This is a case in which my pursuit of a great deal resulted in a number of awkward moments. My daughter and I were coming to Portland, specifically Delta Park, for a sports tournament. While for previous events we had stayed at a chain hotel, I saw a screaming rate at the Portlander, recent renovations, a La-Z-Boy recliner! yes!, and went for it. Movie theater on site? Restaurants? Other enhanced amenities? We can definitely do without the indoor pool, etc., plus it's so so close!

Well, stop at the part where the description says TRUCK STOP. And if you have any choice whatsoever, do NOT take a room in the east wing. The even numbered rooms are subjected to live country music from the lounge next door every Friday and Saturday nights, and the odd numbered rooms have to deal with idling semis [which is expected because it's a truck stop ...]

Furnshings aspired to be "better" but fell short. The AC unit in our room worked well! but it was anchored on the wall with a wrap of electrical tape. The bathroom had clearly been remodeled recently with a nice laminate flooring, but after your shower if you let the door swing open it yielded a distinct puddle in the doorway. The shower itself was very clean, with nice workmanship in the tiling, but there should have been a light in the stall itself.

Overall cleanliness passed my test -- shower as mentioned, toilet + sink, floors in general [some carpet stains in front of the fridge], clean microwave & fridge, flat surfaces wiped clean. But unfortunately we were in an even numbered room so kept up until midnight with music and exiting patrons, and worse we were near the entrance so we were privy to smokers' conversations. [sigh]

Pluses: The housekeepers were very friendly, and upon check in the front desk attendant was very responsive. Convenient location, convenience store + restaurant + $3 cinema [we didn't get to see either movie, but it was nice that it was there if we could!] General cleanliness, price. La-Z-Boy! Free Wi-Fi

Minuses: noise. noise. low-rent furnishings. It just wasn't a good fit for my daughter & me.

Net: I owe her an apology and unfortunately won't return.

How this place became a host hotel for a 12 yr old girls Regional Softball tournament is beyond me. We chose this place because it was a host hotel and advertised as being close to the fields. My Bad in relying on the hosting softball association's recommendation, and not checking this out a little more clearly before making reservations. Not only were there some other, nicer accomodations as close or even closer to the fields, but this place is definitely NOT kid friendly. It is a truck stop, full of truckers, some of whom eyeballed our 12 year old girls in a way that made me very uncomfortable. (And no, I know that not all truckers are that way - I have a couple friends who are truckers and they don't behave that way. But even 1 of them looking at the girls that way is unacceptable, much less several of them doing so.) Rooms were very dirty....my bathroom floor was not swept one time during our stay. My socks were black each evening from the dirty carpet and floors in the room - I should have slept with my shoes on. I'm pretty sure all they did when they "cleaned" the rooms was make the beds, empty the garbage, and remove the towels. As the prior poster mentioned, we went to the hotel restaurant to eat, and were told by the Manager that we would have to wait to be seated until after others left because they refused to open up the empty half of the restaurant (which is all open....would have been very easy to walk the extra 2 feet to the other side). First they said they didn't want us to be neglected, then she said "Well, it's Thursday. I don't have enough servers to wait on you." Even had we waited, our party would not have been able to sit together as the open part of the restaurant didn't have anywhere to put a party of more than 4. The front desk tried to overcharge me twice - once for my first night's room, and then once again when I went to buy 2 more breakfast vouchers that were needed for the mini-buffet they had put out for the softball players. First she tried to keep my change and tell me that the charge was $10 a piece, then she didn't know how to add up 2 - $6 buffets and give me change for a $20 without using a calculator. Even my children can do that in their heads. The beds were horribly hard and squeaky. Walls are thin, and you can hear adjoining rooms' conversations....and other things that children shouldn't have to hear. Lots of freeway noise from I-5. Even worse was that the gas station right outside the front of my room. Made it impossible for us to sleep well. To top it off, I watched what was very clearly a prostitute being taken up to a room in the elevator. I don't blame the hotel itself for that as that is not promoted by them and out of their control, but it is a measure of the type of clientele they attract that clearly screams Stay Away if you have children. Rooms are pretty cheap....but still overpriced for what you get in my opinion.

Rooms were very dirty, tried to get seating in the restaurant and they would not seat a party of 13, even though half the restaurant was empty. Lots of fleas in the rooms, cigarette burns on the bedding and stains on the carpet. Not a great place to take children.

This is the third time I have stayed at the Portlander Inn. I chose it as our hotel for our current trip because of the amenities on site (plenty of parking, gas station, theatre, restaurant, convenience store, etc.) As in previous stays we found our room to be clean and safe with a microwave and mini-fridge.

Unfortunately this stay did not go as smoothly as previous ones.

I was very careful when I made my reservation online to reserve a queen room with a La-z-Boy recliner--my husband has back trouble and it's often more comfortable for him to sleep in a chair rather than flat on the bed.

We were due to arrive at approximately 9pm on the first night of our reservation and I called ahead to the hotel to confirm the reservation and to let them know we would be arriving later in the evening. I was told by the front desk that our late arrival wasn't an issue.

When we checked in we were given our room keys for a room on the second floor and headed off--unfortunately the receptionist failed to tell us that we were on the second floor in the East building (on the far side of the property next to the truck stop) rather than the MAIN building. After carrying all of our belongings upstairs only to find that our room didn't exist we were informed by housekeeping that our room was in the other building. We carried all of our belongings over to the other building only to find that our room keys did not open the door. Another trip BACK to the front desk revealed that the hotel was having trouble with their room key coding machine. We were given two new keys and a security guard accompanied us BACK AGAIN to the building to make sure the door would open.

Unfortunately when we finally arrived to our room we found that it was not only the wrong type of room (two full beds with no recliner) but ALSO directly in front of the truck stop's gas pumps. At a busy 24 hour truck stop I knew that this location was going to be an issue.

Another trip BACK to the front desk confirmed that there were no other rooms available. At this point I was fairly confident that our room had been given away because of our late arrival and the fact that we had made the reservation online at a discounted room rate.

I showed the receptionist the copy of my reservation that clearly listed which type of room we had requested and was told that it must have been some sort of computer error and that she didn't know how this could have happened. This was little comfort as it was now 10pm, we had been on the road for 14 hours, and we were facing trying to sleep with little chance of a quiet night. The receptionist said that they should be able to move us the next day but that confirmation of the move would have to wait until her manager arrived at 9am the next morning.

The next day the hotel did change us to the type of room we had reserved--on the quieter side of the East building--but only after I called to speak with the manager. I was very disappointed that this was not a smooth transaction.

The last two times I had stayed at the Portlander I made reservations over the phone--this time I made them online. I think that this may have been the difference since the front desk staff seemed uncomfortable working with an online reservation.

I may have saved a dollar or two by booking online, but I am unsure how willing I am to subject my husband and myself to this type of potential uncertainty in the future. IF we stay at the Portlander again I will make sure to clarify that the room I am reserving is in the main building--and would suggest that anyone else considering a reservation do the same.