The Benson is a great hotel in downtown Portland. ...

The Benson is a great hotel in downtown Portland. It's easy to get to and there's always a space out front to park for valet. One downside of the downtown location is that you typically have to valet your car if you drive. Onstreet parking is usually filled up (and time limited), and nearby parking structures that are cheap are non-existent. This is more a problem with downtown locations than the hotel itself. The valet team at The Benson are great. They're very friendly and very fast at getting your car.

The accomodations are good. The hotel is in an old building, so it has a lot of amazing and unique character (the lobby is beautiful), but that also means some of the rooms feel a bit dated (e.g. smaller bathrooms). I always end up in rooms that look out into a courtyard with HVAC equipment, so my view has never been anything to write home about, but I would imagine the rooms along the outside edge have nice views into the city (it is a downtown hotel, after all).

Overall, I'd recommend stopping into the Benson if you're in town.