The Porter Portland, Curio Collection by Hilton — Hotel in Portland

We were in Portland for its famous and huge 4-day Waterfront Blues Festival on the July 4th weekend. The Porter, 3 short blocks away, was ready for the increased demand.

The lobby has a good traffic flow. Four roomy elevators meant we never waited more than 2 or 3 minutes. The front desk folks fulfilled our every request with a smile. Valets were swift and friendly but never made us feel rushed. It was 100° out, but our car always arrived cool inside because the valet had turned up the a/c. Nice touch.

Our ROOM was sparkling clean with plush beds, many pillows, soft sheets and thick fluffy towels. Bedside lamps have dimmers, adjust for height and angle, and are actually bright enough to read by! Black-out drapes fully darken the room.

The walk-in shower has simple controls, good water pressure, and it’s big enough to dry off in with the 5-foot-long bath towel. Note: I loved the peppermint shampoo. My companion likes mint only in a julep.

Wi-Fi was fast, free, and 100% reliable for us, with easy-to-recall passwords. Numerous electrical outlets over countertops and on both sides of the nightstand are easy to reach without bending or kneeling.

There are few drawers but way more desk, table and counter surface than you usually get at this price point. The desk chair had ideal lumbar support for me; your spine may feel otherwise, of course.

There's enough floor space to do pushups and RDLs, plus they have a pool and fitness center. Also an awesome rooftop bar: Something for everyone!

It’s very quiet with excellent, nearly silent air conditioning. We could barely hear Housekeeping’s vacuum cleaner, and heard nothing else from the hall or rooms next to, above, or below us. User-friendly, generous ice machines occupy their own soundproof rooms by the elevators. Yes!

Tip: Our ice bucket was tiny. Maybe bring a cooler or a sturdy plastic bag if you love ice.

VALUE: The very helpful Aiden at the front desk arranged our late checkout for what struck me as a surprisingly low fee. Also, the café serves a 16-oz. latte for only $4.50. I conclude from these 2 data points that The Porter isn't padding their bottom line by over-charging for every little thing. Well done, Hilton! Take note, Corporate America: This is how to build customer loyalty and goodwill.

FOOD: Room service offers breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, desserts (including veggie-vegan options) that are reasonably priced from $3 (a single egg) to $25 (grilled salmon, mango salsa and rice). Margaritas are $10.

The café-deli offers many, mostly pre-made breakfast and lunch items like overnight oats, sandwiches, fresh fruit, chips & cookies. There’s a spacious light-filled seating area or get your food to go.

I was especially impressed by the café’s Molly. She made my custom latte the first day and remembered it when I went back the next morning. “How was it?” she asked. “Did you want another like that or something different?” What a memory!

Even more amazing, on a suddenly busy Saturday, Molly was doing it all – cheerfully answering questions, repeating orders to ensure she got them exactly right, making drinks, toasting bagels, heating pastries, handling payments, etc. while her other co-worker was on a brief break. Though quick and efficient, Molly still smiled and looked each person in the eye, seemingly delighted to see them.

IMO, she’s a sterling example of what Hilton’s hiring manager obviously requires of every potential employee – a deep understanding of, and sincere commitment to, old-fashioned CUSTOMER SERVICE. I hope you get to meet her before some savvy entrepreneur lures her away. If not, don’t fret – Molly, though clearly special, was also a typical Porter team member. They all listen well and execute flawlessly time after time after time (Good work, HR).

I have stayed at Motel 6s, Marriotts, and Manhattan hotels that charge $1400 a night. I've been treated shabbily, I've been treated well, but I've never been treated better than at The Porter. My companion and I both enjoyed our visit immensely. We hope you have a...

The hotel is incredible and the location is perfect. This was a business trip, my company was paying for everything. The trip was booked through expedia and was paid in full(except "incidentals")which we now know was a horrible choice as the credit card information would not be on file with the hotel. (didnt know this prior) I had my company card information but not the physical card, which they couldnt accept (understandable) They needed a credit card on file for "incidentals" (security deposit/room service ext.) I arrived at almost midnight no one from my company would be awake to provide this and due to my personal situation I could not provide a personal card of my own. The gentleman by the name of Dan was kind enough at this moment to understand my situation and let me into my room with the agreement I would provide the card information the next morning. I was extremely appreciative of this. The next morning, I went straight down to the desk to start the process to provide the CC information, I waited about 10 minutes no one should up and I had to proceed to head into work so I figured I would call. Which I did through this next day I spoke with someone a few times, The first was to provide the email address to send the letter of authorization for, which my company did immediately, I even then called the hotel and spoke with someone and asked if they had everything the needed because I wanted to be sure I could charge my dinner to the room this night, different gentleman on the phone (not Dan) Informed me they did receive the letter of authorization and everything was good. Perfect! Amazing! I wanted to do right by Dan which is why I pushed so hard to get this done with my company. Unfortunately later the evening it would not be so good. At almost MIDNIGHT my hotel phone rang and it was Dan, yelling at the TOP of his lungs "WE HAD AN AGREEMENT YOU WERE TO HAVE COME FIRST THIS MORNING AND PROVIDE CARD INFORMATION AND NOW YOU ARE CHARGING ROOM SERVICE TO YOUR ROOM! YOU NEED TO GET DOWN HERE AND PROVIDE A CC NOW!!" I told him, there's some kind of mistake my company provided the CC info and he said "Well Maybe im not looking in the right spot let me check" he hung up and within a few minutes he called me back and said "The letter of authorization doesnt not cover incidentals it only covers the room" I said the room was already paid for with Expedia how were you able to charge the room twice? He explained to me there is a certain section for "incidentals" and the company did not select it so I needed to go down an provide a CC (at this point it was PAST MIDNIGHT), I told them this is a mistake, they are covering the incidentals and even then when I called earlier to ensure they got what the needed I told them specially I wanted to be sure I can charge my dinner to the room and they said "yes no problem" Dan told that was a mistake and I needed to go down and give them a CC, he then proceeded to say "YOURE AN ADULT HOW DO YOU TRAVEL TO WITH NO MONEY!!" Which got me completely hysterical as he doesn't know my situation... My company was paying for everything, There was a mistake they they didn't "check" the "incidentals" part but also the mistake of the gentleman that I spoke to earlier in the day that ensured me they had everything they needed. Luckily my company was aware of the situation from the night before so they were on standby this time for anything I needed. Which we were able to get sorted out this same night. Ive worked in property management for about 10 years, from leasing agent to house keeping manager. I have never been talked to nor have I ever spoken to anyone the way Dan spoke to me. If i known one of my team members spoke to a guest this way they would no longer be employed. I work for one of the largest property maintenance companies in the Portland area and will be traveling frequently to Portland, I would have love to make this hotel my second home but unfortunately I would never return here nor will I recommended this to anyone I know from my team or...

The Porter Portland is a beautiful hotel located in the heart of downtown Portland and even allows pets to stay with you for a small fee. I am a Hilton Honors (HH) gold member (which doesn't get you much at US Hilton locations most of the time, more so at international Hilton locations, but it does indicate your loyalty to the brand) and as such I prefer to do as much as possible in the app including checking in and receiving a digital key, bypassing the front desk whenever possible. I checked in on the app about 24 hours ahead of my arrival and found it odd when I'm a half hour outside of Portland, 2 hours after check in and I had not been pushed a digital key yet. It took calling the front desk 3 times to get someone to answer the phone and when someone did finally answer, she was pleasant enough, but tried to tell me the reason I hadn't been pushed a digital key yet was because the hotel was 100% occupied. Okay, fair enough, but I had been checked in for 23 hours, am HH Gold - I'm not the category of guest that should be getting 'walked' from a property because of poor inventory management. Once she looked me up, I was quickly assigned a room (an upgrade even - which HH Gold are supposed to get when available)... but again, for a 4 star property, why did I have to call 3 times to get the phone answered AND to get a room assignment? Once upstairs the room was beautiful with a great view! A lot of these boutique hotels put form before function... so the bathroom is separated from the rest of the room with these beautiful, but not very functional barn doors that are hard to operate, do not close all the way, make a lot of noise and let a lot of light bleed out which is problematic if you and your partner's sleep schedules are a couple hours off. A lot of these boutique hotels have moved to these weird floor drains in their showers that don't seem to be able to keep up with the flow of water and ends up making a mess in the bathroom. We ate at the restaurant on the top floor and it's really a space that is in search of an identity... a bar, that they also want to double as a restaurant that's trying to be a night club. The food is way over priced, pretentious and lacking inspiration... I would really call it over priced bar snacks. We had a $25-$30 'Steak Bites' with a chimichurri sauce and what was served was uninspiring, poorly cooked, dry and a cut of steak that isn't worth that kind of money. Also not worth the money? Their daily valet parking rate.... Depending on what is going on event wise in Portland you may find cheaper self park options in one of the nearby garages including one less than a block away that is owned by the city of Portland and charged us $12 to park from dinner time on Saturday night to lunch time on Sunday. One of the things that does make this a 4 star property is the pool/sauna/steam space... gorgeous, well maintained and the reason why I select these kind of properties. My one note would be that the pool doesn't open until 9a.... Why not 7a? I was ready to swim some laps at 7a, but the pool was closed for 2 more hours... there is no logical purpose for this as it is separated by multiple floors from other guest spaces. One thing I noticed in reading other reviews is that they seem to have trouble with multiple elevators being out of service... The night we checked in, they all seemed to be working even if there was a little bit of a wait due to the traffic going to the night club on the top floor. On Sunday they seemed to be down to 1 elevator and we barely made it back up from the pool. At check out time there was a line down the hall for the elevator and we elected to take the stairs 12 floors instead of wait. So this property is hit and miss, but I think it has earned its 4 stars and if they can do anything to address the various other issues, it really could be a fantastic hotel. I would stay here again depending on point redemption rates, but will also be looking to see what else is available next time we find ourselves in Portland...