Embassy Suites by Hilton Portland Downtown — Hotel in Portland

Stayed at the Embassy Downtown Portland before, when the restaurant, bakery and bar next door (and connected to the hotel lobby), Mother's Bistro, was open. Enjoyed the convenience and fun of the added experience, although Mother's is NOT affiliated with the hotel. This time, a Sunday stay, Mother's was closed, forcing much more emphasis in terms of the enjoyment, or lack thereof, of my stay upon the hotel itself.

What I noticed most:

Cost prohibitive parking. Wouldn't even consider parking at these rates.

Pet fees were more than half of my nightly rate. $75 is way too much.

The lobby is lacking decor, unlike the picture shown in the online ads and here on TA. Sad for a hotel with such history and potential.

The elevators are in serious need of a refresh, (a thorough cleaning wouldn't hurt either!).

There is no exhaust fan in the bathroom, which WILL be a problem at some point, especially if you are staying with another person.

The bathroom is cramped. Getting in and out of the shower involves a dance with the door.

The very old AC system is limited to 68 at the lowest set point. Might be ok in the off season, but is lacking when there is any real heat outside.

The complimentary breakfast is served in a dungeon on the B2 level. Totally lacking in any style or effort at making it cheerful and welcoming. Left for real food and atmosphere beyond that of what feels like a repurposed gymnasium.

There was no hot water. None. Texted the front desk, which is there preferred method of communication. No response. Waited. Texted again 20 min later. NO RESPONSE. Waited. Nothing. Finally left. Went by the front desk to inquire about the issue with the hot water outage and communication gaff. (BTW They were Johnny on the spot when it came to communicating amenities and letting you know they were there to help, by text, but when you actually needed them to help with an issue, in this case a very significant issue, they were nowhere to be found.) Not good. When I went by the desk to lodge my complaint, I was told by the very nice but very inexperienced clerk, that they had seen my text and did respond, but more than 30 min after I texted. Who waits on line for 45 min for a text response to an immediate issue like no hot water. What is the purpose of text if you can't respond simply and quickly?

The best the poorly trained gal could do was able to confirm there indeed was no hot water in my part of the hall...AND how many rooms were affected. She could not even offer a refund or credit. Nothing. What is the point of having someone at the front desk if they have no authority? Useless.

At check out, because no one had taken it on themselves to call and fill me in or apologize, I requested a call back from the Assistant Manager, who was not available at the time, but was expected later that day at noon. Great! At noon, nothing. Hours later...nothing. Called that afternoon after 4. No manager, or assistant available, and again, the clerk (in training), had no authority to adjust my bill accordingly for the inconvenience, (wife and I had to go out to our appointments unshowered.) Requested a call back from the Manager, Gorana Tifekchian, (whose card I had picked up at check out), this time.

No call from Gorana that evening, or the next day. Called again two days later, still no manager or assistant available. Left another call back request for the manager Gorana Tifekchian. Now it has been a week since I checked out. No call. Terrible management. Terrible staff training. Dreary and drab decor. Prison institution like breakfast area with the saddest and most limited assortment of offerings. Will look for another accommodation in future. This one is dead, of its own choosing.

On a positive note, I did appreciate the young black woman who checked me in. Bright intelligent, capable. When I told her the pet fee on line was less than the $75 she was asking at check in, she made the adjustment without any of the regular entitled attitude or hassle. I appreciated that.

This review was more than earned and...

I have NAVER been more disappointed in a stay at a hotel anywhere, including destinations abroad.

We were in town for a bachelor party mid-June and while the rest of our party stayed at a different hotel uptown, we chose embassy suites as the value play and for its bigger rooms.

What a mistake.

The hotel is in a super seedy location of downtown . Just a block or two over, you will be greeted by homeless encampments and all sorts of night creatures. The hotel is an older building, and I overheard talks of renovations, but that won’t fix its location.

The check in process was easy as we were checked in by front desk clerk, Ryan, who seemed to be new to the process. We did not get the upgrades we expected, but we didn’t care too much.

We took the VERY slow elevators to our room and knew right away I got my hopes up. The rooms are old, a little spacious, but that’s all the good there was.

The room was musky and still had tape and decorations from a prior occupant. There were only two towels in the room so we also had to call up for some towels right away. The wall paper was peeling off the walls and the room was just in a state of distress.

We then went downstairs to check out the pool area and to use some free drink coupons we were given. What a mistake that was!

The pool is indoors and had so much chlorine that when we opened the door to the pool area, we were overcome by the chlorine smell and dampness and immediately turned back.

The breakfast room a floor lower was an absolute dungeon of a place. It was old, musty, dark…felt like I had been transported to a 1950 hotel ball room that had lost all of its grandeur and shine and was now a relic begging to be destroyed. I could smell the mold down there. The food they had out for their evening appetizers were absolutely disgusting too. I honestly can’t tell you what it was other than the old carrots and celery they had sitting out.

We spent the night in the room with no serious concerns, but when we woke up, we saw an envelope had been slipped under the door.

we were accused of smoking in the room and dirtying the air to the point that we were fined $300!

I went downstairs to speak to the front desk and hotel manager, Sam, about this and to express our clear shock at there being a monitor in the room and having our privacy invaded. It then had me worrying that the room had other devices, maybe even cameras, monitoring the occupants.

Sam could not have cared less. He stuck to his guns about the report and told us we were more than welcome to check out and would not receive any compensation.

I proceeded to tell him that not only would we get refunded for the charge for “smoking,” I would also file a chargeback with my credit card company and get reimbursed for the room. And that when I did I was going to call Sam and get my apology for the way the hotel and staff treated us.

Needless to say, I was right :)

We got the charge for the invasion of privacy refunded and the entirety of the stay refunded.

Sam has ZERO idea how to diffuse and handle upset occupants. I asked him for his card and told him I would be going in hard on this hotel and him when the time was right. We went back to our room and proceeded to pack up. We explored the room for other devices and found the monitoring device plugged in behind the television. Super scary knowing the hotel is big brothering their hotel occupants.

They put over $500 on reserve hold when checking in, including the $300 charge for “smoking” and take forever to release your funds when you check out. I called to speak with their finance manager, I think her name was Kristen? Kirsten? And she was just as rude and arrogant as Sam, not surprising.

We left this garbage hotel after the first night and spent the rest of our trip uptown at the chic Hyatt Centric hotel.

I implore anyone who is coming to Portland to stay anywhere else! Do all you can to avoid this place.

Sam, I expect my apology from you. The hotel is honestly lucky I did not get my attorney to make a bigger deal...

*The owner replied and made NO MENTION of the injury sustained by the bed, the drug users out front, human feces, the parking scam, a lobby that reeked of weed; but hit us with a $300 for a nicotine vape hit.. STAY AWAY!!!

For a $1000+ stay, here is what we had to deal with… When we arrived, we inquired about parking (as the site clearly stated they had parking for guests). It was only then, at check-in, and with no prior notification whatsoever, that we were told valet was our only option, unless we were willing to risk parking our vehicle on the street… in the China Town district of Portland. Also, let me emphasize: $65 A DAY for valet parking. To make matters worse, the valet parking location is in a closed, no-access parking garage DESPITE what the owner says in rebuttal online. While we understand the security benefits of that, it means guests have absolutely no convenient access to their own vehicles if they need to grab something or check on their car. Not even limited hours or supervised access was offered. The couch in the room was a pull-out, which was broken to an extent that even using it as a regular couch was uncomfortable. When we attempted to pull it out for sleeping, it was so deteriorated that a sharp metal piece was sticking out—and it actually cut my girlfriend’s son’s leg. This wasn’t just worn—it was dangerous. We notified the hotel and just got an "Oh! Sorry about that" that's it. No offer to come see or try and fix things so we could use the pull out we had hoped to use. Brought it all up again at check out and the response was "I see you did mention that previously... Awkward Pause Hope you stay with us again and thank you for staying with us". That's it. This hotel is going to hurt someone with money to spend, and get sued. The perimeter of the hotel reeked of urine, and we saw what was clearly aged human feces on the sidewalks around the property. The surrounding area felt unsafe and deteriorated. It’s clear the hotel knows most guests won’t want to venture out far, and they take advantage of that with charging $6 for a bag of M&M’s in their tiny shop, which the whole "store" felt like blatant price gouging. Later at night, when we went outside to meet a DoorDash driver, there were people openly loitering, clearly under the influence of various substances. Despite this, the hotel staff did nothing to address the situation or provide additional security. This was at the entrance. Plus the WHOLE lobby reeked of marijuana. Again, this was a $1,000+ stay… for just two nights. Oh and then to add insult to injury, after the first night we were all a bit stressed about finding and getting something decent for lunch and I accidentally hit my nicotine vape in the hotel room. I even stopped mid draw and joked about someone probably was spying on us, and lo and behold we were slipped a note under the door and were stuck with a $300 fine; for 1/2 an accidental puff on a nicotine vape. If someone passed gas, that would have left a stronger, longer lasting smell. Let alone the lobby REEKED of Weed all night. We were flabbergasted by the smells emanating in general and by OUR fine!? After reading other reviews, this seems to be another scam of this hotel.

When we first arrived, we were genuinely excited and talked about how this might be our go-to spot for future Portland visits. But absolutely not. After this experience, we will never be back, and we will be telling everyone we know about how misled we were. Our stay felt like the biggest bait-and-switch we’ve ever experienced, and honestly, it was a complete and utter disappointment from...