The Duniway Portland, a Hilton Hotel — Hotel in Portland

I wanted this stay to be EXTRA special. We were in town to see my favorite artist on NYE, and my 40th birthday was 6 days away. I decided to treat myself.

When choosing a hotel for this visit, I looked at 4 criteria:

Distance to MODA Breakfast included Parking-safety and price Upscale/Luxe experience at a reasonable price.

The Duniway checked ALL the boxes.

We stayed New Years Eve thru January 2nd. I chose The Duniway for many reasons, one being the close proximity to The MODA center. We were in town for Brandi Carlile's NYE Party. The Duniway is only a 1.6 mile Uber ride away, and we took the MAX back to the hotel after the concert. Perfect location! The Duniway is BEAUTIFUL. You are instantly greeted with an impressive lobby that looks into the bar and the restaurant beyond. A rich, dark interior with warm lighting, beautiful nature/dystopian inspired paintings, and surprising funky hidden nicknacks. We had a city view room with 2 queen beds. The beds were cozy and I loved spending time on the window seat or chaise/couch staring out at the city. The bathroom was modern black and white with high-end shampoos, conditioners, lotions, and soaps available. There was no microwave, but they brought one to us! Really liked being able to cast a movie I purchased on Amazon to the enormous TV. Breakfast was to die for. No continental buffet here! (We had the inclusive breakfast package on our room, so not an extra dime beyond our room total was spent on any food mentioned in this review.) It was sit down dining and the waitstaff came to you to take your order. We had the breakfast Banh Mi and holy smokes. So delicious. I had a latte and the blueberry crumb cake both mornings in addition to the Banh Mi. One of the fees towards the room was actually credited back to us to use in their restaurant. $26/day. We were unaware that their restaurant required reservations, so that first night we ate across the street at The Hilton. Because The Duniway is a Hilton hotel, we could use our credits there. It was also a total hit. We spent both nights eating over there. The pool was not very warm. We were only able to stay in it for about 15 minutes. I imagine in the summer it would feel quite pleasant. I only wish they had a hot tub! The staff was incredible. They had answers to every question, microwave and ice bucket were requested and promptly delivered. There were propane heaters in the courtyard lounge area that are not used during the winter season, but they lit them for us so we could hang outside on a chilly evening. On Monday, we arrived at breakfast at 10:30, not knowing that they were closed and only served breakfast until 11 on the weekends. They seated us and served us anyway! Without going into much detail, we had a traumatic encounter with a valet employee. They are contracted out, so not affiliated with Hilton. The head of security, the concierge, the front desk staff, and hotel manager, quite literally held me in their arms while I sobbed. Lou, the hotel manager, is an actual angel and I'm kicking myself for not remembering the name of the sweet gentleman that helped us at the front desk. Lou and the concierge escorted us to our vehicle to ensure our safety after the incident with the valet. I was later informed that that particular valet was fired and banned from all Hilton properties. Parking was $33, safe, and on-site. Much cheaper than any of the other hotels I considered.

I will absolutely be returning and I can't wait!

CONS

The bathroom was not well lit. There was a lighted makeup mirror, but it must have not been working properly because it was so dim.

Fridge was the tiniest mini fridge I've ever seen in a hotel. However, we were able to fit all the snacks we brought-fresh fruit and veg, some drinks, and a couple Stouffers mac n cheese for inevitablelate late-night munchies, and restaurant leftovers so it was ultimately not a problem.

Pool could have been warmer.

Not much to...

I want to preface this review by saying I do not like to write negative reviews or put businesses down. I have worked in the service industry and understand how demanding it can be- so I really try to be realistic in my expectations. However, I feel compelled to write this review so others do not have to experience what I had to; ultimately wasting time during my vacation. I chose to splurge on this hotel, knowing it had great reviews, a convenient location, looked clean in the photos and had several amenities. Originally I was booked for 6 nights but ended up leaving 24 hours into my stay. I will start with the cleanliness- elevators looked like they haven’t been vacuumed in months, hand prints and gunk all over the buttons, spills/stickiness on every threshold of every room. In my room – black/brown residue in the refrigerator, very dirty carpeting, handprints and gunk on the makeup mirror, urine stain on the mattress, chipping paint on the baseboards, broken furniture pieces.

Here is the kicker; I gave the hotel an opportunity to resolve the cleanliness issue. They offered a new room- We were on our way out to dinner and requested that they please check the new room prior to us moving all of our stuff in and we will move when we get back later in the evening. The front desk person acted like that would be a huge inconvenience and said “I guess I could have security go check it”. When we arrived back to the hotel, we received the key for the new room. We went to go check the cleanliness and there was pubic hair in the sink! I was so disgusted I wanted to leave right then and there. The room was also smaller than the one we had- which was a “city view”. I went back down to the front desk, explained my frustrations and stated I would just like to check out the following day. Initially there was no offer to comp my room or discount it, so I was looking at over $450 after only being there for 24 hours (since my arrival was later on day 1 and went into a second day- per hotel checkout). I stayed very calm and voiced my frustrations, offering photos to the “manager” who said “ you don’t need you to attack me”. I was very taken back by that statement because I felt I was keeping very calm given the situation. In the end they took 50% off of my short stay and I was very glad to leave. I ended up staying in an Air BNB and a Marriott hotel for the rest of my visit- in which I was so glad I did.

A few other things we encountered: Rude housekeeper reluctant to give us clean towels (since ours were dirty), broken elevator mechanics, closed bar in lobby during most daytime hours, dirty common areas, housekeeper entering my room while I was sleeping thinking I had already checked out- waking me at 8am, WIFI that did not work (I was trying to work remotely for part of my short stay), problems exiting the parking garage (because the attendant would be MIA)

I don’t know how many times I heard that the hotel was understaffed- so is every other business in Portland! Often times I had seen more than one employee standing around and joking with each other. Excuses are not a good look, when customers complain there should be some level of ownership and acceptance. Management should be reassessed at...

Customer service is almost the worst I’ve ever seen at any hotel from the lowest rated to the highest rated hotels in my travels. I travel for work constantly so I’m in a hotel every week or two anywhere from coast to coast. And I can honestly say the hotel customer service at the front desk lacks. They have a parking garage which was nice for the rent a car. And walking into the hotel everything I expect from a Hilton affiliated hotel. That was until I checked in I had no problem getting a room but the front desk didn’t and refused to explain anything beyond payment and giving me my room key. I wasn’t informed of checkout time, WiFi password, if parking garage was free for hotel guest or if I need to pay, nothing about room service or even if they offered breakfast. Trust me I asked and I was given a dead stare and silence. Anyways me and my co worker got to our room which was pretty nice besides the fact the bathroom wasn’t properly cleaned. And ontop of not being properly cleaned the last guest used soap was still in the bathroom. At that point I just wanted sleep and try to not get angry about it. Well the next day I decided to request another night since I didn’t want to try and find another hotel that day. Well I was told the next next was gonna cost extra because. I was paying for another night at 9am so I didn’t think it was a late checkout. But didn’t want to argue beyond their because answer. And then after paying they told me I need to get out of my room and they will tell me when I get another room I can check into. And I asked if they wanted my contact information and they recited a email that was not even close to mine. So guess last night front desk just entered in a random email and not ask what mine was. Anyways after taking our luggage back to the rent a car and going to work we didn’t hear a word back from the hotel. So after work when we got back to the hotel we had to be given our new room number and the Front desk receptionist refused to change our key cards for the new room for about 5 mins until he did. And got a room that the bedding was not cleaned since we can see potato chips in one of the beds. But atleast the bathroom was cleaned in this room. What I’m getting at is the customer service is either a bunch of new hires that don’t know there job and basics or this hotel has highly unprofessional staff. And the cleaners fail to notice obvious stuff. If there is something left behind in the corner of the room I don’t care but if there is anything wrong with the bed and bathroom I’m not impressed. I’m only leaving 2 stars and not one because they do have great potential it is a fantastic hotel by design but seriously could fire some staff or train them better at there jobs. Oh the hotel refused to give me a receipt in paper or electronic and I have an extra $120 tacked on from the price I was told I had to pay. So I have no idea what that is but thankful my company is willing to accept my bank statement for compensation since this hotel refused to give...