The Royal Sonesta Portland Downtown

I would suggest avoiding this hotel at all cost. The location of the hotel is in a part of town that should make any out of towner feel uncomfortable. The hotel, while decorated in a fun unique way is dated: you have to request a refrigerator, the bathrobes have tears and holes in them, the heat in the room didn’t with the first half of the stay, and the room phone didn’t work the entirety of my stay. I mentioned all of these to the front desk multiple times with no solution offered. The worst part is they don’t care about keeping you out in the cold. I had an issue with my apartment and needed to find a place to stay. I had a card on file and would check in nightly to re register my room key and (so I thought) settle the balance. 4 days into my stay i was told I would have to settle my balance in order to extend my reservation. I was confused but was also told my card had been charged 100 only one night so I thought it was in regards to that. I passed by the front desk multiple times a day and not ONCE was I stopped and informed of a major balance owed. No email. No contact. Only after checking in was I told I owed in excess of 600$!! Shocked but still wanting to stay there I had a family member help and they were sent a credit card authorization form. I called the front desk and told them I’d like to pay in full for the night while we were settling the debt. They agreed and mentioned making sure the incidental charge was covered, which it was. Only after booking through a 3rd party site, paying in full, and arriving at site was I informed I would not be granted a key. I was livid as I was told it would not be a problem. They wouldn’t budge. I had spent the only money I had to pay for the room in full and was told I was basically on my own. The crazy part is - when I called the first night I asked the guy at the front desk if they price match as I know hotels prefer you book via them and not third party. He told me I should absolutely book directly with them - so imagine my surprise when I discover that by booking through a 3rd party website (in addition to paying their asinine 30 a night fee) my balance owed would be less than what I owed ! Even with a few nights of payment clearing the total amount I owed was almost double what I would have paid for the entire stay on a 3rd party. They should have no issue believing the front desk guy told me as such because when I checked in he never once gave me any information, didn’t check my id, told me about any fees or amenities, and straight up mislead me so I’d book through them and owe at an almost 200% markup. TLDR: issues I bought up were ignored. I was mislead about booking direct. I wasn’t informed of an outstanding balance until it had racked an exuberant amount. I was told I could make a separate reservation. Paid for said reservation only to be left out in the literal cold. This place doesn’t care about their guest at all. They only care about milking you. Avoid at all cost.

This is a great hotel. The room is very spacious and very well appointed and decorated. The bathroom is also good with everything needed. The location is quite convenient downtown near restaurants. We would most certainly stay here again when in the area.

I stayed here for 2 nights this week on my first visit to Portland. The location is excellent. Very handy for all the downtown attractions, bars and with great public transport links. I read some reviews raising concerns about safety, but I felt perfectly safe on the street outside the hotel. The staff were all fantastic. Everyone I met was extremely friendly and chatty. The decor is amazing. If you want modern and bright it won't be for you, but I loved the dark tones and classic designs. My 9th floor suite was clean and spacious, though more a large room than a true suite. It was spotlessly clean and the bed and seating areas were comfortable. However, there were a number of negatives too. The en suite, whilst well designed, had seen better days. The shower pressure wasn't great and the temperature fluctuated. Also, the cold tap at the sink often chucked out hot water. There was no daily housekeeping service provided which when you're paying full-service hotel prices is just cheap and frankly unreasonable. There's no real facilities other than a fitness centre (which was well equipped) and a restaurant which is, more often than not, only open for breakfast. It does open for dinner and a bar service 3 days a week but not on the days I was there. I know there are lots of places to go out nearby, but I can't be the only person who likes to catch up on emails over a beer in the hotel bar, surely? Also, I had breakfast one morning and the service was lacklustre and the food tasted OK but it was as if someone had emptied a whole salt cellar on top of it. There's also a hefty "destination fee" of $35 per day from which the only obvious benefit is a daily $15 room credit on top of things like free WiFi which should already be included in the room rate. I'd be far more inclined to spend more in the hotel if I didn't feel I was being ripped off already, so I'll never understand these resort/destination fees. I know they're becoming more commonplace in the U.S. but why not just whack the room rate up to cover it? That way no one will be annoyed at the extra charge which doesn't really give you anything extra. Anyway, all in all, it's a very nice hotel which needs to work on what they offer guests.

Nadyah works in valet and security, she is the best and friendliest person to sit and chat with. She’s great with recommendations and is genuinely so helpful and so nice. We absolutely adored her. The staff here is also friendly, the room and hotel is very beautiful and unique.

My stay here was quite decent. I usually prefer more hotels with more modern decor, but my stay was very comfortable. The location was very central to everything I wanted to do in Portland. I didn't love the $35 resort fee, but it does seem to be common practice in Portland for many hotels