Review: Aloft Hotel London Excel
After spending the night at Moxy Excel nearby, we moved onwards to the Aloft London Excel. During the time when I’d often visit the area for work, I walked past this many times when walking to the row of hotels that were within the approved budget. Finally, after a few years, I’ve been able to see what I had been missing out on.
Getting there
The closest DLR station is a 1 minute walk from the hotel - this being Prince Regent Station. You can find the hotel on the East side of the ExCeL London with it being the closest hotel in distance from any part of the centre. If you enter after disembarking from the DLR or exiting the ExCeL, you will enter on the first floor. Take the lift or the spiral staircase down to get to the lobby area.
Exterior
The Aloft Excel is an impressive building split into two parts artificially. One part is covered in multi-tonal glass, standing out from the rest of the chain hotel crowd with an emphasis on design outside and inside.
The other part takes on a more brightly coloured theme with a deep hue or purple and blues making it even more colourful on the otherwise dull London sky.
A large Aloft sign sits outside the lobby entrance on the ground floor - showing the relationship to its sister property chain, W Hotels.
Lobby and public areas
We checked in around midday on a Saturday in March with the hotel being a little quiet - save for a few groups of people. I had completed much of the check in formalities using the Marriott Bonvoy app but opted to visit the check in desk in person to get a physical key and to confirm a late check out at 2pm the following day thanks to my Marriott Bonvoy Gold status. Although the digital key worked flawlessly throughout my stay, I still don’t trust it enough in case the app stops working or my phone has no connection or battery.
The lobby forms part of a larger area which can be accessed by hotel guests and the public if they please. In this area, you can find an expensive shop for essentials, a bar called wxyz, a pool table as well as a huge array of different seating types.
With the large windows and youthful feeling, I could imagine this being a great space to relax with a drink and friends on a sunny summer evening with this south facing view.
The room
We had the pleasure of staying in a suite during our 1 night stay at the Aloft. At first, you’ll enter a fairly sizeable living room featuring at its core a table with space for four people, sofa and television. While its nice to have this space, and we primarily made use of it by typing at the table, its an awkward layout. The sofa faces the table and chairs meaning if you want to watch the television you need to turn your head to an uncomfortable angle. Now this is nitpicking but it’s not ideal if you want to lounge around and relax in front of the television set.
Below the television sits a solo Nespresso machine as well as Nespresso pods - providing good quality espresso shots or long drinks which is a necessity being the coffee snob I am.
Our suite faced towards the ExCeL East entrance. Strangely, almost all the suites have this view according to the manager, as I would have preferred to nab a London City Airport facing room.
The primary wardrobe is found in the living room area which is large enough for around a week’s worth of clothes, or an entire exhibition show. Proper hangers are provided but there would unlikely be enough to hang for enough shirts to cover a stay longer than a weekend.
This area is finished off with a dedicated toilet and washbasin which is dimly lit but functional.
Onwards to the bedroom, which is divided from the lounge by a sliding door, and you will immediately be faced with a King Sized bed that is comfortable and will give you a good nights sleep. I can’t fault this part of the experience one jot, waking up on the Sunday morning refreshed and ready for the day ahead - which is exactly what you need whether you’re attending an exhibition at the ExCeL or on a departing City Airport flight.
The bed itself is flanked by two sideboards - both have UK power outlets, but no USB ports, while one side has an inbuilt Qi wireless charging pad.
While the lounge may not be particularly suited to watching the television, luckily there is another 42 inch television with smart features available - none of which worked, neither did the accessible HDMI port. I managed to workaround this by turning off the television, unplugging the network cable and awkwardly plugging in an HDMI from the back of the screen to my laptop to get Netflix up. Once I’d done this, it became the perfect late night film binging setup - just don’t forget to plug the network cable back in before you check out of the hotel.
Below the television is a lengthy padded bench with two attached solid benches at a higher level acting as work desks - although only one chair is provided by the property. In a regular room, I think the padded bench is used for some form of seating but we just used it store our luggage. Although I didn’t use these desks for any lengthy period, the view from the window looking over the ExCeL and further towards Canary Wharf provide a fantastic view to gaze over.
Behind the bedroom is a long and thin bathroom that provides adequate privacy from the rest of the suite. A large mirror flanks most of the wall above a single washbasin - which is a noted downgrade from more premium Marriott properties that are likely to have two in the same size space. On the opposite wall, more storage space is available, as well as an oddly placed Kettle and a Book of Mormon (not the show, but a real copy of the book - I thought religious books in hotels were now a thing of the past?).
The shower provided was unremarkable but does the job with good water pressure and flexible temperature gauge. A regular handheld shower that can be raised in height or detached as necessary.
Bliss amenities were provided at the hotel which included large wall mounted shampoo/conditioner and shower gel in the shower as well as disposable body lotion at the wash basin. Interestingly, a premium soap option with Argan Oil from Pharmacopia was provided - I am unsure if this is just for suites or at all rooms in the hotel but it did feel more premium than the regular Bliss products.
While the comfort and size of the suite are appreciated, it is beginning to age. From what I can tell, this property is around 11 years old and elements of the suite are beginning to feel a bit dated. The colour scheme is a little bland while there were noticeable stains on parts of the carpet and sofa. It feels like this hotel, while very good, could do with some minor improvements to make the experience just that little bit better. One thing I will note is that unlike the nearby Moxy, the Aloft had excellent Air Conditioning and WiFi across all the property.
Best facilities of any ExCeL hotel
When staying at the Aloft, not only are you paying for better rooms but also a more rounded and improved experience. This is no less noticeable than some of the leisure activities at the hotel. Starting with the fitness suite, there is a large amount of kit to choose from for both weight machines, free weights and cardio - making it suitable for almost all guests. It did get a bit busy at times but that is to be expected with a hotel of this size.
Directly connected to the gym is access to the pool area. While sizeable, it is not particularly deep and isn’t well suited to swimming as an exercise due to the pool not being that long - it is great to see this quality of facility at a hotel for free.
Even better are the steam rooms and sauna accessible from the poolside. Both rooms fit around 10 people in each and are a nice addition to this facilities on offer at the Aloft ExCeL since there is not anything of a comparably high standard in the area.
Breakfast
Breakfast at the Aloft Excel is hosted at their gastropub style restaurant known as The Docksider. The hotel has reverted to a pre-Covid buffet which are back in full swing thankfully. An extensive spread of food options are provided in this buffet but can mostly be put into a few categories:
Full English items e.g. bacon, sausages, eggs, hash browns
Cereals
Pastries
Fruits
While a full English is generally not my favourite breakfast, I have to admit I did quite enjoy this thanks to the well cooked bacon and hash browns alongside warm pastries. This breakfast was head and shoulders above the previous day’s offering at the Moxy London Excel.
On first glance, coffee options at the Aloft breakfast were weak. A self-serve Douwe Egberts machine is on hand for filter/drip coffee - it was pretty weak and not particularly good. However, I did notice that a member of staff was carrying espresso based coffee and after asking they duly made a Cappuccino - which is included in the breakfast despite not being actively advertised. The quality was quite good and finished off an all round positive breakfast experience at the Aloft.
Conclusion
Out of all hotels at the London ExCeL, the Aloft would easily sit a joint second alongside the DoubleTree which I haven’t formally reviewed but have stayed at twice. The hotel has a fun atmospher and is high quality in the majority of its offering while providing amenities that are not so common at properties in a location like this. While parts of the room may feel a bit dated, the suite is still a great place to unwind - whether thats after a stressful journey or long day on the show floor at the ExCeL. While I have not stayed in the regular rooms, the size is slightly smaller than the bed and bathroom area combined which would still be a comfortable size room for this type of property. Breakfast really was the cherry on top and while I probably wouldn’t want the full English items everyday on a multi-day stay, I would recommend it to others. Prices for the Aloft can get expensive, but for regular rooms I’ve seen them come down as low as GBP 70 per night on quieter times which includes access to all facilities (but probably not breakfast) - which is a truly unbeatable price for this area. Even at a higher price, the convenience to the ExCeL and DLR station makes this a great pick regardless.
