Kimpton Hotel Vintage Portland — Hotel in Portland

I stayed at the Kimpton Hotel Vintage because I had training for work and was forced to stay because the company I work for made the reservations. Now I've stayed at Kimpton Hotel Monaco before and had a great experience but my experience here was absolutely miserable. The first night I stayed I went down to the restaurant to order food and was tended to by the waiter, "Cedar". He started off by asking if I had any dietary restrictions, which I do thanks to the fact that I have IBS, I proceeded to tell him that I couldn't have dairy which elicited a look of contempt. I was taken aback but I continued to ask if there was a dish he would recommend, he recommend a pork dish. Again, I have IBS so pork is one of those meats I cannot have and I know this all sounds annoying but try being the person who can't eat all of these things. Without saying this I asked if he had any other suggestions which is when he really started to turn up the attitude. He wouldn't give me another option and said this dish would be the best option for me, well obviously it wasn't but he insisted it was. I became frustrated at this point and asked about a spaghetti dish which he said would work but he then remembered had cheese, he then proceeded to tell I would be fine eating it and that there wasn't enough cheese in it to hurt me, all the while he was increasingly becoming condescending and frustrated with me. Needless to say I left the restaurant almost in tears as well as in shock that someone could be so insensitive and discourteous when it comes to food allergies. Telling someone they can eat something when they clearly can't, is abhorrent and frankly dangerous. When it came for me to check out from my visit I was met with a very rude front desk attendant who seemed rather displeased that I needed to check my bags in with her while I finished my last day of training. I was also given attitude by the valet, or at least I believe that was who it was, with him giving me a look like was inconveniencing him and exclaiming, "All of this is your stuff?!". I tried to brush it off and continued with my check out, although I was more than mortified and embarrassed by the interaction. The front desk attendant proceeded to tell me that I had charges that she would be charging me for and I told her that the company I worked for would be the one covering it, yet she argued that I was over the allotted amount given to me by the company for incidentals. We went back in forth until she finally just charged it to the corporate account, yet still charging me for parking which I had to get fixed after my training was over. I would have to say this is by far the worst experience I have ever had at a hotel and I have been to many. I have never been treated with such disdain while traveling before and the experience left such a bad taste in my mouth that I'm actually for the first time in my life leaving a review. I'm the kind of person who doesn't make a fuss over much and tends to let things go but I honestly felt so upset, frustrated, and angered by my experience I thought it was best that I say something. I hope that in the future I never have to come...

Overall, we had a pleasant stay. I also try to understand the current issues with the hotel industry as COVID-19 has impacted them. From my understanding of the current traveling industry, staffing is a huge issue within the hotel industry, flight industry, and restaurant industries. So, this hotel is a bit understaffed both in the front desk and possibly, even cleaning services. At least during this time, DO NOT EXPECT FIRST CLASS SERVICES and ask to be patient.

The hotel was very pretty, it felt like a bit between modern and a bit historic taste. The happy hour was definitely the mood of, "happy hour", with both a bar open for service and live music playing. I didn't mind the $25 amenity fee going towards that! The $25 amenity fee does include the happy hour and tea and coffee in the morning, but nowadays, a lot of hotels add this on. I am not sure if it can be opted out as it may be hard to track which room cannot have it. During Happy Hour, people don't really clean up after themselves, which makes it a bit sadder mood. Perhaps the hotel can kindly remind guests with a reminder poster to return their glasses to the bar so that the staff doesn't have to do check-in AND clean up after people. As I like to say, "Help others, help you!"

On the 2nd floor, there was the art vending machine, a pool table, conference rooms and, the restrooms. On the basement floor is a wine storage and the fitness center. For a hotel, they had a diverse amount of entertainment, compared to others. They also supplied some umbrellas for you to borrow for those out of town although they are definitely not wind resistant, but Portland doesn't seem to get those too often.

The biggest con is I felt there was a lack of communication or understanding amongst the employees on how to address escalation issues such as billing. Perhaps an escalation issue training should be administered. I did have a billing issue and their phone numbers for the billing and accounting department do not work. I won't go into too many details as it was a big amount of loops of back and forth between IHG and the hotel, but hopefully, the hotel can learn from it and provide even better service.

Despite the con, I think overall, I really did enjoy my stay as this hotel is in a prime location for the best attractions to do in downtown Portland: shopping, powell bookstore, restaurants, bars, NOLA donuts, and more! Their hotel rooms are quite modern and if you can afford the suite, I say do it! It's super roomy and some of them have windows on the roof that are fun to close and open. Although I hate driving in Portland, the Kimpton Vintage Hotel made is fun to be in close proximity of prime attractions so walking was a breeze while also having the option to relax back at the hotel.

If I come back and the service is better, I would not mind revising my review afterwards to provide an update. I look forward to...

honestly, and this is not an exaggeration. I have stayed in more comfortable chain motels then our room at the hotel vintage. I guess to be fair the room offered a private balcony and hot tub, over looking the streets below where late night drinkers mixed among desperate fentanyl users. Let's be real roof top hot tub is really really neat-o and even the fact the deck was gross, unkept, leaking insulation from the wall, poorly lighted and covered in some sort of poor redition of graffiti, which I think was purposely trying to make that area look Urban, idk it was bad. not to mention that the deck had boards that were a little bit warped and sticking up and real easy to trip on. Though hot tub. That being said, IHG had put a real premium price tag on this little novelty, and and looking at the nearly $500 a night ticket, walking into the room was so so very disappointing that I literally watched my partners face go from excited to so so sad. she locked herself in the bathroom. The decor was horrendous mismatched not in the kitchy way, the fridge was blowing hot air, the fixtures were hideous, in the bathroom looked no different than one you would find at a super 8. there was not one luxury The bed wasn't even made properly. Water to go with your single serving coffee pot would be $8. I went to talk to management who offered me a couple snacks and I had a kind $20 off The in-house restaurant, which didn't really cater to vegetarians, in certainly would be more than $20 to dine at. How offers were so insulting, he gave no real resolution, and made me feel wrong for questioning how you can charge $450 a night. The hotel overall was pretty lackluster. and in the morning we found a really sad note sloppily apologizing for the room or something? containing a couple drinks in like a bag of pretzels. I mean, I honestly I'm surprised my girlfriend, who is an IHG member wasn't offered a free night. I mean $450 absurd. Ok, they did let us have a 1pm check out, but what a joke. over the years I've stayed in many PDX hotels, I mean if the room would have been like $250, I might not have even complaind. Even if it was lackluster: rooftop hot tub, but this room was sad kind of ruined what was going to be a pretty rad night. I wouldn't stay there again and honestly if that's what their brand is promoting, I wouldn't consider staying at any kimpton or IHG property unless they were willing to actually apologize to...