The Nines Portland

The staff at this hotel are amazing and go so far above and beyond! Meagan in particular truly made this visit remarkable. It was our anniversary and I called to ask to have some champaign sent to the room and she did everything to make sure this stay would be unforgettable. With the help of Nicole they provided us with a room upgrade and some really great romantic touches! I can't say enough amazing things and we will be back every year for anniversary in the future as well as for our business travel. I would not consider any other hotel in portland up to this caliber. Also compared to the other luxury hotels in Portland these rooms are truly decadent both in size and style. Thank you and we will see you soon!!! Read less

I love this hotel for the lobby ambiance. Come hang out here, even if you are just meeting friends in Downtown Portland. From the ground floor entry to the 8th floor registration, to the restaurants - the service is top notch. I had a social distance meeting with a colleague and rented a conference room. The experience was seamless. The guest rooms are spacious and comfortable including a great work space and a nice couch for additional seating. The Urban Farmer restaurant in the lobby has a wide range of whiskeys and knowledgeable staff to guide you. That was an unexpected treat, especially during COVID. This is a Luxury Collection property - part of the Marriott Bonvoy program. They upgraded me based on my member status. Read less

Cancelled my trip due to COVID concerns and was still charged $3,000. Usually when you cancel on booking.com it's instant, but having already authorized my card they didn't issue any refund. This is a criminal hotel run by Marriott corporate who only want your money. Maybe it's time Marriott gets sued. Especially during COVID don't tolerate being treated like this and robbed. Read less

QUICKIE REVIEW Location, location, location. This place has it. PARKING Yes. SERVICE Did not use any services. ROOM Room was clean and nice. PRICE If you get the right discount, you can score a room for less than $200. OTHER THOUGHTS You may find it easier to travel around by train and Uber vice trying to get a car if you are not traveling all over. The train ran from the airport almost virtually right in front of the hotel. Cannot beat it. Read less

My wife and I recently spent three nights at The Nines during a long weekend trip to Portland. We had never been to Oregon previously, and really just wanted to stay in a luxurious hotel that could serve as a good jumping off point for seeing things in Portland itself, but also with easy access to highways to leave the city for daytrips to the Willamette Valley. In general, The Nines served our purposes very well, since Downtown Portland is easy to navigate and the hotel was very nice, with a comfortable, upscale room to serve as our home base. The only thing that I didn’t like about this hotel is that it just didn’t feel like a true Luxury Collection property, at least not in comparison to others we’ve visited in the past. Nothing was wrong with our stay, but the hotel just didn’t quite exude the level of upscale luxury that I was expecting. Location: The Nines is located right in the center of Downtown Portland, on the edge of Pioneer Square. It’s a pretty typical downtown area that I’d expect from any mid-size city, which is largely filled with offices and government buildings. There is also a good deal of shopping nearby, with the hotel just steps away from the Pioneer Place Mall and Nordstrom on Pioneer Square. It’s also just a couple blocks to a Target for basic shopping needs. As a whole, the area was pretty deserted and quiet during the weekend in November when we visited. However, I was glad to find that some more interesting neighborhoods were within walking distance of the hotel. It was about a 10-minute walk to Powell’s City of Books and the eclectic Pearl District, which we enjoyed exploring. Old Town Chinatown is also more interesting and livelier than where The Nines is located, and that is also just an easy walk away. I’ve seen several recent reviews complaining about the number of homeless people by the hotel, as well as the boarded-up state of the city due to the protests in Portland this year. We didn’t have any issues with either of these things. I did notice a good number of homeless people in the blocks surrounding the hotel, which is noticeable simply because there are just very few people walking around the area in general. However, we never felt unsafe or saw any homeless people loitering particularly close to the hotel or bothering guests. When it comes to the protests, it is true that Downtown Portland is pretty boarded up right now in response to this year’s ongoing protests, and that includes some of the windows on the ground level of The Nines. Sure, things would look more aesthetically pleasing under normal circumstances, but we didn’t find it to be a problem. We were definitely able to enjoy Portland, and I wouldn’t say that homelessness or boarded up businesses should be a factor weighing against choosing this hotel, especially since it’s the case at every hotel in the same general area. Arrival Experience: We arrived at the hotel in our rental car on a Friday afternoon, right around the standard check-in time at 4:00 pm. The valet staff was very nice, immediately coming right out to the car to welcome us to the hotel and ask if we needed assistance with our luggage. We didn’t need any help, so they directed us to the lobby on the 8th floor to check-in, and took our car for valet parking, which is $53 per night and has unlimited in/out privileges. I was instructed to call down to the valet desk 10-15 minutes in advance anytime we needed the car so that it would be ready, and that worked perfectly each time we needed to go out. In general, I found the valet staff to be extremely nice and hospitable, opening car doors for us and always asking if we needed any bottled water to take with us or directions to get anywhere. Upon walking into the hotel, it is a bit surprising that the entrance on the ground level has nothing but the valet desk and an elevator bank. We’ve been to plenty of city hotels with the main lobby and front desk somewhere other than right by the street, but this one was particularly small and unimpressive when first entering off the sidewalk. Once we got to the 8th floor, check-in was quick and easy enough, although I wish all Marriott properties could do better with mobile check-in. I completed mobile check-in the day before our arrival, hoping that it would enable us to go directly to our room or otherwise streamline the check-in process during the pandemic. However, it really didn’t change anything. When we arrived at the front desk, I still had to provide my ID and credit card and go through all the normal check-in procedures, and I never received a notification before that from the Marriott app to say that our room was ready (although I had gotten a notification earlier that afternoon saying that our room had been upgraded). The front desk clerk was nice enough, but really didn’t provide the level of service I’d expect at a Luxury Collection property. Although she quickly gave us our room keys and did ask if we needed assistance with making any dinner reservations, she completely failed to give any pertinent information about the hotel or the inclusions with our room rate. We had booked a rate that included breakfast for two each morning and a one-time $100 hotel credit, and she didn’t mention them at all until I specifically inquired about how to use them. She also didn’t provide any information about hotel services or facilities or any modifications due to the pandemic (luckily there was more information about that in the room). It just felt like a very generic hotel check-in that did not take advantage of the chance to really introduce the property at all. I expected more from this level of hotel. Hotel – Generally: I was excited to try The Nines, since the hotel seemed to have an interesting backstory as the original flagship Meier & Frank department store, and the pictures online made it appear to have a quirky décor to reflect this history. One thing I love about Luxury Collection hotels is that they’re generally in interesting or historic buildings or have grounds or locations that make them particularly memorable, especially when coupled with high-end furnishings. However, I do think the execution falls a little flat at The Nines, even though the hotel is objectively very nice. For one, you can’t tell at all that this is a historic building. The interior could be that of any run-of-the-mill city hotel. I’m not sure if there just was nothing interesting or architecturally significant to save when they remodeled the building to create the hotel, but it felt weird that the hotel focuses on its department store history and has some minor nods to this in the décor, but there is otherwise no resemblance to the original department store building. The lobby is a big open atrium that many of the rooms overlook, and it is a nice space, with tons of room to spread out among a large number of seating areas with interesting modern art pieces scattered around. There are several mannequins as décor, as the clearest homage to the department store history. It is more interesting than your standard hotel lobby, especially when taking into account some of the art, but something about the execution just doesn’t feel that upscale to me. It feels like the lobby of any Marriott or large convention hotel, with some added bright colors and art, some of which are looking a little dated at this point. The hotel looks exactly like the pictures online, but I guess I thought it would look a little more high-end in person. A similar feel carries to the rooms and other common areas. When you get to the floors containing the guest rooms (which are located on floors 9-14 above the lobby, with access via room key in the elevators), there was a clear desire to carry out the colorful, vaguely department store-related theme as well, but it just doesn’t totally work for me. The very long hallways are covered in gray wallpaper and Tiffany blue walls, with a really loud carpet design in similar colors. Again, it’s not that it wasn’t nice at all or in bad condition, but it just felt like a bit of an odd and not particularly luxurious design choice. Such liberal use of bright accent colors that was more of an early 2000s trend and feels outdated now. Hotel Room: There are two main categories of rooms to choose from at The Nines, which are Superior Rooms (with an interior atrium/lobby view) and the Deluxe Rooms (with exterior city views). You can normally also book a room with club lounge access, but the lounge is currently closed due to Covid, so this isn’t an option. We made sure to book one of the Deluxe rooms, since it was important to us to have natural light in the room, and not overlook the interior lobby. We were then given a complimentary upgrade to a Corner Deluxe Room (1422) since we’re Gold Bonvoy members, which we really appreciated. We ended up having a really great room with walls of windows on two sides (and in the bathroom as well), giving us more than enough natural light and a pleasant view of Downtown Portland. We had also requested a quiet room with no connecting door to another room, and this room absolutely fulfilled that request. It was always really quiet, with no appreciable interior or exterior noise at any point in our stay. The room really was a great retreat after long rainy days out exploring the area. In addition to all the windows and natural light, the room was spacious and comfortable. It had nice bed linens, really comfortable robes, nice towels, and little things that matter, like tons of USB and regular outlets and well-functioning wifi. There was a nice desk looking out the window, along with a seating area that had a long Tiffany blue settee and a separate armchair. Everything was perfectly clean and in great condition, definitely worthy of being a Luxury Collection property if just taking those items into account. However, the room also featured a continuation of busy carpeting and bright Tiffany blue accents that weren’t my favorite, in addition to unnecessarily dramatic curtains and liberal use of sparkly chandeliers. My wife liked the décor more than I did, and thought I was being a bit harsh in my critique. However, I just feel that, like the common areas, some of the early-2000s color and design choices are unfortunately looking dated in a Luxury Collection hotel in 2020, even though it’s all very nicely maintained and has several touches of luxury. The bathroom was also very large, with beautiful marble tile and a walk-in marble shower that had great water pressure. The BeeKind Gilchrist & Soames toiletries were nice too (the shampoo, conditioner, and body wash are mounted in reusable containers in the shower). I did think the bathroom could have been designed a bit better, since it was quite large with a long vanity, but had only one sink when there definitely was space for two. I found it a bit bizarre that they chose to use a metal sink, and the three-sided mirror at the sink took a little getting used to, but it was functional enough once we were used to it. The vanity also just didn’t have as much storage space as I’d expect, despite having a couple shelves and a long open counter section. Almost all of the storage space was taken up with storing towels, so there wasn’t much space left for our toiletries. There was a note in the room discussing Covid protocols for room cleaning and other services, which stated that room cleaning and turndown would be offered by request only. We did still want our room cleaned each day, so I used the chat feature on the Marriott app each morning to request cleaning, which was always done perfectly by the time we got back to the hotel. I thought it was a little odd, however, that when I requested turndown service on our first night when we went to dinner, I received a response saying that there were no housekeepers on duty and that turndown is not being offered during the pandemic. It’s not a big deal to not be able to get turndown service, but I felt like I was being treated oddly for making the request, when the rooms have paperwork in them saying that this service is available if you request it. I know things can change quickly in regard to Covid protocols, but the hotel should make sure it’s always providing guests the most up-to-date information. Dining: The Nines has two restaurants, both of which we tried and liked. First is Urban Farmer, which is located in the lobby atrium, and served weekend brunch and dinner while we were there. Our room also had a modified ‘grab-and-go’ breakfast menu for Urban Farmer that I assume is the main breakfast option during the week or anytime the restaurant cannot allow indoor dining due to state Covid restrictions. Our room rate included a credit of up to $60 per day to spend at Urban Farmer for breakfast, so we dined in twice, and had good experiences both times. Although it wasn’t crowded either time we went to breakfast, we were told by the front desk to make reservations due to capacity limits, and we were able to make those reservations on OpenTable on short notice with no problem. The breakfasts at Urban Farmer were great both times, and we really enjoyed the nice atmosphere and décor of the restaurant, as well as the very friendly service. The staff at Urban Farmer absolutely stood out as being at the level of what I’d expect at a Luxury Collection hotel, while some other staff members we encountered at the hotel did not. The Urban Farmer staff was friendly, attentive, and hospitable, and seemed to take a sincere interest in making sure we had a nice breakfast. The food at Urban Farmer was all very good for breakfast, with the French toast and farmer’s breakfast (eggs + choice of two sides) standing out as our favorite things. We appreciated being able to have pleasant and quick breakfasts both mornings before getting out of the city for the day. We also tried dinner at Departure, the hotel’s rooftop restaurant. I had read a lot of good things about this restaurant, and saw a lot of people coming to the hotel in the evenings just for dinner at Departure, which is usually a good sign in regard to a hotel restaurant. Departure definitely requires reservations further in advance than Urban Farmer, and when we went up from our room to dinner, we were really surprised at how cool the restaurant is. It was a bit of a surprise to see such a modern, sleek Asian restaurant at the top of the hotel. Even on a Sunday night when we dined there, all of the spaced-out tables were full, while most everywhere else we went either in the hotel or in Downtown Portland was much more dead. Service at Departure was pretty good, and the views of the city are nice, both from within the restaurant and from the roof deck. The food and drinks were perfectly fine, but didn’t stand out as much as the atmosphere. I thought the menu felt a bit limited. We tried and enjoyed both of the two sushi rolls on the menu, and then we split the wings and the black pepper chicken. The wings were tasty, but I was a little disappointed in the black pepper chicken. It was basically just a sous vide chicken breast cut into strips and seasoned, which was moist and tasty, but I was expecting more of a typical Asian dish with more sauce and vegetables all tossed together. I would still generally recommend Departure. The vibe is fun for an enjoyable and unique dinner, and the convenience within the hotel can’t be beat. Departure Experience: We had to leave the hotel at around 4:30 am for our flight home, and even though it was the middle of the night, I thought the departure experience could have been better. When we brought our car back to the hotel the day before, one of the really nice valets asked when we’d need the car again, and I told him about our early checkout. He said he would leave a note for the overnight valet so that the car would be ready and waiting for us in the morning. However, just to make sure there were no issues, he also recommended calling as usual before coming down. I’m glad I did call, because the overnight valet seemed to have no idea what I was talking about when I asked about our car, but he did ultimately have the car ready by the time we got downstairs. When we got downstairs to depart, I handed the valet my ticket and he gave me the car keys, but offered absolutely no assistance from there or any well wishes as we departed the hotel (just the simple things you’d expect like ‘have a nice day’, ‘have a safe trip home’, etc. would have been nice). He didn’t offer to help load the luggage into the car or even hold the door open as we tried to maneuver our luggage through the hotel’s front doors. I understand that it was the middle of the night, but at a Luxury Collection hotel, I definitely expected to depart on a more pleasant note regardless of the time of day. Even the car rental employee who we met 15 minutes later at the airport was friendlier and more helpful. Overall: Overall, we had a very nice stay at The Nines, and I would consider this property again. The room was spacious, clean, and comfortable, and the same can be said about all of the other hotel facilities we explored. There were definitely luxurious touches here and there, and the hotel is very well maintained and just generally spacious, which is great during the pandemic. However, as I specified previously, I had an overall feeling that it wasn’t quite luxurious enough to be in the Luxury Collection brand, both due to the décor and the fact that service just didn’t reach the level I’d expect. On the service side, with the exception of most of the valet staff and the staff at Urban Farmer, who were all excellent, staff we met at the hotel were nice enough, but not particularly helpful or engaged with guests. The way the hotel is set up, you don’t really encounter many staff members after initial check-in, since you don’t need to go through the lobby to get to your room. Given the limited staff interaction with guests, those few interactions should really be exceptional, but some were just ok. Marriott has so many different brands, and I would suggest re-branding this one to find a better fit. I think that maybe Renaissance would be a good fit, since that brand typically features rooms of a similar or slightly better quality to what you’d fine at a regular Marriott, but with something a little more unique about them, which sounds like a good description of The Nines. If you need to stay in Downtown Portland, I would consider The Nines since it is very nice, but just be aware that it may not be quite at the level you’d expect from the Luxury Collection. Read less