Now that the smoke has cleared from the first big blitz of Aloft hotel openings and we had a chance to spend a night in one ourselves, we dropped by our trusty ol' pal TripAdvisor to check out customers' reactions to the brand.

And the reviews were kinda all over the place. Most of them were positive, though, and the words "cool" and "funky" were used a lot. Someone even called it a "hipper Four Points by Sheraton" (really?) but then finished out the review by saying the concept just doesn't quite come together.

But some were not quite that nice. ]]> Jenna 2008-07-24T13:30:22-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/6/23/213622/966 <![CDATA[<p><p><embed src="http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1321361467" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoId=1626278340&playerId=1321361467&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://console.brightcove.com/services/amfgateway&servicesURL=http://services.brightcove.com/services&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&domain=embed&autoStart=false&" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="400" height="339" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed> <p><p>So the latest edition of <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/6/23/03038/5352/hotels/Guess_the_Hotel_Which_Hotel_Uses_an_Old_School_Alarm_Clock_">Guess the Hotel</a> has been officially answered and as many of you guessed, it's <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel-reviews/Aloft+Rancho+Cucamonga/local/1259"><b>Aloft Rancho Cucamonga</b></a>.<p>We tripped down to the Ontario-area over the weekend to spend the night at the first ever Aloft in the U.S. We couldn't wait to finally see the inside of a real Aloft (not a Second Life one). <p>As we turned off the 10 freeway and started making our way to Fourth Street, we saw the Aloft building in the distance. It looked just like the renderings we have been posting for the past couple of years which was a strangely eerie feeling.<p>We snapped out juliana 2008-06-24T09:35:02-05:00 34.077460 -117.57405 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/6/20/12727/0980 <![CDATA[<p><img align="right" src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/admin/aloftlogosml.png" class="imgborder"><p><a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel-reviews/Aloft+Lexington/local/1246"><b>Aloft Lexington</b></a> is getting beat down again. The <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel-reviews/Aloft+Rancho+Cucamonga/local/1259"><b>Aloft Rancho Cucamonga</b></a> near <strike>nowhere</strike> Ontario in Southern California has opened today. <p>While the website says reservations are accepted only for June 30 and beyond, that's just a lie. Reservations can be made for today and beyond.<p>We also called the hotel to verify and a manager said they were getting ready for the official opening at 11am today.<p>Rates for this weekend were a little pricey for this area in between Los Angeles and Palm Springs at $139 a night (that's an internet/no cancellations rate.) Considering we stayed at a Palm Desert resort (albeit an aging one) for $94 a night two weeks ago, this is not really juliana 2008-06-20T12:22:48-05:00 34.077460 -117.57405 Search HotelChatter string http://www.hotelchatter.com/search/