DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Portland

DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Portland is a hotel in Portland, Oregon's Lloyd District, in the United States. The hotel opened as the Sheraton-Portland Hotel in 1959, and in 1980 became the Red Lion Inn/Lloyd Center.

DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Portland
Taller 1982 wing on left, shorter 1959 wing on right
Former names
  • Sheraton-Portland Hotel
  • Red Lion Inn/Lloyd Center
General information
Address1000 Northeast Multnomah Street
Town or cityPortland, Oregon
CountryUnited States
Coordinates45°31′51″N 122°39′20″W
OpenedSeptember 28, 1959
Cost$6 million[1]

The hotel has been credited with playing "a crucial role in the development of Portland's eastside". After an expansion in the early 1980s, for a time it was the largest hotel in all of Oregon.[2]

Description

The hotel is one of the five largest in Portland, with 477 guest rooms as of 2020. The property also has restaurants, a covered parking garage and a conference center.[3] The hotel has fifteen floors and multiple glass elevators.[4] The outdoor pool, among few at Portland hotels, can accommodate approximately 20 to 30 people.[5]

History

The hotel opened as the Sheraton-Portland Hotel on September 28, 1959,[6][7] owned by the Lloyd Corporation and operated by Sheraton Hotels.[8] It was the first new hotel in Portland since the opening of the New Heathman Hotel, in 1928.[9] It was renamed the Sheraton Motor Inn in 1963.[10]

In June 1980, the hotel was purchased from the Lloyd Corp. by the Thunderbird–Red Lion Inns chain,[9] and became the Red Lion Inn/Lloyd Center on August 1 of that year,[11] the latter part of the name referring to the Lloyd Center mall, located across Multnomah Street from the hotel. The nine-story hotel had 276 rooms at that time, but a major expansion – including the addition of a 15-story tower – was planned.[9] When the expanded hotel reopened in 1982, it had 520 rooms and was the largest hotel in all of Oregon.[2]

Sign for the hotel, 2022

In 1989, with 476 rooms, the Red Lion Inn/Lloyd Center was still the second-largest hotel in the state, after the 503-room Portland Marriott Hotel in Downtown Portland.[12] In September 1996, its owner, Red Lion Hotels, Inc., then based in Vancouver, Washington, entered into an agreement to be acquired by then-Phoenix-based Doubletree Corp.[13] The merger closed on November 8, 1996,[14] and the Lloyd Center hotel was renamed the Doubletree Hotel Portland.[15] In October 1998, Doubletree announced plans to expand the hotel with a new 300-room tower to be constructed on the northeast corner of the property, in order to make the hotel a 'headquarters hotel' for the nearby Oregon Convention Center.[16] The addition was never built. In late 2010 and 2011, all Doubletree hotels were rebranded as "DoubleTree by Hilton".[17]

A woman was found dead in one of the hotel's stairwells in late 2014. A Washington man was accused of murder and arrested.[18] The woman's family sued Hilton and the hotel's owners.[19][20]

In 2019, a man filed a $10-million lawsuit against the hotel, claiming that he was racially profiled during his stay in 2018.[21][22][23] The hotel issued an apology and fired two employees.[24][25][26] The hotel's owner, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, said that the company has "zero tolerance for racism".[27]

Reception
Hotel exterior in 2022
The hotel's interior, 2022

Lizzy Acker included the property in The Oregonian's 2016 list of Portland's best outdoor hotel pools.[28] In 2017, the newspaper's Grant Butler included the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in a list of "38 landmark Portland hotels that offer a window into Rose City's history, growth". He wrote:

The recently renovated DoubleTree Hotel in the Lloyd District may seem like just another link in the Hilton's chain of hotels catering to corporate travelers. But it played a crucial role in the development of Portland's eastside when it first opened in 1959 as the Sheraton-Portland. The nine-story hotel featured 300 rooms, and cost $6 million to complete. Because of its location directly across Northeast Multnomah from Lloyd Center, the hotel catered to shoppers drawn to the then-outdoor shopping mall, which was one of the first of its kind in the nation.[1]

Fodor's has said, "This bustling, business hotel maintains a steady customer base in meetings and special events, so you will find all the usual business-friendly perks and luxuries .... The large rooms, many with balconies, are well maintained, and many of those on the upper floors have views of the city and—on clear days—the mountains."[29][30] Deanna deBara of Fodor's has rated the hotel four out of five stars.[31] One guide by Moon Publications said "The best thing about this Lloyd District hotel is its location (and the warm chocolate chip cookies at check-in) .... The rooms are, for the most part, spacious, clean, and comfortable."[32]

References
  1. Butler, Grant (March 19, 2017). "38 Portland hotels that tell the Rose City's history". The Oregonian. Archived from the original on March 16, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  2. Carter, Steven (September 12, 1982). "Newest $40 million Red Lion largest hotel in Oregon". The Sunday Oregonian. p. B1.
  3. Sawyer, Brandon (January 31, 2020). "List Leaders: Check in with Portland's 5 biggest hotels". Portland Business Journal. American City Business Journals. Archived from the original on August 4, 2022. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
  4. "6 Portland Hotels with Outdoor Pools for Your Summer Staycation". Portland Monthly. ISSN 1546-2765. Archived from the original on August 17, 2022. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  5. "Photo essay: Outdoor swimming pools, public and private". Oregon Business. August 2, 2018. Archived from the original on April 24, 2022. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
  6. "Portland Sheraton Hotel Job Progresses". Mail Tribune. Medford, Oregon. April 29, 1959. p. 10. Retrieved April 17, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Grand opening today, Sheraton-Portland Hotel". The Register-Guard. Eugene, Oregon. September 28, 1959. p. 5. Retrieved April 17, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Humble, Charles (May 5, 1980). "Lloyd Corp. may change hotel firms". The Oregon Journal. p. 1.
  9. Shaw, Larry (June 24, 1980). "Thunderbird–Red Lion buys Lloyd Sheraton". The Oregonian. p. A1.
  10. "Annual Report for the year ended April 30, 1963". Sheraton Corporation of America – via University of Houston Libraries: Digital Collections.
  11. "Red Lion Dining has arrived at Lloyd Center" (advertisement), in The Oregon Journal, September 12, 1980, p . 24. Quote: "On August 1st, one of Portland's longtime favorite hotels became the Red Lion Inn/Lloyd Center (formerly the Sheraton)."
  12. Mayes, Steve (August 11, 1989). "Red Lion considers 300 additional rooms". The Oregonian. p. C1.
  13. "Doubletree To Pay $1.2 Billion For Red Lion". The Seattle Times. Bloomberg Business News. September 13, 1996. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
  14. "Downtown Red Lion Is Now Doubletree". The Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington. May 31, 1997. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
  15. "Last of Red Lion Inns' holdings to be sold to Ohio lodging company". The Columbian. Vancouver, Washington. January 1, 1998. p. D1.
  16. https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/1998/10/26/story1.html
  17. "DoubleTree by Hilton Introduces New Global Brand Identity, Creating One of Biggest Hotel Groups". Business Wire. October 13, 2010. Archived from the original on October 16, 2010. Retrieved April 18, 2023.
  18. Bernstein, Maxine (January 10, 2015). "Washington man arraigned in homicide at Portland's Doubletree Hotel". The Oregonian. Archived from the original on May 27, 2022. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  19. Cook, Katherine (December 28, 2017). "Family suing Hilton hotel group, Backpage.com for enabling prostitution, daughter's murder". Statesman Journal. Salem, Oregon. Archived from the original on April 17, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  20. "Murder victim's family sues hotel chain after Portland killing". KATU. December 26, 2017. Archived from the original on June 22, 2018. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  21. Vespa, Maggie (December 26, 2018). "Portland hotel calls police on black guest talking to his mom on phone". KGW. Archived from the original on June 6, 2019. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
  22. "$10M lawsuit claims racial profiling at DoubleTree hotel". Portland Tribune. October 9, 2019. Archived from the original on August 4, 2022. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
  23. Powell, Meerah (October 9, 2019). "Black Guest Kicked Out Of Portland DoubleTree In 2018 Sues Hotel For $10 Million". Oregon Public Broadcasting. Archived from the original on December 1, 2021. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  24. "Tina Gordon on Making 'Praise This' Not Too 'Preachy'". Essence. April 11, 2023. Archived from the original on April 14, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  25. Youn, Soo (December 29, 2018). "DoubleTree Portland Hotel fires 2 workers for calling police on black hotel guest". ABC News. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  26. Brice-Saddler, Michael (December 29, 2018). "Oregon hotel fires employees seen on video evicting black guest". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  27. Martín, Hugo (January 4, 2019). "DoubleTree by Hilton scrambles to repair image after black guest is removed in Oregon". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on February 1, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  28. Acker, Lizzy (August 16, 2016). "Portland's outdoor hotel pools, ranked". The Oregonian. Archived from the original on June 11, 2018. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
  29. Fodor's Pacific Northwest: with Oregon, Washington & Vancouver. Fodor's Travel. April 28, 2015. ISBN 978-1-101-87874-3. Archived from the original on April 17, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  30. Fodor's Oregon. Fodor's Travel. May 26, 2015. ISBN 978-1-101-87924-5. Archived from the original on April 17, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  31. deBara, Deanna. "DoubleTree by Hilton–Portland". Fodor's. Archived from the original on August 4, 2022. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  32. McCollom, Hollyanna (May 10, 2016). Moon Portland. Avalon Publishing. ISBN 978-1-63121-279-6.
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