My best friend and I book a room at the Avalon Hotel and Spa (Greater Downtown) last weekend through Hotwire with a winning bid of $87, and it turned out to be a good value for us. The Avalon is a modern "boutique" hotel located south of the University District right on the Willamette River. The surrounding area is an office park, but there's a well-used nature trail that starts just north of the hotel and runs for about a mile and a half south. I met lots of dog-walking locals Sunday morning and saw heron, violet-green swallows and a couple of red-winged blackbirds. Our hillside room was clean and well-kept, with robes and nice quality toiletries. The bed and pillows were fresh and comfy. Same goes for the towels. There was a small balcony that looked over the back of the office building next door to a hillside of river-view homes (nothing exciting), and we had a sliver-view of the downtown highrises. The gym was a real gym with a studio for yoga and stretching, plus plenty of cardio equipment and free weights. There was free wireless and free HBO. Continental breakfast is served on each floor from 7-10 a.m. and was plentiful — several kinds of fresh muffins, two kinds of juice, fruit (whole and sliced), yogurt, cereal and coffee (caf and decaf). When I came back from my walk at 9 a.m., they were restocking. Overall, the staff was great. We used the free shuttle twice; once to pick us up from dinner and check in, and once to go to brunch after checkout. We never waited more than 10 minutes (we did book our ride to brunch at the time we checked in). Now for the drawbacks: It isn't in the downtown and there's not much right nearby except for the hotel restaurant. The spa, though clean, is starting to show some signs of wear (missing tiles in a couple of showers) and the sauna is on a timer. If it hasn't used in several hours it can take a long time to warm up. If I could do it over, I'd have turned it on for 40 minutes while I unpacked, then go down and use it.