Hotel Grand Stark — Hotel in Portland

Really beautiful details throughout but the way of living in these rooms just wasn’t thought through. This is gonna be long so I’ll recap my overall thoughts here: Based on the price charged I just don’t think this one is worth it. They’re charging luxury prices and just stopping short of luxury. Everything is gorgeous but it just isn’t completely functional or accurate based on description and price.

We reserved a Grand King instead of a standard King and there wasn’t a seating area in our room as promised. I was looking forward to a seating area because my partner and I were going to be working remotely for a full week, and now there’s just a single chair in this room. When I called the front desk they said that we were in a grand king but that they understood our disappointment, they offered to have us transfer to a different available room that had the seating area. They showed us the room and this one only had a single window looking to the interior and was incredibly dark so we didn’t take it. I think the photos on their site are deceiving, they just showed their absolute best rooms. I don’t understand the price difference of our room compared to a regular king, the photos of our layout and desk are the same as in the regular king, and I was very disappointed in that.

Our room was smaller than the photos made it seem and compared to a hotel I stayed in last week that was 300 sq ft. It feels much much smaller, I think the layout just wasn’t thought out because there are odd amounts of dead space that just aren’t usable. Another thing I didn’t enjoy was that the sink for the bathroom was outside of the bathroom so no door. No mirror in the bathroom. You can’t get ready without waking your partner.

A complaint I’ve seen on Google here was that the street noise was a little much. I agree, but I liked how the hotel provided a white noise machine and personally knowing Portland I expected some street noise in this area. However, they only provided one set of ear plugs. It’s just these little details that were missed. In other areas it was no soap or body wash in the shower, not enough hooks for towels, no storage for toiletries, not enough racks for hanging clothes, no place to hang a hand towel next to the sink. In the description it said this would be a perfect space for a couple but that is just not the case, there isn’t enough space for 2 people to work and live for 6 days.

Some additional details that weren’t provided on the site if you’re interested:

the parking available isn’t covered or secure, it’s an adjacent lot right out back that is owned by another company but the hotel has paired with them for pricing and ease of purchase. I’m originally from Portland, I was expecting something more secure for sure. Just don’t leave anything in your vehicle and it should be fine. They said their security guard takes a lap through there every night so at least there’s a presence there. There’s also a well-lit gas station and a new build apartment out back and the whole area looks clean and well lit so I was happy to see that.

The on site deli/restaurant is open in the morning through 4 pm and you can get it delivered to your room. Breakfast and sandwiches, super yummy food and coffee. Although they don’t serve dinner you can buy various bottles or wines through a self serve cart at the front desk after 4. There’s enough good food in Portland that I think this is a great solution before their bar opens which looks like it will be gorgeous.

Although the in room space was disappointing and not as described, there was excellent space to work downstairs both in the lobby, in the attached “study hall” where I took some meetings, and then in the deli.

There will be a super cute bar that isn’t yet open. It looks adorable and it would have been nice to have a dinner/drinks solution in the building for sure so that’s an exciting upcoming thing. Although I wouldn’t stay at the grand stark again, I will for sure come by to see the new bar and come by for coffee and breakfast in the...

The overall stay was a thorough disappointment. The pictures look pretty and made for a promising stay but I guess we shouldn’t have believed some stock footage of the nicest room. I booked our room expecting a desk (as in the pictures) but there was none available in there. It was simply a small space big enough for the bed and a small seating cushion. From the moment I checked in, reception staff was disagreeable and unhelpful. I was given no information about the hotel when given my keys beyond the fact that my room was on the 4th floor and it was clear that giving me a smile would’ve pained the receptionist hugely. So I had no idea that there would be coffee in the morning nor what the wifi password might be. Everything got worse from there. I asked if I could be given a room with a desk as booked because I needed to work from there. I was told nonchalantly that they would let me know if one became available but that in the meantime I was welcome to work in the lobby (where there are no plugs by any of the tables by the way). It was clear from the tone of this second receptionist that I was not getting a different room even if I waited. I then asked to modify the card I had booked with but that created a great amount of confusion and the receptionist asked for help from what seemed like her manager who ended up charging me twice and billing the wrong card in the end. Suffice to say I was already quite unimpressed at this point. The rest of the stay was uneventful until the day before check out when I left for lunch for 1h and came back to find that my bins had been emptied and my iPhone charger plugged into the wall was gone. I went down to reception to notify staff of the theft and was met again with great apathy and little interest in the situation. I was told that the cleaner had been contacted and I would be updated soon. I went back later in the afternoon to find another receptionist who had no updates and just said she didn’t know about the situation and she was sorry. On the morning of checkout I enquired again and had to reexplain what had happened as the third receptionist also did not seem to know and was not able to help. Luckily the manager of cleaning staff overheard and came over to speak to me, took the matter seriously and gave me the contact of the hotel manager. When I contacted the hotel manager she was prompt and helpful, the only staff member besides the cleaners’ manager who seemed to care about the clients. I was sent a new charger that unfortunately turned out to be a knock off Amazon brand of the Apple charger that was stolen from me. A full 3 weeks later, I am still waiting for a satisfactory resolution to this mess. Overall, the experience was made terrible by the poor service and apathetic reception staff that was not enclined to do anything to make the stay more enjoyable, quite the contrary. I will not come back and pretty pictures are not enough to make up for...

Stayed here as recommended by the bride and groom (family). It was close to the wedding venue, but warning the neighborhood is gritty. The smell of urine everywhere was unbearable. This is also coming from someone who lived in Oakland for years so a little grit typically doesn't bother me, but this was on another level.

This was not even the worst of the stay though. The hotel staff is TERRIBLE. It literally eliminated anything good about the stay. Someone should teach them how to smile. I have never recieved such poor customer service at any hotel. They refrained from eye contact at all cost and expressed the utmost annoyance at any ask. Well excuse me you're getting paid to work here and I'm paying to stay.

They failed to clean my room one day because of a 'staffing emergency' and left a $20 mini bar credit for things that were collecting dust. I told them I was uninterested in anything and asked if they could provide an alternative solution. They said no to my ask for food at the restaurants because they are all third party and the mini bar credit is all they could do. Seriously??

One of the girls said if I could get creative they would try to accommodate. Why do I need to think of something when they messed up? I asked for a room credit or ride to the airport upon checkout and they declined. I've never ever heard of any hotel not compensating ANYTHING if they made a mistake. Make it right people. It's bottom line courtesy and customer service 101.

When I asked for extra linens, towels, lotion, and toothpaste the staff member seemed like I was inconviencing her by asking for ‘so much’. She also said she didn't know if they had toothpaste even though someone gave me a tube the other evening (none was left for me).

Additionally, they failed to clean my room another day so when I came back I needed to reach out to them again.

My shower twisted and broke the first evening and I couldn't turn it back on. I reached out to the front desk and she sounded extremely annoyed (no surprise). Apparently there was no handyman on site so they couldn't do anything about it and I had to switch rooms. What an inconvenience the day before the wedding!!

The last morning I asked if they had anymore coffee and they said no because they take the coffee at 10, but other mornings it was there well after. They were rude, cold, and annoyed (again, no surprise at this point).

At this point I will be working to get my money back. Avoid this hotel if you would like a pleasant experience in Portland. Unless they completely turnover their entire staff this place is...