How bad was it? let me count the ways:

The rooms were shabby and dusty.
The food was inedible and not as advertised on the menu.
Room service took 40 minutes.

Best of all: the staff just walks into your room without knocking. WTF? I've never had that happen in a hotel.

On the plus side: the staff is very nice.

The Alden was an incredible refuge following hurricane Ike . The staff could not have been more helpful during a very difficult time for everyone. The Alden continued to provide excellent service and accomodations while operating on a very reduced staff. The general manager and several other key personnel were onsite throughout the ordeal. Room service was maintained from the excellent 17Restaurant working with supplies on hand since restocking was impossible. I can not say enough about the Alden. I would recommend it to anyone.

MMS

The Alden Hotel was very pleasant. We were greeted cordially and told that we would have a quiet room away from the elevator on the 8th floor.

It was a great place to stay to walk to Minute Maid park as we took in the Astros/Yankees' game the night of our arrival.

I was honed into the smell of the hotel as a former reviewer had mentioned that the odor was bad. I have to admit when we entered our room there was a peculiar odor kind of like mildew or sewage, but after turning the AC on to a lower temp, it dissipated. The whole area kind of has that smell....not overpowering, but definitely I picked up on it. Perhaps with all the new development associated with that area, infrastructure has not kept up with it. Also when we left early the next morning, a truck with a huge hose was pumping something out of manhole by the front entrance. Some more evidence that something just isn't quite right in that locale, I would think.

The decor was quite new with contemporary accents and a nice granite-tiled bathroom and walk in shower. A good computer/work station below a large TV. Complimentary wireless high speed internet....a nice touch. Only one bedside table had a reading lamp....definitely, a 2nd lamp would be good.

I certainly would stay there again for, like I said, the smells were only faint.....probably a lot like all big cities smell. And I don't think they were exclusive to this particular hotel.

Overall, a nice stay.

We stayed here for our anniversary. I loved the corner room on the 10th floor. It was a mini suite. It had great views and an even better bathroom. It was somewhat noisey due to construction across the street. Room service was great. My husband had them serve us the top to our wedding cake as a surprise for me, but they had forgotten the silverware and we had to call them back for it. We had room service for lunch after we checked in, and for breakfast the next day. Breakfast wasn't all that great and cost $40! I had the best caesar salad with shrimp ever for lunch though. The stay could have been better but overall (less noise, better breakfast) but I really did enjoy it.