Hotel Grand Stark

Wow! What an amazing place! Our first time here and we only stayed for one night unfortunately. It was very close to Holocene concert venue so we decided to stay here so we could walk to and from the show. We opted for street parking instead of paying for valet and we felt like our car was totally fine. We just made sure to take everything out. The staff, beds, and amenities are top notch. They have bars and restaurants on site and mini bars/snacks in the room. We unfortunately did not get to try either but they both looked and smelled amazing. We will definitely be back and I would 10/10 recommend this hotel to everyone and anyone. If you don’t like seeing homeless people I wouldn’t recommend staying here or around this area. We liked the location and felt safe. For the people saying the auto light in the bathroom bothered them at night, there is a switch you can press so that it’s not on all the time. We also didn’t find this place noisy at all like some of the reviews but we didn’t have a street side room so that might have helped.

The hotel is beautiful and I loved the bathroom. Please note that while it looks romantic, it is a shower for one person. The shower head points straight down and cannot be adjusted, so not ideal for lovebirds. Our room had an A/C unit, and it was frozen, so we didn’t have airflow the first night. I’m not sure how quiet the interior rooms are but we had a room facing the street and you can hear everything out there. The hotel is across the street from an org that serves individuals in need of housing/food, which is amazing. Unfortunately, we heard shouting and banging from the street throughout the night.

I made an online reservation. The day before my scheduled stay I called and confirmed the reservation and was given a confirmation number. When I arrived at the front desk to check in I was told there was no record of my reservation and that my confirmation number was invalid. I called the reservation line and was told I did have the reservation and the confirmation number was correct. The front desk said it was invalid. I asked the reservation line to speak to the front desk, and after putting us on hold for 20 minutes they came back on and said very rudely blamed the front desk for over booking the motel and giving my room away, which wasn't the case because there were rooms available. The front desk gave me the option of paying for a different room for a significantly higher amount than the reservation I had made, which I basically had to do because I was now stranded in Portland with no where to stay despite double checking before i came. After an hour of dealing with this nonsense in the lobby, and paying a ridiculous amount I finally got up to the room and the bathroom hadn't been properly cleaned. The room itself was fine, and I do appreciate the front desk staff who spent a significant amount of time to try to figure out the issue and find me somewhere to stay. But dropping people's reservations like that is not acceptable. And the proper response to having made a mistake like that would have been an apology and to give me the other room for free / a discounted rate in exchange for the stress they caused, or at very least the rate of the room I reserved. It's too bad because I was planning to stay here regularly for a reoccurring event, but I obviously need a reservation to guarantee I have a place to stay. So stressful.