Valets in blue checked shirts take your keys, your car, hang your bags on a cart. All the while, you might make small talk about how bad traffic is gotten, or what it is like to live in Seattle or Portland amidst the flux of change. It feels real and authentic and it is, because Portland’s Hotel Monaco employees are encouraged to be themselves and have genuine conversations with guests.
This pattern continues at the front desk, where employees like night manager Charlotte give their true feelings about the best place to get a cocktail nearby (Kask or Barlow), and how to get an authentic sense of Portland. Charlotte recommends that one couple borrow the bikes they have to loan out and take a ride around to the east side of the river. “Look at the porches,” she tells them. “That’s where the personality is.”
This curated Portland experience continues in the rooms, with decorations that look like one part Kinfolk, two parts Anthropologie. A wallpaper inspired by Portland’s skies features black sketched birds on a rich cream background, in full flight. In select rooms, such as the King Premiere Suite, a round mirror is nestled within a tangle of branches. The painting of a mountain on the facing wall reflects in the center. This is all on purpose, I’m told: the illusion of birds flying around the mountain, existing in the context of this nest, it’s an interactive way to experience a room. Typical abstract hotel art in bland colors will not be found here.
The bed is covered in plush Italian Frette linens, with printed pillows and bed skirts in orange and purple plaid. A decorative orange pillow and orange carpet feature diverging prints, and the headboard is brown and tufted with an orange outlined wood. The curtains, too, are patterned in their own style. Winged chairs in the adjacent sitting room have their own pattern far from the rest. Somehow, it all works.
Flat screen TVs are standard in all rooms, with CD/DVD players available by request. Also available with a phone call are any toiletry one could possibly need, including a flat iron or curling iron. Oversized animal print robes are popular features to wear while lounging, perhaps while eating from a room service menu that operates 24 hours a day.
Pets are welcome to enjoy this calmly chaotic room, too, with no additional fee for pets to join and no limits on sizes or breeds. A hypoallergenic floor lets the allergic stay far away from Fido, but bowls and treats in the lobby are accompanied by signs welcoming pets by name.
From 5 to 6 p.m., the spacious lobby is filled with guests who stop by for the popular wine hour. Truly, an enormous percentage attend the free event—it’s among the most popular in the country. As the Monaco is especially large and their fete so lively, they offer more than most of their sister properties. Each happy hour features rotating wine selections as well as a pair of varietals chosen by the Monaco’s concierges, plus a Widmer beer on tap. Special cocktails make appearances, like a pink drink for the Susan G Komen Walk weekend and hot whiskey cider drinks in the winter.
In case the hour of free drinks isn’t enough, Kimpton rewards members get a card good for $10 at the on-site restaurant, Red Star. A happy hour runs from 4 to 8 p.m., with several five-dollar items and deals on drinks. The lead bartender, Brandon Lockman, mixes up cocktails from a wall of whiskey to pair with northwest cuisine.
If indulging a bit much in the nearby food carts or dozens of great restaurants nearby the downtown hotel, a fitness center is well-equipped to handle the fallout. Yoga classes are held in the many meeting rooms on select floors throughout the hotel. Mats are available in each room, either to take to class or use in-room. On-site spa and salon Dosha also offers relaxation after a busy day walking the streets of PDX, with massage, mani/pedi, and other pampering treatments available daily.
Longer stays are rewarded at Hotel Monaco, with discounts building from 10 to 20 percent depending on the length of stay, and special offers for more popping up on occasion. Drive a hybrid to your vacation destination, and you’ll save 50 percent on parking at the hotel.
Hotel Monaco ||506 S.W. Washington Street, Portland || monaco-portland.com
