I stayed at this hotel with a group of girls in April for a Bachelorette party. The location of the hotel is great for going out in downtown Charlotte. The hotel is located at the Epi Centre and the first 3 or 4 floors of the hotel are part of the Epi Centre and the hotel lobby is on the 5th floor. The rooms were fairly small and the walls were paper thin. We could hear everything going on in the room next to us and everything going on the hall. The only thing that helped block out the noise was the really loud AC unit. If you are looking for a hotel that is close to everything downtown, this hotel is a great choice. If you are looking for something a little more relaxing and quiet, you may want to look elsewhere.

There were several good things about this hotel:
1. The shower was great. Nice water pressure.
2. Beautiful view of the city
3. Great location downtown. We were within walking distance to the Convention Center, where my daughter played volleyball that weekend, and lots of great restaurants.
4. The room allowed me to hook up my portable dvd player and watch movies on the flat screen TV.
5. There was a beautiful view of the city. We stayed on the 7th floor.
There were several bad things:
1. You have to ride the elevator to the 5th floor in order to reach the hotel lobby.
2. The air condition was so loud it would wake you up at night.
3. If someone turned the light on in the bathroom, it showed in the sleeping area and would wake you up.
4. The walls were paper thin. You could hear people talking in the hall using normal voices. You could also hear the street traffic outside. I had to wear ear plugs.
5. The lobby looked like a party area. At night the lights were dim and candles were lit and there was loud music playing.
6. The bed was hard and you were provided with 2 small pillows for a king size bed.
This hotel is for young people who like to party and/or who don't mind not sleeping. It is not peaceful at all. I would not recommend it to anyone. The entrance to the hotel is on S. College Street with only a small sign in front of it. My 15 year old loved the pool table in the lobby.

Sorry so long, but I had to get it off my chest!!
The Review: Upon perusing the Aloft website, the hotel images were fantastic. So we were very excited to visit Charlotte for a weekend of fun from Virginia (5 hr drive). We arrived at the hotel and searched and searched for available parking (very confusing due to the lack of signage) and not to mention we had to PAY for parking at a hotel..??? Neverthless, we were hopeful because we knew the hotel would brightened our experience after a long boring drive. Upon approaching the front desk, there was no employee attending the desk. We understood, it was 2am!... So we were patient but eventually, we had to ask the bartender to call someone up. After an additional 10 minute wait, a very annoyed gentleman came sashaying around the corner and his first words to us were..... not "Welcome to Aloft!" or "We're happy to have you!", oh no, his first words to us were "You're lucky you caught me because I was about to start my auditing...." My boyfriend and I looked at each other in bewilderment, thinking.... what did we do to him??? Are'nt we the customers?? While waiting to be checked in we overheard this employee answer a phone call and was rude as HELL to a guest inquiring about local pizza delivery options.. We were stunned!!! So moving forward, we arrived on the 9th floor and noticed that the hallway carpets appeared as if they had not been vacumned in 3 days (no exhaggeration). We opened the door and the room was awesome, really cool and swanky! So we had a great time in Charlotte. We even had a positive experience with another female employee that worked during the day on Saturday (extremely helpful, we were shocked because we thought all of Alofts employees were rude!!).

We were informed that our checkout would be 1pm on Sunday, so to my surprise, while preparing to leave the room we got a call from a familiar voice that blared through the phone at 1:07pm, "When do you guys plan on checking out seeing as how checkout was an hour and a half ago?" Really!!!! The attitude was totally unacceptable. I thought to myself 'this voice sounds like the exact same voice that told us checkout was at 1pm and now somehow it changed to 11:30am?? ALOFT GET IT TOGETHER!
So we came downstairs to checkout and noticed that it was that same rude gentleman.. I kindly walked over and asked his name, he replied Isaac.

The Reality: Isaac is the reason that we will never stay at Aloft again. We were initially booked @ The Doubletree and even cancelled that reservation to have an 'Aloft Experience'. It was the worst mistake of our weekend. During the drive home we pondered over our experience and pretty much deduced that it was Isaac and not Aloft, all of the other employees were very friendly. This guy is the epitome of a horrible customer experience.

Stayed 3/22 - 3/25. Have been to Charlotte dozens of time and chose this as it was brand new. The best thing to say is it was clean. Much has already been said. Small rooms, no comfortable work area, thin walls (you can hear them open and close their shades in the room next door), and the heating system is maddeningly loud. In addition, while I appreciate flourescent lights they use the very cool temperature lights, and combined with the grey color scheme it is downright depressing.

Incredibly disappointed for a Starwood Hotel. While you can excuse the 'style and decor' of the room, there is no excuse for the volume of the heating system or the soundproof nature (or lack thereof) of the walls.