We Hold A Focus Group, Sorta, at Aloft Philly

October 27, 2008 at 4:33 PM | by juliana | Comments (2)

AndrewC spent a night at the Aloft Hotel near the Philadelphia airport with a bunch of his friends who don't obsess over geeky hotel things like the rest of us. Here's what they thought.

With Halloween around the corner, this weekend we went to the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia with a bunch of friends and stayed over at the aloft Philadelphia Airport where we booked four rooms for a surprisingly low $109 each. It's worth mentioning that we did reserve the room before the Phillies made the World Series.

Since you've read our reviews of aloft hotels before, we thought we'd ask our non-hotel geek friends their thoughts on the stay. Our group was full of people who only stay in hotels once or twice a year and before this trip had never heard of aloft.

Check-In/Check-Out
Walking into the hotel, everyone was immediately drawn to the computer check-ins. Some people in our group used them, and some didn't. Those who did use it said it was quick and easy, and liked that they didn�t have to talk to a person. Others in our group still wanted to talk to a real person so it was very much a personal preference. Another person thought that the front desk and the employees behind it were only there for show because computers were taking over their jobs.

re:mix lobby
The group thought this was the liveliest lobby they had ever seen in a hotel. The place had a great scent which helped set the mood, and the W XYZ bar was not a stuffy bar like a lot of hotel bars usually are. The fact that it was designed around lounging and socializing was apparent and made it very inviting. One of our friends thought the stripped motif throughout the hotel was a little overwhelming, but the layout and design of the place still made up for it.

Rooms
Everyone in our group was impressed by the room. No one had ever seen a hotel room like aloft's where the bed is in the center of the room and the headboard went up to the ceiling. For the exhibitionists in the group, the frosted window between the shower and the bed area was a hit, but one room had a white, um, stain on a pillow, and in another room the blue background on the headboard was on the floor (nothing that double sided tape wouldn�t fix). It was nice to see an HDTV that actually had HDTV reception though.

re:fuel (24-hour pantry)
Even though the aloft had some unique foods and names for those foods, no one ate anything from re:fuel. Everyone decided that Dunkin Donuts which was right down the road was a much more familiar and easier place to have breakfast. Also, the group was surprised there was no free continental breakfast since most other hotels have that now.

Bottom Line
The biggest complaint about the hotel occurred in the morning when a housekeeper woke up one room by knocking on the door to ask if they were checking out that day. Isn�t the housekeeping staff supposed to know that already? Other than that, everyone enjoyed the hotel and thought it was "fun" "modern" and "enjoyable". Would they stay there again? Everyone said yes.

Comments (2)

Return to » We Hold A Focus Group, Sorta, at Aloft Philly

Hey Juliana, one thing I've wondered about Aloft...is it strictly a place to play or are the rooms/lobbies conducive to work? I'd much rather stay there than a Holiday Inn or Courtyard on a business trip but I'm not sure that the vibe is right for work. Any thoughts?

hey there, that's a good question. i would say that the lobbies are definitely the place to go to hangout and play pool and have a drink. maybe watch the game on TV.

if you're thinking about holding a business meeting or a conference with someone, you might be able to do it here. it just depends on what type of vibe you want to give off i guess.

if you had some serious work to do or needed to finish some project, i wouldn't hang out in the lobby. the rooms however are good for that. they have free WiFi and proper desks. when i stayed at Aloft, my desk faced the window so i had a bit of a view. but you know, after a while i just dragged my laptop into bed with me.

also i just remembered something, courtyard has been updating its lobbies across the brand and trying to emulate aloft a little. check it out here.

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