Even though I’ll be departing for the other side of the planet in a week, I took a quick road trip this past weekend to Portland and Seattle. The Portland leg was mostly for shopping, while the Seattle portion was to catch a Seahawks football game.
As has become a tradition around here, I thought I’d put together a couple of quick hotel room video tours for where I stayed. So, let’s start with the Portland side.
Sheraton Portland Airport Hotel
We stayed at the Sheraton Portland Airport Hotel, even though we had no need to visit the airport at all. It provided a good value with free Wi-Fi access and free parking.
Sheraton is part of the Starwood family of hotels, which is the same company responsible for the Westin Taipei and several other properties around the world. It was a fairly standard room, though the inclusion of features like the desk-level power ports and an LG HDTV was certainly appreciated. Front desk service was prompt and friendly too.
Red Lion Hotel Bellevue
While I would have preferred to stay in downtown Seattle for ease of transport to CenturyLink Field for the Seahawks game, most of those hotels were either already booked or significantly more expensive. I tried getting back into Sixth Avenue Inn, but they didn’t have any rooms available.
Even though John Chow’s guest house wasn’t available either, I ended up staying in Bellevue. We chose the Red Lion Hotel in Bellevue for similar reasons as the Sheraton in Portland: free Wi-Fi and free parking. Security and privacy were among the concerns, but I was otherwise pleased with my stay.
The nice thing about your reviews and videos is that it is helpful in picking when we take trips around the south. We are going to the Historic District in Savanah Ga. next year in May for my bother in laws wedding. We are looking at a few places, but we have time to pick and comparing what you show us to what I see in the videos and pictures of the places we are looking at.
I don’t know if you have the same kinds of priorities as I do, but I heavily prefer hotels with complimentary (or inexpensive) Internet access and parking. Cleanliness, safety, and comfort are obvious concerns too.
Those are basics for me. I want internet either free of cheap and will not pay for parking to stay somewhere, unless it is a valet at Disney.
The other concerns for me are obviously, kid friendly and safety. One big thing that I look for is food, like free breakfast for the kids with a paying adult or free buffet like a lot of the Embassy Suites.