Econo Lodge Portland Downtown — Hotel in Portland

Location was why I picked this hotel, and it was clean enough, but the customer service......I don’t like to get into an argument because of unseen fees being tacked on to my bill, and being told I needed to pay those in cash.

My young daughter and I flew into Portland from the East Coast, so it had been a long day. Check in time was 3:50, but we got to the hotel around 2:30. We were both tired from traveling and had an event at 7:30 that night, so I thought asking if we could check in early would be a reasonable request.

I was told the room would not be ready until 3:00, which makes perfect sense. I was told we could check in at that time. I thanked the person at the counter and told him we would just explore the neighborhood to stretch our legs, and Asked to make sure we could just leave our car parked in front of our room.

He told us we could leave it parked, but there would be a $12 fee to do so. I was confused. “There is a $12 fee to park in front of our own room?” “You are not checked in yet, so it is not your room. It will be $12 now, and an additional $10 to park overnight.” “You want me to pay $12 to park for 30 minutes in front of the room I am renting from you?” “Yes, the $10 covers the overnight which starts at 3:50” “So, even when I check into my room at 3:00 you want to charge $12 for the 50 minutes, then an additional $10 for overnight?” “Yes.” “How much is parking in the local lots? That seems expensive.” “I don’t know”

At this point I was REALLY frustrated. I was tired, my daughter was cranky, and I felt we were just spiraling down. I felt he DID know the prices, but was lying about it. I considered just canceling the room ($175 for room, tax, and the $10 parking) but then I’d have to find a different hotel, and figure out transportation. The reason I picked this hotel is it was a five minute walk from where we needed to be that night.

So I thought, “What’s another $12? In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a deal killer.”

“Fine. I’ll pay your $12. Just add it to my room”

“No. I need that in cash from you right now.”

I’m not proud of the words that came out of my mouth next, especially in front of my daughter. But I was tired, frustrated, and I felt he saw that and was looking at a way to simply get $12 from me in cash and put it in his own pocket. He was not going to rent that spot for $12 over the next hour and I told him so.

He then told me that he often rents spots and I had no guarantee of a spot for the night. “What happens if you run out of spots?” “There is free parking on the street from 7pm to 7am” “I am paying you $175 to rent a room, but I may not even get a parking spot because you are going to rent it to someone else?” “Yes”

That’s when I blew. After I was finished he allowed me to park in the spot in front of my room until 3:50 without charge, which is all I asked for from the start. In order to get that I had to completely blow my top and become more angry and frustrated than I’ve been in years.

IMO this was some of the worst customer service I have experienced. I will not go back to this...

Ok first off, I am not expecting the Ritz when I stay at an Econo Lodge. I don't care enough to write a review about the crappy heating system and breakfast. Those are all fine for the amount of $$ being paid in a major city area in a good location. We have even stayed her once previously and found the place completely acceptable.

My issue is with the customer service on our last visit. When my husband and I checked in, we went to our room and smelled smoke in the room. We stayed for a few minutes to see if we could handle it and when our throats started hurting, we decided to go to the office and see what we could do to remedy the situation. When we got the office, we told the young girl working at the desk about the situation and she IMMEDIATELY got defensive. She told us very firmly that we were in a non-smoking room so it couldn't possibly smell like smoke. She also told us the manager wouldn't be back until 10 pm (it was 5 pm when we complained) so that's all she could do since she doesn't have the authority to change rooms, give refunds for us to check out, etc. I told her that was unacceptable and she needed to contact her manager now because we weren't waiting 5 hours in a smokey room until the manager could grace us with his/her presence. The young girl then said she wasn't going to call with us present and she'd call when she could and we need to go wait in our (smokey) room until she can get to us. No timetable was given. I again told her I was not leaving until a solution was reached and I would wait in the office for that to occur. The young girl then said that if we didn't leave, she would CALL THE POLICE. I called her bluff and told her she was welcome to call the police to tell them I was in the office not physically or verbally harassing her. She dropped that pretty quickly... She FINALLY was reasonable and actually came to our room to smell it (said she didn't smell anything hoping we'd give up--that didn't work). She offered to clean our sheets and I told her that cigarette smoke requires carpet cleaning, curtains cleaned and deeper cleaning than new sheets. She then called the manager and finally changed our room. Someone needs to train this young girl to work with customers. We made a simple request to change rooms or check out with a refund if no rooms were available because the nonsmoking room smelled like smoke. It is not our responsibility to deal with previous guests not following policies and choosing to smoke in their room. Why did this young woman freak out so significantly? We have yet to figure that out--maybe the managers are awful to her when she needs help. I don't know. Either way, that is enough for me to never stay here again and recommend others to also...

Well out of no where in the afternoon, we get a manager of the property banging on our door. Claiming the maid took pictures of herb in our room, without our permission might I add when we had a do not disturb sign on the door. In Oregon where its legal to have weed same as a cigarette we were treated like common thugs for being a medical marijuana patient.

When manager came up to bang on our door he told us literally we had 5 minutes to get out or he was calling the cops on us. We told him go ahead because we had not smoked in the room and were breaking absolutely no Oregon state laws. We smoked outside the room not in it.

This was on a friday, he could care a less if we had to sleep on a bench that night all the hotels in town were booked up. He tells us if we leave right away, he will refund us our money. O ya he refunded us for our second night stay, but then as were driving away he puts a $250 dollar smoking fee on our credit card.

He never even mentioned this once when I was talking to him, I had to demand he give me a receipt because he tried force us out of the room and never refund us a dollar for the full day we just missed out on our hotel. I had to threaten him that I was going to call the cops on him to get refunded for our room. But then the SCAM ARTIST manager waits for us to drive away and he recharges the card $250 dollars. ARE YOU KIDDING ME, who refunds you then charges you when you turn your back.

Worst experience of my life, if you smoke outside like a normal person do not go to this hotel. We never once smoked in the hotel room. Just for having herb on us they gave us a smoking fee, really do you give guest a smoking fee for having a pack of cigarettes, no I don't think so. Why do you treat herb smokers like common day criminals, for having medicine in my room. I am a medical marijuana patient, and you kicked me out on the street because I smell better than a poisonous cigarette. If we would of been allowed to stay till our normal checkout the room would have smelt like absolutely nothing. Straight SCAM who kicks you out at 2 pm in the afternoon our of no where.

I will never stay at an Econo lodge again, this one is a straight scam, and by the way they don't tell you its on a busy intersection with construction and you can barley sleep its so loud all night. Or that the so called continental breakfast is a piece of toast. I would give them negative stars if I could. Straight scam artist stuck in the 1940's, the world is a changing, its like this hotel forgot they are located in a recreational herb state, or maybe its just something they do to earn another $250 dollars off your credit card. STAY AWAY, THE MANAGER...