Outputting WP_query data from within a function

Hi,
Lost countles hours on this already and just cant figure it out… im creating a shortcode that will display a chosen number of custom posts with a chosen excerpt length; if i output with echo, it works, except, as expected it doesnt output where expected. If i return, it just shows one post only… Someone please point me in the right direction.

Here’s the code:

/*
 * function to show the last hotspots that were added
 * with posibility of changing the number displayed and the
 * lenght of the extract shown, in words.
 */
function show_latest_hotspots( $atts ) {

	$data = extract( shortcode_atts( array( 'number' => 3, 'lenght' => 30, ), $atts ) );

	global $post;

	// var_dump( $data );
	// print_r( $lenght );

	$args = array(
		'post_type' 	=> 'ait-dir-item',
		'posts_per_page' => $number,
		'orderby' 		=> 'date',
		'order' 		=> 'ASC',
		 );

	$loop = new WP_Query( $args );

	while ( $loop->have_posts() ) : $loop->the_post();

		$url = get_permalink();
		$title = get_the_title();
		$excerpt = strip_tags( $post->post_content );

		$excerptArr = str_word_count( $excerpt, 1);
			if(count ( $excerptArr > $lenght )) {
				$text = join( " ", array_slice( $excerptArr, 0, $lenght ) );
				$text .= " <a href='$url'>Read More</a>";
			} else {
				$text = $excerpt;
			}

		$content = 	"<div class=\"text\">";
		$content .= "<div class=\"title\"><h3><a href='$url'>".$title."</a></h3></div>";
		$content .= $excerpt."</div><br /><!-- eof div.text-->";

		// echo $content;
		echo $content;

	endwhile;

	// Reset Post Data
	wp_reset_postdata();
}

add_shortcode('show_latest_hotspots', 'show_latest_hotspots');