Sierra Ogasawara

Review of Red Lion Columbia River

Tl;Dr - attention to detail is a bit lacking and i...

Tl;Dr - attention to detail is a bit lacking and it shows.

Let me start my review by say that both times I've stayed here I was here for the Oregon State Bar Exam. They were likely a lot more strained trying to facilitate so many test takers and getting the spaces ready.



Check-in: in 2018, this was a significant problem. I had reserved a fancier room, and requested early check in. I arrived around 1:30 (check in is at 4 I believe) and was told house cleaning hadn't gotten to my room. They would need about an hour and would call me. I returned an hour later after napping in my car, they said it still wasn't done. They told me they were moving me to the clean next list (which apparently is different? Idk) and would call me when it was ready. They have my number.
I go sit down in the lobby around 2:30.
Everyone else starts to trickle in, and go to their rooms. I ask what's going on around 3, and at almost 4 they tell me they'll call me and I should just wait for the call. After 5 PM I get tired of waiting and go up to ask again what's going on. The manager says that apparently my room is and has been done.
My entire settling in and review schedule is tossed out the window since I was waiting around for about 4 hours.

2019: again an early check in is requested. We splurge on a suite, request early check in. We call on our way and say we're on our way and we were just wondering about the early check in. The guy who answers says "well, you and two dozen other people are just wondering about early check in"....ok....he says they'll have my room done in the next hour or so. Perfect. Arrive, check in, no problem.

The Room: 2018 my biggest gripe was that the AC didn't work. It was in the 70s the whole time, which for me is way too warm. The room was a bit dated, but had great views and was basically what I needed.

2019: the suite is actually the one we had the most issues with. On the ground floor, we had bugs. All kinds. Spiders, webs, and cobwebs are all over. Flies kept appearing throughout our stay, found a tiny beetle on our coffee table. The AC, again, doesn't work. It turns a fan on, which helps, but doesn't actually blow cool air into the space.
The towels, two notably should never have been placed in the room. One was obviously and significantly worn out, the other appears to have speckles of rust?? On it. The pillow cases appear to all be the one same size, so the smaller pillows just have this massive pillow case tucked into it, and they don't stay tucked. The bathtub plug had ANOTHER plug contraption sitting in it pretending to be a plug. They had to call a maintenance guy up and the poor man spent probably an hour trying to find the right plug to fit it. He finally just switched the entire piece with a new one.
Overall, we had a lot of small things that cumulated into big annoyances. If it was up to us, we wouldn't stay here again. This is the second red lion that we've had problems with so I think we'll avoid them all together if we can.