The Royal Sonesta Portland Downtown

Billie Weddington7 months ago

2/5

Firstly, the hotel in and of itself is quite beautiful. Stunning rooms, fabulous design. My concern comes in with the “resort fee/destination fee”. This is certainly not just a Sonesta issue (search this on Washington Post, it’s a widely known issue, one that many Attorney Generals are currently suing large hotel chains for), but it is still quite frustrating. Destination fees are simply a way to collect a higher room rate, without guests knowing they’re paying a higher room rate at the time of booking. In teeny tiny grey print, it states there is a destination fee of $25 per night, not included in the quoted total. This is something to keep in mind. Your price will be an additional $25/night than you were quoted. Also, for Royal Sonesta Portland, you will pay $52/night for parking. So be sure to consider that whatever great price you think you’ve found is at a minimum, $77 more per night than what is advertised. This destination fee will say that it comes with benefits… the only real tangible benefit being the $2 bottled water upon check in. I do appreciate front desk staff being honest that it was simply a way to scam guests into booking thinking they were paying less. Other than the one front desk person being honest regarding this fee, I would say generally the staff was a bit on the rude side. The worst however was the hostess/waitress at the onsite restaurant. She was extremely rude. I have a service animal- a diabetic alert dog. She firstly tried to state he couldn’t come in, when I explained he is a service animal (and yes he had a clearly marked vest that she could see), she rolled her eyes and then asked the bartender if that was okay. Of course he looked at her like she was ridiculous for asking; as most people know that service animals are protected by federal law. She was then generally rude the rest of our dinner visit. She clearly was annoyed that she was having to work (the restaurant was otherwise empty, and she was focused on flirting with the bartender, and our presence was obviously a distraction from that). Generally I do not leave negative reviews, I would just skip it all together, but the blatant ableism was pretty gross. Overall, I would not stay here again. Especially considering that the area is flanked by people openly using hard drugs every where when you leave the front door. Just not worth the obscene fees, or rude staff.