This was fine because I only wanted to speak with the one who checked me in and gave me that room. I was then moved to a different room. This is not the end of it! I was talking to my friends and complaining about everything I went through and how I paid $50 extra to check-in early and still could not use my room at all. My friend stated she had the same issues with her room the night before and had to switch to a different room. I asked her what room she was in and she was in the same room that I was in.....Room 629! So I guess the poor ethic of this hotel was to charge its customers extra to check-in and give them a broken down room making the early check-in pointless and basically receiving free money. I plan to contact the corporate office and my credit card company to dispute the $50 fee for early check-in because clearly I did not check-in until the regular check-in time due to all of the issues I experienced. I would...