Aloft Etoile Hotel

We booked a room with a city view and breakfast directly through the hotel’s website. Unfortunately, the check-in process was already a bit rocky – our reservation couldn’t be found until we forwarded the confirmation email to the receptionist. Initially, we were assigned a room without the promised city view. The room also wasn’t in great shape: used coffee capsules, hair on the bathroom floor, and a broken safe.

After mentioning these issues, we were given another room with the correct view, which we appreciated. However, in that room, both the shampoo and shower gel were completely empty, and one of the window blinds didn’t work. When we addressed this at check-out, the only response was that housekeeping would be informed – there was no apology or effort to ask how our stay had been.

The breakfast experience was unfortunately the most disappointing part. We arrived around 9 a.m., and most of the buffet items were already gone: no eggs, hot dishes, or fresh pastries. The cold cuts and cheese station wasn’t visibly dirty, but it looked heavily picked over – cheese was sticking to slices of ham, and nothing seemed fresh. There were no mugs available, only paper cups, and all tables were full of used dishes. When we asked the only visible staff member, she said things would be refilled, but we weren’t able to sit or enjoy the setting, so we decided to leave and have breakfast in the city instead.

When we mentioned the situation again at the front desk, the explanation was that a large group had just come through. That may be understandable, but better preparation and service would be expected in a hotel of this category.

What made the experience even more disappointing is that this is a Marriott property. We had expected a certain standard of quality and service, which sadly was not met on this occasion.

One small but amusing detail: inside the elevator, there was a digital screen displaying the weather forecast – for February 28th. We stayed on May 2nd. It’s a small thing, but we couldn’t help but wonder why nobody had updated it in over two months. At least it gave us a laugh!

We had originally planned to stay for two nights but decided to move to a different hotel. Strasbourg is a beautiful city, and thankfully we still enjoyed our time there – but unfortunately, this hotel didn’t live up to expectations.

We truly hope our experience was an isolated case – we’ve had great stays at other Marriott hotels before and would love to see this location live up to that same standard.