The Memphian, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel — Hotel in Memphis

I recently spent 4 nights at the Memphian , a Tribute Portfolio Hotel in Memphis, TN. I rate this Hotel 4.5|Quick take: There’s a lot to like about this hotel and I highly recommend it with a couple of caveats. The hotel has bold and interesting interior decor, is very clean all the way through, and everything in the room works as it should. The room has all the requisite types of plugs for the modern traveler. The hotel staff, restaurant and bar are all very friendly and offer very good to excellent service. The food and beverages I had were excellent. I will go this hotel again if in the area. If interested in more details about my stay, read on.||I’m not familiar with Memphis but was told the hotel is in mid-town in a place named Overton Square. The neighborhood appears to be a kind of hip area with lots of options for dining and nightlife. The shops, restaurants and areas around the hotel seem to be well kept and well lit at night. ||The hotel is a squarish six story (I think) building that seems rather plain. However, the inside is anything but plain. Large pieces of eye-catching art and colors are interesting and dramatic yet somehow not garish or off-putting. It did take some time for me to get used to the decor. The furnishings in the lobby are equally unique but somehow fit in with the interior decor. After checking in I discovered that the rooms and even the elevator are as interestingly decorated as the lobby area. As a person who stays mostly at Marriott business hotels, this was quite a change in a positive way. ||The overall service I experienced was very good. The evening I arrived, there was a maintenance problem with my room. Even though no more of my type of room was available, the Front Desk took responsibility for the problem (instead of blaming maintenance) and upgraded rather than downgrading my room. That was impressive and completely turned an initially unhappy experience into a super positive one. Hats off and thanks to Kyla, my initial Front Desk contact and Jessica Pozza the Asst Front Desk Manager who gave me one of the best rooms in the house.||Right off the lobby is the bar and restaurant named the Complicated Pilgrim both of which have a lot of windows and face the street. The bar is small but the high ceiling and windows help to create an open feeling. The physical bar itself and the furnishings give the space a kind of fun feeling, which is not how I would typically describe a bar. The adjacent restaurant is also small and has a boutique feel to it. The clever use of floor to ceiling curtains enables the staff to create intimate or open dining spaces. I found the staff at the bar and restaurant to be excellent with a “can do” attitude for customer requests.|The Tiger and Peacock is the roof top restaurant and bar that has both indoor and outdoor areas. The furnishings and decor are interesting and seem meant to create comfort and conversations. I did not dine there so cannot comment on the food or drinks. ||Back in the Lobby, just outside the bar entrance are three walls of bookshelves filled with books. Tucked into a corner of the bookshelf area is the “business center” which is just a computer and a printer (both of which worked well) as part of a reading area. It is a nice area for guests to hang out, but the “business center” should be in a place with less public traffic in my opinion.||My one bedroom suite was clean, spacious, and well appointed with a large desk, living room furniture, big screen TV, dining table, coffee maker, mini-fridge, and refillable water bottles. The bathroom is spacious and had a large soaking tub, walk in shower, spacious, well lit vanity/sink area, and an enclosed area for the toilet. The bedroom is a little tight with functional night tables, wardrobe, and suitcase bench. One of the best things about the room is the AC. It is quiet, has an easy to use thermostat, and it works well. The room and bathroom is clean, clean, clean.||The main hotel parking is gated and immediately behind the hotel. If that lot is full, there is a parking structure adjacent to the hotel lot.|Recommendation: Very...

I stay in hotels 150 nights a year. The Memphian is easily the worst Marriott portfolio hotel I’ve stayed at. In my opinion, the front desk manager and general manager are incompetent. Very basic guest service was missed.

Upon check in we were greeted with a surprise pet fee for a small non shedding, non barking dog. The pet fee was egregious at a rate of approx 50% of the cost of our stay.

Upon questioning this, the front desk manager acted like she had never handled a customer complaint before. She didn’t have a business card, and she didn’t give me the general managers business card. She didn’t know how to adjust the billing for the 50% pet fee. To her credit though, she agreed that a 50% fee was ridiculous and that there was no additional cost to the hotel in cleaning up after our dog’s 12 hour stay. The pet fee is simply an excuse to squeeze additional profit out of guests. She said she would email me the bill and never did even after multiple requests.

Ultimately, the front desk manager gave me a fake email address for the general manager.

A quick Google search revealed the real name and email of the general manager: Bobbie Peppers, who was equally unhelpful.

In addition to the comically high ~50% pet fee, and the awful interaction with the front desk manager, and the terrible service from the general manager Bobbie Peppers, the hotel had some other maintenance issues in the bathroom and room - with the shower being dirty, curbless and poorly sloped.

After 4 requests, the general manager did eventually email me the bill. Instead of a standard hotel bill, it was something they printed out and photographed with a phone. Imagine how unprofessional a hotel must be to have no system in place for emailing a bill…. Seriously I have never seen a hotel send an iPhone photo as the official bill. We had a good laugh about that.

Lastly, the hotel had electric vehicle charging, but both spots were taken by ICE vehicles for the duration of our stay. The management did not tow the cars or post tow company information in the parking lot.

All of this above is simply my opinion, and I encourage anyone reading this to trust all of the negative reviews and DO NOT STAY AT THIS POORLY...

This hotel is a hidden gem. The staff was very friendly, the hotel was very very clean, and everything looked just as you’d like and staying at a better hotel. The size of the hotel room was pretty average, but the room had some wonderful futures that I don’t normally get in a hotel room. The coffee machine was upscale, and gave you a shot of espresso instead of a kuerig of coffee. I thought that was a nice touch. They also had some empty bottles on the shelf that you can take down the hallway to where they had water on tap. It was delicious filtered water And it really hit the spot. It was a nice touch to know that they went a little extra to give you some good water and didn’t give you water that had been stored in a plastic bottle for years. Also it has a nice little bags of ice in the freezer next to the taps of water. I thought it was a very nice touch and very easy to bring some ice back to the room. The room itself was laid out well, and when you enter it had a separate room with the toilet in it. Always a nice touch in close quarters. And I had a walk-in shower with a very nice showerhead. Nobody takes baths at a hotel. It was very thoughtful of them to put in a walk-in shower. It also had a pocket door so you could close that area off to the bedroom. Just a nice touch. The bed was cozy the TV was nice, the colors in the room were wonderful it was a better than average room. I’m also came with overnight parking option for $10. It’s always nice when you want your vehicle to be secure. It has a rooftop bar but it’s closed on Sundays and that’s when I checked in. Otherwise I’m sure I would’ve given another good review of that too. The next morning I went to get breakfast. I thought it was included with the room but it is not. It’s probably the first time I’ve ever paid five dollars for a hotel coffee, but it was very good coffee and the service was great and the barista/server had a wonderful smile. Well worth five dollars. If you have the choice of staying here or a Hilton/Marriott, take this place instead. You will not be...