This place was fabulous. Friendly, spacious, with small suites instead of standard rooms. First class (via Holiday Inn) all the way. Absolutely no problems at all. Just beautiful.

This is my second visit to this hotel. The facility is nice, but both visits had issues. The last time here, a fire alarm went off in the early morning - not the hotel's fault, but the lack of communication from hotel personnel was disappointing.

This time a housekeeper knocked on my door to see if I was checking out in the morning, but didn't understand what I told her. The worst part was checking out. We waited patiently while a large group and another individual monopolized 2 front desk clerks for 15-20 minutes, without so much as an acknowledgment to us from either of the clerks. Having worked in the service industry I know that a well timed acknowledgement tells the person waiting that you will be with them soon, and also gently nudges the person they are waiting on to finish their business (in this case - a review of what to do in Portland). I finally had to interrupt, and was told "we try to make everyone happy". He needs to learn how to accomplish that.

The hotel is located a short drive from many things in the Portland area.

My family and a relative's family stayed in two different rooms on the fifth floor, from Aug. 11 - Aug. 13 (2007). We had pretty much the same experience.

What was good:
The free breakfast was ok (nothing special, but it did the job.) The breakfast consisted of cereals, bagels, fruit, etc.

The front desk staff was friendly.

Not so good:
The tub did not drain well, so the shower would fill up the tub. In addition to that, the shower water would not heat up very well, so most showers were lukewarm.

We asked for linens for the pull-out bed and we were brought sheets and a very damp blanket.

The worst part was the maid service. Two of the pillows did not have pillow cases -- so we left them out on the bed expecting the maid to put some on -- wishful thinking. Our maid didn't even replace the sliver of soap in the tub so we had to ask the front desk for soap on our second night.

Other details:
We had a king suite. The room was fine, but be warned that there is no separate room with a door -- the suite is one big room with a bed on one side and a couch/tv/kitchenette on the other.

A positive about the room was that it was spacious with separate living and sleeping areas. The hotel staff was friendly.

But the room just looked worn down. The bathroom was in pretty poor condition. The shower head had rust on it and the bathroom was just too small and dark. I couldn't wait to get out of it. The tv had very few channels (maybe 5) and the remote was broken so we had to change channels and turn off the tv at the unit.

I would not stay at this hotel again. I usually enjoy Holiday Inn Expresses, but not this one. Not up to the quality that I expect.