To kick off our month in Portland, OR, we booked a three night stay at The Duniway, a hotel that’s part of Hilton.
We’d booked a month-long stay at an Airbnb after that and originally hadn’t planned on staying in the city center, but earlier this year Amex added a benefit to personal Platinum cards that gives $200 towards a 1+ night stay at a Fine Hotels & Resorts (FHR) property or a 2+ night stay at The Hotel Collection properties.
The Duniway Portland is part of FHR and cost just over $200 per night, so with us having three personal Platinum cards between us and not wanting the new benefit to go to waste, we booked three nights in the center of Portland.
It ended up being a decent stay in a good location and friendly staff. Here’s a full review of our stay at The Duniway Portland.
Check-In
The outside of the hotel has a few spaces for cars to temporarily park to check in, so we pulled up there to unload our stuff and check in. The lobby had several seats along with a bar straight ahead when you enter, with the front desk on the right.
The front desk agents were very friendly and helpful, giving us a map with suggestions of things to do while staying in Portland. They also provided us with a letter confirming the benefits we’d receive thanks to having booked via Fine Hotels & Resorts.
Most benefits are standard across all FHR properties, while each hotel has their own take on how the $100 credit works. Sometimes it can only be used for dining, sometimes only for spa treatments, other times it can be used for anything at the hotel.
Although The Duniway Portland’s $100 benefit was listed as a dining credit, they were actually far more flexible than that. They confirmed that we could use the credit towards parking and pet fees which was helpful as those were two expenses we’d have during our stay.
Bedroom
When booking our stay there hadn’t been a king bed room available for three consecutive nights. We therefore booked our three nights in a room with two queen beds.
We were given room 1754, with the hotel having a total of 20 floors. When entering our room the bathroom was on the left and the bedroom straight ahead.
The queen beds were comfortable and the room’s blackout curtains worked well.
Our room overlooked nearby offices and hotels.
Along the window was a long dresser which could also be used as a bench.
In the other corner was a small curved couch and a couple of side tables.
To the right of those was the room’s TV, along with an umbrella for us to use which, being Portland in November, could be handy.
The room had a luggage rack and cabinet containing a mini fridge. On top of that cabinet was a coffee maker.
The closet contained bath robes, a safe, iron and ironing board.
Bathroom
The bathroom was nice enough with a shaving/makeup mirror in addition to a circular mirror.
There was a bathtub with a shower; the shower had pretty good water pressure.
One downside to the bathroom’s design is that the shelf holding the bath towels was in an awkward position when turning on the shower. Twice during our stay I hit my head on the corner of it because of its location when turning on the shower.
Overall, the room was fine. It wasn’t the most spacious of rooms we’ve ever stayed in, but city hotels don’t tend to lend themselves to having spacious rooms. Its size meant there wasn’t any kind of workspace beyond the small couch – no desk or office chair. However, it was quiet and comfortable.
Breakfast
The Duniway Portland has a couple of breakfast options – one at the hotel’s restaurant and one at the sister Hilton property opposite. On our first morning we met up with a friend for breakfast elsewhere, but tried our other two options the following two mornings.
Hop City Breakfast Buffet
On our second morning we went across the road to the Hilton Portland for breakfast. They offer a breakfast buffet there and we could charge that to our room at The Duniway Portland, with that cost getting deducted due to us booking our stay through FHR.
There were hot options like scrambled eggs, sausage and bacon, along with breads, bagels, fruit bowls, cereal, yogurt, etc. I can’t remember exactly how much the buffet breakfast cost, but I think it was something like $20-$25 per person. That was covered thanks to our FHR credit, but I’m glad we didn’t pay that out of pocket as we could’ve gotten a much better breakfast elsewhere for the same price or less.
Mayrose
On our final morning we ate breakfast at The Duniway. The hotel has both a restaurant and bar area; breakfast was served in the bar area.
There were several tasty-sounding options. I felt like I couldn’t pass up on the A.M. Banh Mi, so that’s what I ordered. It was good, but could’ve done with a little more bacon and some kind of extra dressing with some spice to it.
I also got a fresh tangerine juice which was very good but was a small serving for $6.
Shae ordered the wild blueberry pancakes with a side of scrambled eggs, fresh fruit and toast. I tried a little of her blueberry pancakes and they were tasty.
Amenities
The hotel’s fitness room didn’t have a ton of equipment, but it was large enough for it to not feel like it was in a closet like at some hotels.
The Duniway Portland’s indoor swimming pool wasn’t very big either, but was long enough to do laps if you wanted.
On the same floor as the pool and fitness room was Abigail’s Hideaway – a rooftop seating area. That featured some games, lots of seating and heaters.
To the right of the front desk was a business center with a couple of computers. I’m not sure if there was a printer in the cupboard beneath or if you’d have to get the front desk to print off documents for you.
On the opposite side of the lobby was the Mayrose bar and restaurant.
The Duniway Portland is named after Abigail Scott Duniway who worked for voting rights for women and was a writer and newspaper editor. Her typewriter can be seen in the lobby of the hotel.
Pet Policy
The Duniway Portland is a pet-friendly hotel which is one of the reasons we chose it because we had our dog Truffles with us. They have a $75 pet fee per stay; although we booked our stay as three separate one-night stays, we were only charged one pet fee.
There’s no grass immediately around the hotel, but there’s a small park about three blocks away if your dog needs some grass to do their business. The hotel itself was nice and quiet and so Truffles didn’t feel the need to bark at noises in the hall.
Service
We didn’t need housekeeping during our stay, so I can’t speak to that. The front desk staff members were all great though – very friendly and helpful.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi at the hotel was very good; it was free, seemed to be a decent speed and didn’t have connectivity issues.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
The check-in time at The Duniway Portland is 4pm and check-out is at 12pm. One of our FHR benefits was a 4pm late checkout which we took advantage of as the Airbnb we were moving to next wasn’t available until 4pm.
Location
The Duniway Portland is in a good location in the city center. The Willamette River is a few blocks to the east, the Portland Art Museum a few blocks to the southwest and Powell’s City of Books only a ten minute walk to the northeast.
Parking
Parking at the hotel costs $33 per night which seemed high compared to other nearby parking lots. We still decided to park at the hotel though seeing as we could charge it to our room and have it be deducted from our $100 property credit each day.
Cost
Our first two nights each cost $242.44 with tax, while our final night cost $219.24. We paid for each night with a different Amex Platinum card, with each card covering $200 of each night’s cost, so our net cost for three nights was $104.12.
Our only additional cost was $8. That night we were charged $108 due to the 75 pet fee and $33 parking fee; $100 was written off thanks to the $100 property credit by booking through Fine Hotels & Resorts which left the $8 charge.
Points Earned
One of the other nice things about booking stays through Fine Hotels & Resorts is that unlike booking through other OTAs (Online Travel Agencies), most hotel chains honor elite status, earn elite night credits and points, etc. That means that between us we earned 24,172 Hilton Honors points across the three nights.
Final Thoughts
Shae and I enjoyed our stay at The Duniway Portland. It’s in a great location downtown that’s walking distance to a lot of places you might want to visit. The staff members were friendly and our room was quiet.
Although the room itself was a little smaller than I’d have liked, it was a comfortable stay made even better by the fact that it didn’t cost very much thanks to the Amex Platinum credits!
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives the hotel three paws out of four – pawsome! She liked that it was quiet at night, but the lack of any grass for a few blocks and a room with not much space to run after her ball means they only get three paws rather than four.
Our Rating
Room = 4.1 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.4 / 5
Food = 3.9 / 5
Location = 4.5 / 5
Service = 4.5 / 5
Overall Value = 4.0 / 5
Total = 4.23 / 5
Address
The Duniway, 545 SW Taylor St, Portland, OR 97204
Truffles is just too cute & darling!
I didn’t think it was real at first!
Yep, she really is that cute!
I did a 3 x 1 night FHR stay here last week (also to use 3 credits). The rates must have been lower because I booked a mid level room for a total of about $200 including taxes, so we ended up with a much bigger room. I also thought the staff was extremely friendly and helpful.
Great minds think alike! Glad you had a good experience with their staff too.