I reached the Aloft Columbus late but was so relieved to be there after the three flights it had taken me to find myself at the front desk. I'd queued for a taxi outside Columbus airport and was whisked along the highway in a six-cylinder Lincoln. The driver said very little, but he was pleased when I complimented him on a great car. There was, it has to be said, plenty of power under the bonnet.
The Aloft is only a short drive from the airport, which is good, and the hotel is a short drive from the city's convention centre so it's pretty well connected.
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| Room 626, Aloft, Columbus University District, USA |
Room 626 was large and square and thank God it wasn't one of those hotel rooms that require the occupant to insert their room card into an aperture to power-up the room, although I suppose they prevent hotel guests from losing their key cards. To my right a large bathroom, more of a wet room with only a shower, no bath. This is good news because I never use a bath these days, it's always a shower, even at home (where we have both). Beyond the bath to my right is the huge space of the rest of the room. A large, black flat-screen television on the far wall facing a large double bed, a seating area to the right of the television offering bench seating and a Formica or Melamine oval table with a boomerang pattern and under the television a fridge (with nothing in it) and the usual tea and coffee making facilities on top.
The Aloft is obsessed with technology and it's quite annoying until you get used to it. There's nothing worse than tech for the sake of it. The lift (or elevator) is more complicated than a standard lift and then, in the room, I found a small Marshall amp. Or at least that's what it looked like. It was, in fact, one of those smart speakers that allow you to stream music on Spotify or Apple Music or whatever you use. At home I have a rather smart (and expensive) Bose system. I liked the Marshall amp and for some time thought it was a radio that simply didn't work. When I got round to asking somebody on the front desk they told me what it was but added that I'd need to download an app to get it working. No. I'm sorry, I'm not going to do that. Far too much faff and when it was suggested that the hotel 'engineer' could run through things with me I thought no, I can't be bothered, I'll do without. The last time I remember listening to music in a hotel room (on a CD system) was some time back in the early noughties, in the Malmaison in Manchester in the UK and it was all a little too emotional and 100% driven by alcohol. So I left it alone, other than to turn it on and off occasionally just to hear the hard rock bass and lead guitar riff that accompanies turning it on and off; that amused me no end for a while until I told myself to shape up and stop being so stupid. On the other side of the bed is a little round emitter of white noise (or that's what I've been told it is); it's the sort of thing you might need to get to sleep if you suffer from ADHD, which fortunately I don't. Oh, I almost forgot! There's the customary large and very noisy air con system which, at night, makes you think you've been transported to a beach somewhere and the tide's coming in fast. It took me until my last night to work out how to switch it off. There's wood-effect laminate flooring, no wardrobe to hang any clothes but they're quirky enough to provide some black metal girders and a few coat hangers and there's a safe, which I'm leaving well alone after the last time I used one. There's a hair dryer and, I think, an iron (I'm not exactly sure) but there's no ironing board so using it could prove disastrous. Again, I'll leave well alone.
I like the Aloft. The room feels like home and I yearn for it when I'm not in it.
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| The spectacular view from room 626, Aloft, Columbus, USA |
There are a few problems, but not many. The first one is the shower and sink. In a nutshell, the jet of water coming out of the former is not strong enough to give an invigorating shower and the dribble coming out of the tap over the sink is similarly lacking in power. It's annoying that the bath towels are not in the bathroom as I tend to bowl in there, have a shower and then realise I've got to tip toe across the laminate floor with wet feet dripping water everywhere as I cross the room to get a towel. Perhaps one of these days I'll remember to take a towel in with me (there's one in there now awaiting my last shower before I check out).
Another problem is there's no breakfast room or restaurant downstairs. One of the great things about staying in a hotel is the breakfast and having to go out for it is a little annoying, but not really that much of a hassle as nearby there's a good Starbucks where it's possible to eat a healthy breakfast and not have to gorge on pastries and scrambled egg and sausages and mushrooms and all the usual stuff you get in a self-service hotel breakfast operation.
The hotel is 'quirky' but I often feel they try too hard on that front, as, indeed, do 'boutique' hotels in general with their madly designed furniture and fittings that simply refuse to follow the hotel designers' motto of 'function before form'. Not that Aloft has any madly designed furniture, it just has a quirky vibe. There's an oversized game of Connect Four in the lobby area along with a pool table and a chess set and '2024' in silver inflatable letters giving across the message that this hotel is fun and should be enjoyed... which, to be fair to the hotel, is exactly right. I love it, it has to be said because the friendliness of the staff, the cleanliness, the upbeat design and the comfortable rooms make it a cut above the average American hotel. It has something special about it and I know for a fact that I'm going to miss it and that I'll wonder for days, when I'm back in the UK, who is in 'my room' looking out over Columbus as I did.
