Homewood Suites by Hilton Portland — Hotel in Scarborough

Our stay at Homewood Suites Portland (Maine) was nice. The rooms were great. Very clean and spacious plus having the suite was such a welcomed addition. We had a fridge, freezer, and kitchenette which was stocked with everything we could need.

We had a king room with a pull-out couch. Our room only had the pillows for the pull-out couch so I had to call the front desk to request the bed sheets to be brought up. I was happy I checked for everything before we went out for the evening. There's nothing worse than being tired after a long day of travel and wanting to get your kid to bed but then have to wait.

The king bed was very comfortable and had outlets on each side of the bed (this seems to be something not many hotels think about apparently). The nightstands had enough room for my husband to set his CPAP machine up plus some extra space (another thing some hotels are lacking - large enough nightstands).

The hotel has a pool and hot tub. The pool was small and water was very murky. Almost like there was a lot of chemicals and the filtration wasn't on. I don't know enough about pools to know for sure, but either way we avoided the pool and just spent 10-15 minutes in the hot tub. The hot tub worked well and was relaxing, and didn't have the same murky water as the pool.

I read a lot of reviews before booking this hotel saying the breakfast was great and had a lot of options. I actually felt the opposite about the breakfast offerings. They had tortillas to make breakfast tacos which is a fun thing to offer, but I felt the breakfast itself was lackluster. The eggs were very wet, hash browns were tiny overcooked discs (which didn't even look like hash browns, I thought they were weird sausage patties!). From what I saw they only had pork meat offerings and they were pretty flavorless. They did have the standard bread, bagels, cereal, and yogurt as well but everything felt very dry and almost stale. We each made a plate, ate what we could but ended up grabbing some breakfast items elsewhere.

Overall, the stay was pleasant and the location was great. I would consider staying here in the future if I were to return to the area, just with different expectations for...

Let's start by saying that Tristan and the polish/eastern europe desk lady were very nice and helpful.. .other then that it was a terrible experience. If you get put in room 329 be aware that this room has a TERRIBLE smell that management is aware of and yet does nothing but spray a strong febreeze before you check in. A few hours later that will dissipate and you'll be as grossed out as we were! Told they were fully booked so sorry, you have to stay in stenchville - horrendous service. Lucky the one nice desk lady did find us space eventually (not sure how it miraculously appeared).. In addition to to that awful stench (that nobody should have to stay in.. let alone for $300/night), the breakfast is SUB-PAR to the extreme. The same thing every day.. it got to the point where we stopped eating it! No waffle maker, or pancakes, or fresh fruit (other then apples or bananas - BORING it was berry season!!!). How can this hotel charge so much per night for such sub-par service. The carpets are circa 2005 and the hotel hasn't had an update since then im sure. We DID like the bed, i was comfy, but after that smell situation we were so turned off of the entire place! There are SO many options for hotels in the area, the Marriot across the street looks much nicer, and you can find an amazing Hilton Canopy downtown Portland - worth the extra money by FAR! Having management know a room is basically unliveable and still putting paying customers in there is just egregious - take the carpets out, change the furniture, paint, DO SOMETHING about it!! We heard another lady (after we had been moved out of there) also at front desk complaining about the stench in 329.. come ON! AVOID AT ALL COSTS! Btw, Sally was so passive aggressive and I saw her be incredibly rude to another customer. She asked how breakfast was and i told her "honestly the coffee is very bad and weak" and she said: well tell the kitchen about it eye roll... that's TERRIBLE? why ask me if you don't care. Btw i did tell the kitchen that it was very weak and the lady told me it's cause it's medium...

I cannot recommend booking a stay with this hotel. I booked a last minute room at Homewood Suites in Portland, Maine through Hotels.com due to a weather related flight cancellation. Within 2-hours the flight was cleared for takeoff and we were reboarded onto the plane. At this point I contacted the hotel directly to explain the situation and to let them know that I would like to cancel my reservation. The person that answered the phone that evening was rude and borderline combative. I was told that because I had booked the stay through a third party there was nothing that could be done and canceling the stay was not an option because I had missed the 1-hour cancellation window. When I questioned the policy I was hung-up on. At this point the plane is on the runway and I could not attempt to make additional phone calls. I contacted Hotels.com when I arrived at my destination to request a refund. They reached out to hotel management two times on my behalf to request a refund. Both requests where denied. The reason for the denial was their strict 1-hour cancellation policy and they stated the hotel that evening was completely booked. This I am skeptical of because when I was booking the stay through Hotels.com it showed that all but one room type was available to reserve. Due to their lack of customer service during my initial call, while I was stuck in an airport 2,500 miles from my home concerned about where my wife and I would stay for the next 24-48 hours, to what I feel was a fabricated excuse as to why my refund was denied, I cannot recommend booking a stay at this hotel. With so many other nice options in the Portland, ME area due yourself (and your family if they are along for the ride) a favor and...