ROAMING ROVER
STYLE AT A STEAL
ALOFT, CHENNAI As far as business hotels go Aloft Chennai is definitely intent on raising the bar. Leisure or business, we suggest you pay a visit.
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to be feeling at as soon as you walk into any hotel. The check-in proresh. Funky. Fun: The first 3 cess was short and painless and the words that sprung to mind staff friendly and efficient. The fact as I walked through the glass doors that the service-staff were dressed and into the Lobby (aka Re:mix) of for comfort and style in open-neck Aloft, Chennai! For a hotel located T-shirts and pants was in keeping on the IT expressway and catering with the casual-chic feel of the hotel mostly to business travellers and and was not only attractive, but long-stay visitors , Aloft-Chennai practical. A refreshing change from definitely breaks the mould of the the formal and elaborate (read hot typical no-frills business hotel. There and uncomfortable) uniforms that were so many visual and sensory you often see hotel staff in, tropical inputs that I stopped short for a climate notwithstanding. second. The lay-out, the colours, the music, the smell (a signature The Fun Begins scent created for Aloft ), the stack As I waited to take my neon-pinkof brightly lit coloured-cubes, the lit lift to the 3rd floor, I spotted an Art on the walls, and was that a Pool old but beautiful Lambretta scooter table in the far corner?! There was parked at the far-corner of the lifts. so much to take in; less than a few As I walked over to it curiously, I minutes in and I liked it already! was informed that one of the Directors of Aloft is a vintage-scooter Checking-in at the circular afficionado and so different levels Front-Office Desk (Aloha Desk of the hotel have different shining in Aloft-ese), I noticed a sense examples of two-wheeler technology of casual comfort setting in, and from the yester-years. A Maroon whether it was the un-conventional Lambretta on the ground floor, a wraparound desk, the smiling faces military-green James ML 125 cc of the staff or the mix of essential beauty from 1945 on the 1st floor, oils in the scented air, the resuland a Cream-coloured NSU Prima tant mood within a few minutes of D Scooter from 1956 on the 3rd arrival was one of ease, welcome and floor. All in a superb state of mainwarmth – definitely what you want tenance and kept in running-condi-
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tion, but sadly no, not available to be taken for a spin. A long walk down a stripey corridor (striped carpet, striped lights – standard décor common to all Aloft hotels worldwide) led me to my pool-facing room. Now here I was again pleasantly surprised! Very rarely, especially for hotel rooms, does reality turn out to be better than pictures on the Net! I was expecting a smaller, more compact, no-frills room and so, it was a pleasure to find a spacious, well-appointed, cheerful room with a King-sized platform bed, 2 pool-facing desks, a large 42” flat-screen television and a well-stocked mini-bar (no alcohol but a variety of drinks and nibbles). A complimentary tea-tray complete with choice of signature teas and coffee was on offer, but what immediately caught my eye was an unusual device on the desk called Plug ‘n’ play. On closer inspection, this turned out to be a communications-port that allows one to hook-up any electronic gadget you might have (laptop, PDA, MP3 , cellphone, you-name-it), to the large 42 inch flat-screen and navigate it from the comfort of your bed. Is this a big advantage for business people on the CaLDRON January 2014