Courtyard Portland Downtown/Convention Center

The food was good, and the valet was worth the charge. They were professional, quick to bring the car when I asked, and went out of their way to help. There were issues in the room too. The cards stopped working for a few people in our group one or two hours before checkout. Our smoke detector kept beeping because of a low battery, and I don’t understand why they haven’t upgraded to wired detectors. The room lighting was poor, while the bathroom LED was painfully bright. The elevators shake from side to side, so anyone sensitive to motion should be prepared.

Yesenia did an amazing job cleaning the tub after I used one of my favorite bath bombs. It had tons of glitter, and I felt bad about the mess, but afterward you couldn’t even tell. The staff were all so nice and helpful, and the hotel is in a really good location. The food was pretty good too, as were the drinks. We stayed here for my birthday weekend in Portland. Thank you to everyone who made it so great. We’ll definitely stay here again next time we come.

The room looked freshly redecorated and the lobby level was quite nice. Service was excellent, and the shower had plenty of hot water. I stay at Courtyard hotels often, and this one was better than average. The room was dimly lit, as I often find hotel rooms to be, but no worse than at other Courtyards. The only off-street parking is valet, and it costs $43 a day. That feels like a lot for a random hotel in Portland, about what you’d pay in Center City Philly or the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and a bit scammy. Still, a valet isn’t necessary: the desk can get your keys before the stand opens at 6 AM local time, and you can easily access the car in the underground garage. With or without a valet, getting the car took only a few minutes. From what little I saw, Portland seems like a city where you need a car. The hotel was a 10-15 minute drive from everything, so I can’t fault the location, even with a McDonald's next door.

The shower was a mess. Its door wouldn’t close all the way, leaving a gap about an inch or more wide, and water leaked through another spot onto the floor, so we put down towels. The soap was such poor quality that it dried out my skin and hair, and the conditioner was empty. Overnight, we had to ask for more toilet paper and towels, and both took over 20 minutes to arrive. We also booked a room with one king bed and a pull-out bed, but when we got upstairs, it was just a king with no couch. We had to go back down two floors and get another room. The toilet clogged right away, and when we asked for a plunger, room service took 10 minutes to bring a flat iron instead. We waited another 10 minutes before the only housekeeper in the building finally brought the right item. In the morning, we were told there would be no buffet that day because of “occupancy.” The buffet had been practically the selling point for us, and the website hadn’t said it was only offered when they felt like it. The only compensation offered was a $15 credit to a restaurant we weren’t eating at. We also found no free parking anywhere nearby. The only parking was paid street parking by the hour. We’d booked online through booking.com, where the information wasn’t all listed. We weren’t told there were multiple Marriott hotels, so we went to the wrong one before finding ours. Pick another hotel in Portland, I’m sure your stay will be a hell of a lot better than ours.