Courtyard by Marriott Portland North — Hotel in Portland

Do NOT book this hotel if you need to park a car or get some sleep or expect a slightly better experience associated with the brand. This "Cheapyard" is located conveniently to absolutely nothing and offers all the grandeur of a motel at Marriot prices.

The reception staff couldn’t be less indifferent, except one young gentleman who wished us a good day. I probably would be grumpy too because the reception area consists of two tiny desks and chairs. No information about breakfast or pool hours or anything else offered upon check in, just "here is your key, buzz off".

As mentioned in many other reviews, parking is absolutely ridiculous. And we parked at Myrtle Beach hotels before that are notorious for tight spaces. This one is on another level: there are huge columns with 3 spaces marked between them while not more than 2 average cars can fit. Many drivers just double park and again, can’t blame them.

The hotel is old, and it was renovated as cheap as possible. All the doors are very old with rusty discolored handles and the old keys where you need to put the card in. Dark carpet and dim light add to depressing ambiance. Inside you’ll get more motel look-and-feel. The prison type sink is outside the bathroom and spots the apartment-grade tap. The closet doors (of the “shabby coastal chic” style) fall off if you touch them. The hand towels are threadbare, and the world’s ugliest hairdryer is on brand at this point.

As you venture further inside, you’re welcomed by the 80s popcorn ceiling and cold, ugly textured walls. The headrests are pieces of foam wrapped in the pillowcase, which I doubt is washed frequently.

The AC/heat unit sounds like a jet on takeoff and the thermostat is really a random number generator. The curtains had to be comically cut around the AC unit that sits right below the window, but it doesn’t matter because when that thing starts blowing, the curtains will fly up to the ceiling exposing the picturesque view of the parking lot.

You might be able to space out until the housekeeping staff wakes you up at 8:30 am (who wants to sleep in on vacation anyway?) with their incredibly loud voices.

There is no free breakfast but even if you’re thinking you’d be able to grab something at the advertised lounge, you’ll be disappointed to learn that it is only open till 9:30 am in the morning and then for dinner at 5-10 pm. Well, you should’ve just gotten up when housekeeping woke you, to get that $3 muffin.

As other reviews mention, there is no free coffee or tea in the lobby. There is a coffee maker in the room but only with 2 K-cups and the typical sugar-cream powder-plastic stirrer packet. There is some water in the lobby but no glasses. And if you think you’ll be able to luxuriate outside in a nice patio, all the chairs are in the open sun with no umbrellas.

The location compliments the hotel nicely. It's squeezed between the condos and newer hotels at the dead end of a narrow street lined with parked cars. If another car drives towards you, I guess you’ll have a Mexican standoff situation.

If you don’t have a car (or just don’t want to re-live the parking experience), the station of the super slow train (45-60 min to downtown) is within 10-15 minutes of a scenic walk from the hotel. The walkway is framed with the chain-link fence that makes you feel like a gladiator or a lion about to die in the Coliseum arena. Points of interest along the way include a junkyard, a huge pile of garbage and a freeway overpass. We did see a bunny though, so that was cool.

The hotel management doesn’t care about any of this though because they make enough money from the events and corporate road warriors who expense Starbucks breakfast and then fall asleep happily after boozing up in the lounge.

If this does not describe you, don’t book this hotel. I wish someone warned me about this situation and that's why I'm taking time to write the ridiculously long review - to spare someone from spoiling otherwise...

I had to travel to Portland, OR for a work event and stayed at this hotel for 2 nights, April 10th and 11th, 2017. I must say I was COMPLETELY dissatisfied. There were multiple reasons that made this by far the worst hotel stay I have ever encountered.

1. To start, I booked my room 2 months prior to my stay and requested a king room and was given a confirmation reservation for a king room upon arrival. When I arrived and checked in and walked into the room, it was a room with two double beds. This is not a make or break for me, however I really wanted a king room so i figured I would call the front desk to see why I didn't get what I reserved, and to see if they had any kings available I could move to. When I went to call the front desk from the double bed room, the room phone didn't even work so I had to call from my cell phone. Finally, I was able to get moved to a King room

2. Once moved to a king room on the first floor, it was directly across the lobby bistro restaurant, and the room was directly next to a conference room and a conference was going on the next morning, and the whole next day and I could hear EVERYTHING that was being talked about due to the thin walls.

3. Third, the hotel had construction going on however I didn't receive notice of this until the day before. The hotel emailed me the day before saying there would be construction and it may be noisy from 9AM-5PM. However, on my second day, the construction was going with very loud noise until almost 7PM.

4. The hotel website states every room has a mini fridge and microwave. They do in fact have them, however the fridge was absolutely ridiculous. I bought perishables and drinks to keep in the mini fridge so that I did not have to eat every meal out, but the mini fridge has a button that only allows the fridge to stay on for 2 hours. 2 HOURS REALLY? What are you supposed to do while you are sleeping, get up every two hours to make sure the fridge is on. Needless to say, my perishables went bad.

These mostly sum up the issues. There were only minor other issues that were tolerable but these four were not. My company uses Courtyard Marriott and books them for every employee that has to travel and we are one of the largest companies in the Pacific Northwest. I will be making sure to get in touch with the department that handles hotel reservations for employees to let them know how horrible of an experience I had and how much I recommend choosing...

Parking is terrible! Looking at the website which says "garage parking" one would think it's a great thing as you wouldn't have to walk in the rain /snow and you have a sense of security. It's all true except for the fact that the size of the parking spaces are for smaller than sub compact cars only. There are pillars everywhere and parking 2 normal size cars in between the pillars can't be done without damaging your car or getting door dings from trying to get out of your car if you could at all!

I "reserved" a King size bed room, once I arrived I checked in and was given a two queen bed room. I called the front desk to complain and they told me that the hotel was sold out, yet they did have some king bed rooms available but they were not clean? (This was at 7:00PM) This is a first for me; I did not know they don't clean all the rooms when the hotel is sold out?

Once in my Double bed room it was not clean, there were the remnants of a plastic bag on the floor, the carpet looked like it wasn't vacuumed at all with dirt and particles of plastic on it, and dust balls on the bathroom sink edge, hair on the toilet. I left for dinner and about 20 minutes later I get a call from the hotel that they had a "King size bed room" available for me when I returned, that was great news. Not so fast........ I moved to the room next to me which did have a King size bed but was missing a couch! I spent 4 days and 3 nights at this hotel sitting in a dirty office chair! The long rectangular shower drain was left hanging out of the shower, no vanity mirror like the one pictured on the website, the office chair was not clean as it had what looked to me someone’s "juice" left on it. I was going to complain again but I figured I lost this battle! I do have pictures of all of this disgust. Having my room cleaned during my stay was at a minimum, first day the toilet was not cleaned, carpet was never vacuumed, and the shampoo was never replaced.

Now I will say that the bed was comfortable, the people at the front desk were nice, and the food and coffee they have at the bistro were good. I booked this hotel as its website showed it was a newly updated Marriott. I have stayed at other Marriott's with the newer decor and I really liked it. This Marriott is not one I will stay at again when I am in Portland...