Aloft Sunnyvale — Hotel in Sunnyvale

My husband and I were displaced due to our house being fumigated so we are locals and frequently go to downtown Sunnyvale, Murphy Street. Having been raised in Sunnyvale, I have watched everything change including watching the entire construction of Aloft Sunnyvale hotel. Though we had many other choices, we opted to stay at Aloft since I am a SPG member and the location.

We checked in for 3 nights. Upon check in, I was promptly greeted by the young lady at the front desk. Though, there was another guest there that was interrupting her but she kindly let him know that she would assist him in a minute. The check-in process was swift. She did not however explain the amenities (i.e breakfast hours, fitness center hours).

Hotel and room décor

The hotel has an overall modern décor. I feel mostly tailored to the business traveler. As someone who frequently has to travel for work, I know what I need in a room to complete my work. The room layout is modern and spacious but it did lack storage space. There is no shelf in the closet where we could put our bags away so we had to leave it to the side of the closet which did make it feel cluttered. Only 2 small drawers in the room - not a big deal for a business traveler but since this was a leisure stay, we ended up using the chairs and the side tables to put our stuff on. Our room was facing the street with a floor to ceiling window and blackout shades. It brought in a lot of sunlight. It was actually really hot when I first entered the room since the shades were open and it took awhile for the AC to cool the room. We left to dinner after checking in since it was too hot to stay in there. For the remaining days, we only opened the shades (half way) early in the morning or late at night but made sure to close it before leaving for day so the room could stay cool. Also, if we opened up the shades all the way then everyone would have been able to see inside of our room from the street. The noise from the street was not bad. There was some loud music coming from Murphy street (most likely the bars across the street) on Thursday and Friday night. It didn't prevent us from sleeping since the music did not go on all night.

I definitely appreciated the upgrade to the king sized bed but the bed sheet was too small for the bed so we had to keep putting it back on the bed. The bed and pillows were really comfortable so we had no problems falling asleep especially since I have trouble sleeping when I'm not in my own bed. We liked the standing shower with the rain shower head however the water was leaking onto the bathroom floor from the crack of the glass door. It completed soaked the bathroom floor towel. I was a little surprised to see the shampoo/conditioner and body soap in pumps mounted on wall of the shower. It reminded me of the showers at the gym. There aren’t many TV channels to watch but the AppleTV is a good feature to stream Netflix or whatever app you want to mirror from your Apple device. Wifi signal was strong and was included in our stay since I booked direct.

Hotel Amenities

There is a good sized gym that I would expect from the brand. It is very clean, well maintained, and has all the necessary equipment. Our room was actually right above and we weren't disturbed by anyone using the gym. This is the room that makes sense to have a floor to ceiling window looking out to the street. Thanks for the towels, refreshing water, and yoga mats. Decent weight set and one weight machine.

Breakfast is "grab n go" and is complimentary. They had mini bagels, pastries, Jimmy Dean sausage/egg biscuits, another generic egg muffin sandwich, coffee, and tea. There are other bottle drinks available but with a fee. The only compliant that I have is that my husband went down around 6:15am on Friday since he had to be at work by 7am and there was hardly anything there. No coffee and only a few pastries. The breakfast hours are listed in the elevator as Mon - Fri 6am to 10am and Sat - Sun 7am to 11am. The front desk attendant told him that it wasn't ready yet.

W xyz Lounge - We didn't get anything at the lounge. But we did sit in the lobby for a while after walking around downtown Sunnyvale. Nice décor. The outside lounge chairs is a nice touch though I didn’t see anyone siting there.

Overall, as locals, I could say that we felt comfortable and at home during our stay. We liked be able to walk to Murphy Street in less than 5 min but not a big change from our normal 15-20 min walk LOL We actually walked back and forth a few times from our room to Murphy Street for the farmer's market on Saturday, get lunch then again to get some ice cream. Just for kicks - why not walk to Target? It's...

My wife and I stayed at the Aloft Sunnyvale for a night away because of it's prime downtown location and because of the great weekend rate (~$100/night!). However, after our stay, we will likely go back to the Aloft Mountain View for any local Bay Area stays.||||Outside: The hotel looks nice and appears very modern/updated compared to certain parts of historic downtown. Parking is free and is in a shared lot with the other businesses. You need to get a parking pass from the front desk that allows you to bypass the 3 hour limit for other cars. The lobby entrance is tucked away, but one of the first things we saw walking into the hotel was a huge bin of dirty laundry stacked near the entrance walkway. Throughout our stay, the bin remained in place so it wasn't just a temporary bad timing thing. It really lowers the atmosphere and vibe of the "trendy" Aloft brand. ||||Lobby: The lobby was nice. Plexiglass separated guests and the front desk and the front desk employees all wore masks. There was spa water available in the lobby. ||||Check in: Our check-in was a little disappointing. We never received a message saying our room was ready and when we arrived we were told that the mobile key never works. I hope that is something they can fix because it sounds like it has been an issue for a long time. The front desk did not wear any name tags, but that might be an Aloft practice as the Aloft Mountain View didn't wear name tags either. Our biggest disappointment here was finding out there was no breakfast on Sunday despite our titanium status which was not acknowledged during check in either. ||||Upgrades: Apparently the hotel does not really have any upgrades. The front desk person told us the hotel is all queen and king rooms. We were upgraded from our booked queen to a king room on the 3rd floor (4 floors total). I just wanted to note that the Aloft Mountain does have some suites so if deciding between 2 local Alofts, keep that in mind.||||Room: Our room was nice and clean, although a little small. The hallways were narrow and the rooms close together. It seems like they just remodeled an older hotel under the Aloft branding. ||The TV was a little disappointing. We brought our Roku to stream some shows but since the TV mount was not "extendable," it was an ordeal to plug in our own HDMI. Additionally the guide did not work and the channel offering was a little weak (maybe 20 channels, only 1 showtime premium channel). ||||Our biggest complaint has to do with noise. Around 2 am, someone began playing some loud music that woke up both me and my wife. This went on for a while until (it sounded like) another guest yelled to quiet down. I understand being downtown, but the walls just seemed to be really thin. Additionally, that morning, there was a lot of door slamming which reverberated throughout our room. I think the slamming was just from guests not slowly closing their doors (compared to people trying to slam their doors). The property should really invest in some soft close or slow closing hinges! I think even some of the housekeeping staff were involved in the loudly closing doors. ||||Check out: We were able to confirm late check out (4pm) the night before and were not disturbed by housekeeping during our stay. It seems like a contactless checkout option was available, but we stopped by the desk for a quick and efficient process. I was disappointed I didn't receive a survey request to submit an official review. ||||Overall, the hotel is nice and feels modern, but it doesn't feel as well run as it could be (laundry bins, check in, noise). We love the location and the price, but would probably opt for a similar, nearby...

No one should ever have to stay here, Save yourself the stress and hassle and just book the AC hotel down the road . The only reason I chose this place was b/c of the walking proximity to Caltrain to scoot me to SFO.||||For starters, Gold Bonvoy status does not even get you a room with a window. I’ve never been in a brand name hotel where there was no windows. The outline of where a window should be was there but this property has it boarded up with plywood. So, no window. No natural light at all in an already dark shoebox of a room. Next there appears there is no window b/c the hotel doesn’t have built in air condition. So the room has an external unit that is piped through the plywood.||||Here’s the worst part: That a/c unit doesn’t work, it was roasting hot in the tight little shoebox with no air conditioning, no ventilation and no window to potentially crack open . We went to the front desk and they refused to move us citing, “There’s one room available and it’s on your floor but they won’t let me assign it to you.” Marriott Corporate was no help either. In fact, they offered us “5000 points” which is actually about 1/8 the points this hotel goes for and when we said that was ridiculous they rescinded the offer. We didn’t want points. We wanted a room with air conditioning and a window in the middle of Summer. I don’t think that’s too much to ask for. While we didn’t have a car, they could’ve easily relocated to another nearby property and gory us a taxi there but nope… they refused. Front desk agent said she would call us with a solution and never called. The conditions we were subject to in this hotel were inhumane and probably not up to code either.||||There are signs everywhere that this property is in ill repair. The operating certificate in the elevator is expired, overhead lamps in the hallway have strings disconnected from ceiling so they are dancing by a thread, lots of wall damage in hallway and cracks in floor in room.||||Outside of all these complications, the standard rooms often little amenities. There is no fridge in the room and not even a garbage can in bathroom. The rooms are so small that there is no spot to even open up your suitcase fully, it Diesnt fit in the armoire or on the bench in the room. We had to get creative and put our suitcase under the bathroom sink on the floor. I’ve attached pictures to support this. ||||This place should just close down or be shut down by local government. Way to treat Bonvoy status members: no window, no air and no support when you request to move b/c the...