Courtyard by Marriott Portland City Center — Hotel in Portland

There are many occasions where the greatness of employees is overshadowed by customers who, for whatever reason, choose to only look at the negative in every situation and post reviews about it. No amount of effort or attention to detail will ever placate that personality type. I cringe when I hear people say “The customer is always right.” No, they are not always right. Ever. With that said, I am a customer, and I am right about the following.

I find it ironic that during our stay in Portland, I experienced the worst treatment I have ever received from a hotel and then later experienced the best.

I will start with our checking out of a nearby hotel at the appointed 12:00 PM. We were leaving because we needed a laundry facility and something more substantial than a croissant for breakfast. We had travelled with a lot more than usual because we had intended on being in Portland for 4-5 months. Carrying all of our items around was not something that brought us joy. I called the Marriott Courtyard to see if we could store our things somewhere and then go grab lunch and return at the 3:00 PM check-in time. The phone was answered by Tina, and she embodies the saying “Smile before you dial” because I could feel the genuine helpfulness and positivity coming through the phone. She said that she could do even better than that and could get us into our room then. Fantastic.

We then pulled up in our lift, and the next person I met was Alexander. I knew something was different at this hotel immediately because he was just as helpful and kind as Tina. The room was comfortable and clean. I embarked on a laundry journey and realized the machines required quarters. I had no cash, so I had to use the lobby ATM. ($4.95 fee is blah) I had three loads of laundry to do, and after running the clothes in the two dryers for more than 120 minutes and the clothing was still wet, I realized we had a problem. I called the front desk from the phone in the laundry room and explained the situation to Amanda, who, like an elite special force of efficiency and customer service, came up with a quick solution. She sent Hal to come and gather our clothes, and together we took them down to the housekeeping washer and dryers. Both Hal and Amanda were amazing. I came back later to find that all our clothes had not only been dried but folded as well!

It doesn’t stop there. The next person who truly blew my mind regarding her pure professionalism and kindness is Riley. We had a few hiccups due to the fact that we had to pay for our rooms on a daily basis. That is a long story, but that is not the preferred method of making reservations. Riley was so patient and understanding. She never wavered in treating us with respect, and for that reason, I feel the proper thing to do is ensure that Riley and her staff get the praise and recognition they deserve. 100%. Riley is the epitome of what a General Manager should be. From the worst experience in all my travels at a different nearby hotel in Portland to the very best here at the Marriott Courtyard . 5-Star Service. Thank...

I stayed at the Courtyard Portland City Center for three nights over a long weekend and was pretty appalled with the staff’s behavior and the overall cleanliness of the hotel.

Upon check-in, I was given my keys and went to the elevators that were caked in mud. When I got up to my floor, I found there was no actual room number written on my key envelope, so I had to travel back down in the dirty elevator to ask the front desk who’d forgotten to write it down. On each day during my stay, there was trash in the hallways or near the elevators both on my floor and in the lobby. And my room itself, while clean, had nothing more than a super thin quilt on the bed that kept things very chilly. When I asked for an extra blanket, I got one that was even thinner than the quilt. The toiletries are built into containers mounted to the wall, and after the first day, I was out of conditioner but couldn’t even call down to say something because my phone was broken.

But honestly, my main problems with this hotel were with the hotel staff and the mess of valet parking. When I called down to ask for something one night, I was treated like a burden and then made to feel stupid for even asking about something. When I went to get my car on my third day, the valet was overrun with people checking out on Sunday, and I had to wait more than 30 minutes for my keys (in addition to the 20 minutes for my car to show up from wherever they parked it). The following day, just before check out, I was harassed for wanting to grab my phone charger from my car without showing my driver’s license first (something that had never been asked in the previous days). The valet — who I paid $42 nightly — then treated me like I was stealing as he watched me like a hawk and stared at my hands as I grabbed my charger from my car. When I went to check out, I was overcharged for valet (they added an extra day), and correcting it took nearly 10 minutes and the tone of the entire conversation was like I was somehow trying to scam them. Uh, YOU overcharged me. Not the other way around. There was no apology in sight and it was quite the end to a less than great stay.

Needless to stay, I won’t be back here again. Despite the central location, if I’m ever in Portland again, I’ll seek out a...

Found this place pretty mediocre. Staff is friendly and I liked my room, the bed was very comfortable. As many others have pointed out, parking is a nightmare, WiFi is surprisingly poor and there were no instructions in my room on how to set it up. Had to go to reception for info and even staff did it wrong at first.

There's a coffee maker and fridge in the room, but no microwave. There are no trash bags in any of the bins, which makes throwing away tea bags, coffee pads or anything you had in the fridge a bit gross.

Room service wasn't that great. It's only available every other day, they forgot to stock up my room's toilet paper and repeatedly ignored their own "hang to reuse" towel instructions. It was a surprise which amount of towels I'd end up with on any given day.

Curtains don't close all the way and there are office buildings with extremely bright light at night, so bring a sleeping mask if you're light sensitive. Bathroom has a huge window right next to the toilet/shower looking out on another office building and no frosted glass, so I basically had to keep the blind down at all times. Weird choice.

Breakfast is not worth pre-booking. They will give you vouchers for a certain amount of money that you can use at their restaurant. Food there is alright, but there's limited options and lack of anything really healthy (mostly just fried food, waffles and some oatmeal). I ended up not using all of my booked vouchers and just went to other places in the area instead. They also make you pick up a voucher every single morning at reception instead of just giving you the amount you pre-booked, which I found really annoying and nonsensical. If you do want to eat there, just go in the morning and buy what you want. Not sure why they bother with the vouchers and I wouldn't have booked if I had known.

It's also occasionally noisy and there's tons of homeless around, but that's just what downtown is like and not the fault of the hotel. But it is a hazard if you're parking your car in the surrounding areas.

Not really a bad hotel, but if I'm ever back in Portland, I'll stay...