Kimpton Vintage Plaza Portland, OR
Oct 22, 2013, 8:18 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2008
Location: WAS
Programs: AA Ex Plt
Posts: 1,630
Kimpton Vintage Plaza Portland, OR
Third trip to PDX and third different Kimpton.
Location: A couple of blocks from the Pioneer Sq metro stop and near a decent pub or two. Arrived late for one night so I didn't explore much.
Check In: Id. at other Kimptons. In other words, a professional and courteous agent. The desk agent had a good recommendation for a bar and was generally very nice and helpful. The agent also provided a bit of history as I found out that this Kimpton was the first outside of SFO. Neat.
Room: No suites because of a packed house. There was some sort of lawyer-ish event (note "Id" above
) so I ended up with a king something. A nice room typical for a Kimpton. There was a 5k or some sort of race out on the street in the morning so it was loud early. Other than race bullhorns the room was quiet.
Amenities: Sort of close. I changed my red wine choice to a readily available sparkling a month or two ago but ended up with a watery twist top red. Everything else was good.
Restaurant/bar/HH: Arrived late so I missed HH. Other Kimptons have provided coupons for freebie drinks when arriving late after HH. I don't know if that is hotel specific but nothing drink-wise here. I didn't eat or drink at the hotel but it did sound lively at night.
Check out: The usual professional Kimpton staff with one problem. I asked for directions back to the TriMet and the desk agent sent me to the wrong station. Union Station doesn't not have a red line train - the airport line. Finding and walking to the closest red line station was relatively painless but the next airport train arrived in ~30 minutes later (give or take, I don't remember exactly). Waiting for the next red line train would have made making my flight an adventure. I tried to hail a taxi but no luck. Only later did I find out that in a certain areas of downtown PDX, taxis are not allowed to stop and pick up passengers. Radio taxi service only. What to do? I headed back towards the Kimpton and called to have a taxi waiting. So I went from a $2.50 ride to a $40 ride but alas Kimpton stepped up and with some great service recovery and paid for the taxi. For comparison: Hyatt House Falls Church where the GM's apology for a recent poor stay was at best, a beltway apology. He was sorry that I felt a certain way after a horrible stay, not for the poor service during my stay (FYI: my only real bad Hyatt stay after years of Diamond status). In contrast, at this Kimpton, the service recovery was instantaneous and without argument. One of the assistant managers told the taxi driver to return to the hotel after dropping me off so that the hotel could pay for the fare. Thumbs up for Kimpton service again ^
Cheers
Location: A couple of blocks from the Pioneer Sq metro stop and near a decent pub or two. Arrived late for one night so I didn't explore much.
Check In: Id. at other Kimptons. In other words, a professional and courteous agent. The desk agent had a good recommendation for a bar and was generally very nice and helpful. The agent also provided a bit of history as I found out that this Kimpton was the first outside of SFO. Neat.
Room: No suites because of a packed house. There was some sort of lawyer-ish event (note "Id" above
) so I ended up with a king something. A nice room typical for a Kimpton. There was a 5k or some sort of race out on the street in the morning so it was loud early. Other than race bullhorns the room was quiet.Amenities: Sort of close. I changed my red wine choice to a readily available sparkling a month or two ago but ended up with a watery twist top red. Everything else was good.
Restaurant/bar/HH: Arrived late so I missed HH. Other Kimptons have provided coupons for freebie drinks when arriving late after HH. I don't know if that is hotel specific but nothing drink-wise here. I didn't eat or drink at the hotel but it did sound lively at night.
Check out: The usual professional Kimpton staff with one problem. I asked for directions back to the TriMet and the desk agent sent me to the wrong station. Union Station doesn't not have a red line train - the airport line. Finding and walking to the closest red line station was relatively painless but the next airport train arrived in ~30 minutes later (give or take, I don't remember exactly). Waiting for the next red line train would have made making my flight an adventure. I tried to hail a taxi but no luck. Only later did I find out that in a certain areas of downtown PDX, taxis are not allowed to stop and pick up passengers. Radio taxi service only. What to do? I headed back towards the Kimpton and called to have a taxi waiting. So I went from a $2.50 ride to a $40 ride but alas Kimpton stepped up and with some great service recovery and paid for the taxi. For comparison: Hyatt House Falls Church where the GM's apology for a recent poor stay was at best, a beltway apology. He was sorry that I felt a certain way after a horrible stay, not for the poor service during my stay (FYI: my only real bad Hyatt stay after years of Diamond status). In contrast, at this Kimpton, the service recovery was instantaneous and without argument. One of the assistant managers told the taxi driver to return to the hotel after dropping me off so that the hotel could pay for the fare. Thumbs up for Kimpton service again ^
Cheers
Mar 17, 2014, 11:08 am
#2
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Programs: AS MVPG; WN CP; Kimpton Inner Circle
Posts: 38
Stay Date: 3/15/2014
Reservation: No reward stay availability ~8 weeks, in advance (see event below), but ended up staying on an LMD rate.
Check In: Left luggage early and they called us promptly that room was available.
Room: Upgraded to a King Spa Suite - nice surprise.
Amenities: Above and beyond. Hop Czar for me. They saw our kids and left amenities for them too - Coloring book, swedish fish, and root beer. Too bad they weren't staying with us!
Restaurant/bar/HH: Late snack/drink at the restaurant. Only ordered off the late night menu.
Check out: No late checkout available. Otherwise uneventful.
Other Items: Elevator was slow and one was out of service for an upgrade. Shouldn't be a problem when both are in service.
The Portland Shamrock run was Sunday morning, which the hotel didn't advise. A little disappointed because we missed brunch (called hotel to request 1 pm checkout, which was declined) based on the crowds. Had we known of the event, we would've started earlier. Returned to check out and eat after.
Overall satisfied with my stay and I'll return.
Reservation: No reward stay availability ~8 weeks, in advance (see event below), but ended up staying on an LMD rate.
Check In: Left luggage early and they called us promptly that room was available.
Room: Upgraded to a King Spa Suite - nice surprise.
Amenities: Above and beyond. Hop Czar for me. They saw our kids and left amenities for them too - Coloring book, swedish fish, and root beer. Too bad they weren't staying with us!
Restaurant/bar/HH: Late snack/drink at the restaurant. Only ordered off the late night menu.
Check out: No late checkout available. Otherwise uneventful.
Other Items: Elevator was slow and one was out of service for an upgrade. Shouldn't be a problem when both are in service.
The Portland Shamrock run was Sunday morning, which the hotel didn't advise. A little disappointed because we missed brunch (called hotel to request 1 pm checkout, which was declined) based on the crowds. Had we known of the event, we would've started earlier. Returned to check out and eat after.
Overall satisfied with my stay and I'll return.