OR Portland Avalon Hotel and Spa Greater Downtown

[Teresa'sdreams]

Booked this "greater downtown" hotel through Hotwire and was horribly disappointed! The hotel is a good 2-3 miles from downtown and isolated! Not even a convenience store anywhere close to buy a soda. No vending machines. Taxi fare is around 18 dollars one way. There is a shuttle with limited hours that runs to downtown that you can book. Parking is 15 dollars a night.

The hotel itself is in good repair with a nice fireplace to warm yourself in the lobby. There is a slightly overpriced restaurant next door, but the service was great and the food delish. :)

Okay... now about the rooms. Ours was a handicapped accessible "hillside" room. It overlooked a warehouse and an alley.I didn't see a hillside... It had a queen sized bed, loveseat, desk, and tv cabinet. There was a mini - mini snack bar with the normal outrageous prices. The bed was comfortable, but the blanket was disgusting. The bathroom had no tub and the shower was dirty. The water glass was chipped. There was nice soap, bath gel, shampoo, and conditioner, but they didn't refreshen or replace anything the second day. The towels were rough and worn.

We called and asked the front desk clerk for another room and he flat out told us that they give the Hotwire customers "the last pick of the rooms". He also told us that they save all the view rooms and the nicer rooms for guests that pay more. I repeated his comments back to him twice to make certain I was understanding him correctly. The hotel manager quickly denied it the next day... hmm... my bet is on the evening desk clerk. Why would he make that up?

There is a spa with more overpriced services, but the people we saw leaving it looked very happy.

I would say the best thing about the Avalon is the complimentary breakfast. It is served on each floor by the elevator. There was fresh fruit, yogurt, cereal, cheese, peanut butter, and a sweet type of bread. Also, a special coffee maker that made individual cups of excellent coffee. It really was the highlight of our stay. Sadly.

I would not ever recommend this hotel to anyone.

[varina8]

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.