Aloft Chicago Mag Mile

I booked a room at Aloft in Chicago as a present for my girlfriend on Valentine's Day.I've stayed at Aloft in multiple cities.I've had pleasant stays at them all, but this time was different.I arrived back at the hotel in the early hours of February 15th.The security guard and the front desk person harasssed me about being a patron of the hotel.Even after answering their question, that I was a patron, the harrassment continued.I was shocked.I've never been treated in such a manner.Apparently my answer of being a patron and informing them of my room number wasnt good enough, the harassment continued until i was ask to show my room key.I showed my room key. ONLY then was I allowed to go to my room.In the morning my girfriend decided that she'd like to stay another night in Chicago to celebrate her bestfriend getting married. Despite the misunderstanding, I said okay. On a break from working, i ran downstairs to extend my reservation. I was told by the front desk agent that the hotel had no vacancies. I went back to my room and decided to try my luck and book through Expedia. Success! Minutes later, I received a call from management stating that they could not accommodate me because of the incident. This was no vacancy issue! I tried explaining the situation to the manager who never asked.She said it was a safety issue. A safety issue because I'm a BLACK GAY FEMALE. MAYBE I LOOK LIKE I COULDN'T BE A PATRON.

Overall great stay. Would stay there again, with a couple minor adjustments. Room 609 has to have the loudest heater/ac unit in the bldg. Please have someone check that out. Also, the sink water pressure was extremely low. Valet wait: TERRIBLE! After my first night of my 3-night stay, the guy at the desk said the valet guy may be getting another car. After waiting 10 min he says he’ll send a text. Valet guy comes and seems confused by the ticket given to me by his coworker last night. He then gingerly strolls across the street to the parking garage...no sense of urgency. I had an 11:30 appointment that I was now running late for from waiting for valet. Later that evening at 9:57pm....valet can’t locate the keys. Called down and gave the front desk the last 3 digits on the ticket (042) as requested. Now the new guy can’t find the car keys. Yet again I’m now running late from another valet fiasco. I’d stay here again, but to pay $62/night for this kind of unprofessional, confused valet service, is much rather park in one of the lots or chance parking on the street. Having clear, consistent procedures would go far with the valet service. Each valet seemed to have their own way of doing things.

Hotel was overall in a nice area, but a few things really stood out that made it a “not so excellent” stay...I have stayed at many other Aloft hotels and have all been great...This particular one charges a $25 fee for checking in before 3 am? I didn’t see it listed anywhere when I booked so I was a little thrown off...secondly, our room had a random sock, a pair of women’s panties in the bottom drawer of the dresser ( we didn’t use that drawer but opened it as we were packing to make sure we didn’t leave anything behind), a wad of gum wrapped in a gun wrapper on the table in the room, and a plastic baggie of tobacco on the nightstand...we mentioned the panties and sock as we checked out but didn’t mention the gum and tobacco because we stayed 2 nights and didn’t notify them as soon we saw them. When we mentioned the left behind garments, the front desk said “you should have mentioned this sooner”, not a “oh wow I am so sorry to hear that” like we had hoped for...we didn’t want money or anything free just wanted to mention that the rooms may not be getting 100% cleaned as they should...lastly, we asked for local restaurants the following morning after arriving and the other front desk person said “there isn’t much around here”. We just walked out and googled nearby places and moved on...

Great location ,friendly staff, nice looking lobby area/bar. Negatives: Room doesn’t have a closet there is a little rack with 4 hangers to hang a shirt anything longer will hit the coffee pod machine. If your room is warm make sure the room AC unit is working. We can back after dinner, our room was 78 degrees and 45 degrees outside. It was late so we dialed down the AC unit and went to sleep only to wake up sweatballs because the room never cooled. Long story short we had to wait until 7am for the engineer to arrive. He knew instantly what the issue was. There is this what looks like would be the door to your room closet but it is the housing for the ac unit. He explained that when someone opens the door it trips/unplugs the AC unit ... So in a matter of minutes it was up and running but made for an uncomfortable 1st night. The bar we went for drinks and I ordered the a cocktail from their specialty menu. Rather than making it with the name brands listed on the bar menu . I watched the bartender sub the name brand listed on the for all the low end knockoffs but I was still charged the same price. In summary if you want a clean hotel in close proximity to Mag mile this is an ok option.

The design is cute but I didn't sleep well because the bedsheets were not good quality and rough to the skin. I was shocked there was no closet or storage for personal items as if the hotel is not planning on guest wanting multiple night stays. The service was adequate but I felt disappointed when I was not granted an extended stay after being told the hotel was overbook for the day I was leaving. Later while checking out I overheard another front desk person tell another guest they could be accommodated because the hotel was not expecting a lot of guests to be checking in. I asked the other guest if they were a member of Starwood and they responded no. As a Starwood member that was really disappointing. I'm working on not taking it personally but overall I've had better stays.