Aloft Santa Clara

Very nice rooms, the housekeeping came every day and kept everything nice. Everyone that worked there was friendly and willing to help, such as getting a light fixed. Hector, the bartender, by far was the coolest bartender and really went out of his way to keep everyone happy! Reasonable rates and close to airport. The train isn’t that bothersome, maybe a couple times a night but it’s less than 3 seconds of train horns from what I heard.

This is indeed an Aloft, but not the Aloft I know and love. As a loyal supporter of the Aloft brand wherever I travel, this stay was a huge disappointment. I never expected an Aloft without a buffet breakfast, free parking for guests, or the sleek, impressive design that typically defines the brand. While it’s still a decent hotel overall, it falls far short of the standards I associate with Aloft. This is, by far, the most disappointed Aloft I’ve ever stayed at. For a brand I hold in such high regard, this level of mediocrity is simply unacceptable.

Service has been great. The room itself is clean and overall comfortable. I'm a big guy so my only real complaint is that the space with the toilet is very narrow, and that's only a minor inconvenience in an otherwise outstanding accommodation.

Beware of room 115 -- I arrived late and the hotel was almost full so I was given the notorious room 115, which has a door directly to the lobby and a pool table right outside! In between the constant music and people playing pool at 3am, I had a horrible night. Staff were able to give me a better room (next to an elevator...) the next day. A few days later, I heard somebody else pleading with staff to be moved from room 115, so this appears to be a common occurrence. That room needs to be removed from inventory. Until then, I will never stay at this hotel again if there is a remote chance of ending up in that room since I often check in late. There are far too many other good hotel options in the area to risk it. Finally, for breakfast, they are not able to remove cheese from any of the items. Aloft hotels all serve the same breakfast items and I have never had a problem with this before. Very odd.

The room (Room 315) I stayed in was clean, but there was always a horrible sewer smell coming from the shower drain after being away at work for the day. I was wanting to switch rooms, but it was mentioned to the two guests before me in the check-in line that the hotel was full all week. I have a mechanical background and am familiar with drying P-Traps. So every morning when I woke up, got back to the hotel or before bed, I would run the shower for 30 seconds to ensure the P-Trap was full. I've never seen a trap dry that fast, so I'm assuming there was a crack in it and it was leaking, or a major pressure vacuum on the sewer line was pulling the water out. I mentioned this to the front desk attendant at check-out so hopefully they took care of it. I know that area gets a bad smell because of the marsh land around it, but it is a completely different smell. Having worked in industrial plants and settings for my whole career, I am familiar with the difference between bog smell and sewer gas. So if you happen to get Room 315 and still smell the sewer, they probably didn't take care of it. Other than that, the room was clean for the most part. I'm really disappointed in the stay because A-Loft is one of my favorite brands to stay in, and I was just starting to travel more to the Bay and was hoping to stay here more often, but most likely not anymore. Also, the parking fee situation is weird.