TownePlace Suites Portland Hillsboro

This is a dated property by Marriott standards that is a former apartment complex now used for hotel rooms. This means that there are no second floor elevators and the office/breakfast area is the old detached leasing office. Rooms are smaller than average and have tight spaces but were clean. Breakfast was okay for a TownePlace property. Gorgeous neighborhood setting with nice walkable retail. Also, they charge for parking which made no sense.

This is located in a great area near Orenco station - very near to everything and quite pretty and safe (beautiful area to walk around and plenty of restaurants and such nearby). But the rooms are not "suites" at all, they are really not much bigger than an average hotel room but with a lot more crammed in, so they feel quite tiny and crowded. There's not really anywhere to put your stuff unless you use up the couch or chair to put things on. There are cabinets and drawers, so you could use those and then put your suitcases under the desk I suppose..... Beds are soft, so if you like that then you will like these beds. The bathroom is directly next to the bed (like two feet from the bed), so that's unusual.... These used to be apartments and they have been divided up and converted to hotel rooms, so that might be part of the problem. No elevators, so if your bags are heavy you will be carrying them upstairs "european style". Our room had over half the lights burned out, but it would have been dark even with working lighting and we heard some other people who had problems with things not working (such as the television). There was a lot of dirt and cobwebs in places that should have been wiped down (corners of ceilings in the room itself/tops of light switches) though the overall room and bathroom were quite clean. They changed our reservation and switched us to an even smaller room without telling us, so that was frustrating as well and might be why my expectations were not met.... On the plus side, the front desk and other staff are the nicest people I have run across in a hotel in a long time - super friendly and helpful and knowledgeable. The overall feel of this hotel is very laid back and casual and there's nothing about it that is bad, it's just not really up to Marriott standards. The staff truly make it a great hotel, but the hotel rooms are not really what you are expecting when you are thinking of a suite - there IS a kitchen and a couch and a desk and a bed, but they are really crammed together to make it all fit, lol! I would recommend it if you want to be in a very pretty location, but perhaps not if you have more than two people who are planning to stay in the room. Next time we will stay just a bit further away in one of the newer suite hotels probably...