I stayed at the Benson for a night during a interview process. The staff was very nice, the food in the morning was quite good. It is an old/antique hotel, but very well maintained. They also have memory foam beds, which were surprisingly comfortable.
Wyndham
Booking.com
Booking.com
The Benson Hotel was in a great area of Portland. I spent a lot of time exploring the Pearl District and really enjoyed the neighbourhood.
The hotel itself is a bit tired looking -- particularly the hallways and elevators. My room was pretty dark and the bedding was scratchy. The room service menu didn't appeal to me, but that was okay because there are lots of restaurants nearby.
The staff were the stars of this place. The concierge gave me some great pointers for where to go and what to eat based on my interests. I went to all of his recommendations and he was bang on.
The hotel also did some nice touches for visitors -- they had iced tea and nibbles available in the lobby. I think they did wine receptions as well, but I missed them.
We loved this hotel. As the title suggests, the redwood lobby is simply breathtaking. The hotel has a classy ambiance that leaves the impression that you are staying in an elegant, western city hotel in the 1920s.
Our suite was enormous by any hotel's standards. We had our two children with us and the hostess asked them what kind of pet they would like to have in our room. That has never happened before. Thankfully, they chose a bowel of fish.
There was nightly live music at the bar. The beds, pillows and linens were all first rate. The only reason I gave the hotel 4 instead of 5 stars is that it is not up to the same level of richness and elegance of a Four Seasons or some of truly spectacular hotels around the world, but it is close.
The location is great being central in beautiful downtown Portland.
Chaotic lobby with average front desk service. However, the concierge was one of the best I've experienced.
They offered a lunch buffet but only had one person working that doubled as a server and waitress. I wanted to halve her tip but figured that given the circumstances, she was doing ok.
Room was average, although the Tempurpedic bed gave me a backache (they're not for everyone). Overall, decent hotel, decent service...but definitely not the rave.
One more note, please note that they charge for EVERYTHING (unlike most hotels these days). My toothbrush was $2, as was the toothpaste. The internet in the business center was $5 per 15 minutes, so take your laptop!!!
We recently stayed at the Benson Hotel in downtown Portland, Oreogn. It is a lovely old hotel, but we didn't experience the 4-Star service and ambiance that we expected. We arrived at the hotel at 3:00pm and our room wasn't ready. We left for an hour and came back at 4:00pm and it still wasn't ready. We had to beg to get into the room as soon as possible since we were meeting friends for dinner and needed to freshen up. We had booked a junior suite and the room itself was lovely, but very dark and even with all of the lights on it felt dark. The bathroom was one of the smallest and poorest I have experienced in a hotel of this caliber. In the morning, there wasn't even a newspaper at our door and when we went downstairs for breakfast, the newspapers were strewn all over the lobby and we couldn't even find one complete paper to read. The breakfast in the dining room was very good and the sevice was also good. I think it is a beautiful old hotel, but they need to fine-tune their services to make the 4-Star mark.
Quite simply this is one of our favourite hotels in the USA. It manages to be upmarket without ever being stuffy; the staff are first rate; the location is unbeatable and we love the atmosphere in the public rooms.
After I getting a room on Priceline I contacted the hotel direct and paid $50 per night to upgrade to a suite, a strategy that I have employed whenever I have stayed at The Benson. I ended up with a lovely spacious, beautifully appointed room for a very reasonable price.
