A “5-Star” Aloft Hotel With A Club Lounge?!?

Wait, wait, wait, wait… there’s an Aloft property that has a club lounge?!?

The Aloft Kathmandu Thamel has a club lounge

For reasons I’m not quite sure of, yesterday evening I was looking at hotels in Kathmandu, Nepal. I found myself looking at rooms at the Aloft Kathmandu Thamel. For those not familiar, Aloft is ordinarily a limited service brand, where you get little beyond a basic room.

While looking at the types of rooms available, I was surprised to see that there were “club level” rooms for sale. Sorry, a club level at an Aloft?!

There’s not much about the club lounge directly on the property’s website, but looking at the hotel’s social media pages, you’ll see lots of pictures of the club lounge. Indeed, the property appears to have a proper club lounge, which looks reasonably nice.

I know this is totally random, but I didn’t realize that there was an Aloft property anywhere in the world with a club lounge. Does anyone know of any other Aloft that has one?

For that matter, does anyone know if Marriott Bonvoy Platinum members and above get access to this on a complimentary basis? Technically, Aloft isn’t one of the brands where elite members receive club lounge access, presumably because the properties don’t usually have lounges. Ultimately the premium for these rooms isn’t half bad, as it only costs around $30 more than a base room (then again, that’ll go a long way in Nepal).

Hotel branding means very little nowadays

Nowadays there’s not actually much consistency between hotels belonging to the same hotel group, with massive variance in terms of quality. That’s true with everything from limited service properties to luxury properties.

For that matter, the hospitality experience is almost always worse in the United States than in Asia, the Middle East, etc. For example, the Aloft Kathmandu describes itself as a “5-star hotel.” Now, while the term “5-star hotel” doesn’t actually mean a whole lot, I doubt you’d find an Aloft in the United States that describes itself as such.

But when you look at the Aloft Kathmandu, it seems very different than your typical Aloft in the United States. It has everything from suites, to multiple dining outlets (including a full-service restaurant), to a spa and pool. So this seems like one of the more luxurious Aloft branded properties out there, if you ask me…

Bottom line

The Aloft Kathmandu has a club lounge, which is a feature that I’ve never seen before at an Aloft property. Unsurprisingly, the hotel has lots of other unusual amenities for an Aloft, ranging from a spa, to a full-service restaurant. It’s always fascinating to see the variation between properties of a particular brand. This has to be one of the more impressive hotels I’ve seen, in that regard.

Has anyone seen another Aloft property like this, with a club lounge? Or has anyone stayed at this particular property? Do I need to fly to Kathmandu just to check out this exclusive facility?