The Aloft Cupertino is a Starwood hotel in Silicon Valley, and was where we chose to stay our first night in the Bay Area on a recent trip, given the wildfires raging in Santa Rosa and the resultant air pollution. Even at SFO on our arrival day, the acrid smell of ash was everywhere, so we were glad to be staying far south enough to have better quality air.
Aloft Cupertino Location and Lobby
The Aloft Cupertino is located at 10165 North De Anza Boulevard, about a half hour drive from SFO and only about an 18-20 minute drive from San Jose Airport. It's also just a 15-20 minute drive to Stanford University, which was our destination the next day.
We managed to miss the right turn on Alves Drive when driving south on North De Anza Blvd., and had to circle back; the hotel is much more visible when driving north and making a left turn on Alves from N. De Anza Blvd. There's free underground parking, and from the garage we took the elevator up to the lobby. There was high energy music in the elevator, as well as a pressure sensitive floor that our son loved. If Aloft is aiming for the pre-teen crowd pretending to be cool, its design is on point.
Meanwhile, as the person actually paying for the stay, I was less than impressed with the slow check-in. There was just one person tying up reception, seemingly with a credit card that didn't work, but it was a good 8 minutes of waiting around until another staff member came and offered to check me in.
Aloft Cupertino Double Queen Room
I'd reserved a standard Double Queen Room, with two queen beds, so that we wouldn't need an extra bed for our son. These rooms are a bit larger, ranging from 364-485 square feet, than the King Rooms, which are 308-320 square feet. Ours was on the 2nd floor, and next time I would definitely push for a room on a higher floor, as we could hear the occupants above us, as well as voices in the hallway, since there's rather poor soundproofing.
The queen beds were fine for a budget chain, although as usual too firm for our liking.
If you have a small child, you could potentially request bedding to make the sofa into a makeshift bed:
There was no view to speak of, since this was Cupertino–our view was of some trees and a parking lot.
The bathroom was small, and had a shower-bathtub combo, with Bliss bath product dispensers (as expected, given the connection to W Hotels, which usually feature Bliss Spas). I don't mind dispensers, as they are more eco-friendly, which Aloft aims to be, but I would have preferred something other than Bliss.
The other thing I wasn't too happy about was that later that evening, I discovered a trail of ants in the bathroom, which I haven't experienced in another hotel bathroom for a long time.
There were a couple of complimentary bottles of water in the room, as well as a regular drip coffee machine and Bigelow tea.
Outdoor Pool
It was too chilly during our October stay to even think about a swim, although there is an outdoor pool in the interior courtyard:
Aloft Cupertino Breakfast
Just off of the lobby are booths for breakfast. There isn't table service, it's cafeteria style (although Aloft prefers to call it “Re:fuel”) where you pick the items you want, pay, and sit down. Espresso drinks seemed pricey for the budget environment, but no doubt many guests are happy to pay for the convenience of getting some better quality caffeine than the drip coffee machines in the room can muster.
I chose an omelet, which seemed to be machine made and reheated, from its appearance and taste. At least the salsa, which was spicier than any I've had at a hotel in recent memory, helped to liven it up.
The Verdict
Aloft is appropriately tied to W Hotels (the Aloft tagline is “A Vision of W Hotels”) and I would put them along with Virgin America in the same camp: cool and hip for twenty-somethings as of 10 years ago…or for kids such as my son impressed by the mood lighting in the elevator and the robot butler.
We appreciated the Aloft's location for the purposes of our visit (relatively cleaner air, easy to get from SFO to the hotel and from the hotel to Stanford) and price point, but otherwise it wasn't a memorable visit, as you'd expect for a budget hotel. I do hope the hotel is able to eradicate the ant problem, so no one else has to battle ants in the bathroom.
If you've stayed at the Aloft, Cupertino, what was your experience?
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