Reviews

Review: The Nines Hotel Portland – One Bedroom Suite

a stuffed animal in front of a sign

We may receive a commission when you use our links. Monkey Miles is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com and CardRatings. This relationship may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Monkey Miles is also a Senior Advisor to Bilt Rewards. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.


Review: The Nines Hotel Portland – 1 Bedroom Suite

The Nines is a 5 star hotel in downtown Portland Oregon situated in the famous Meier and Frank building opposite Pioneer Courthouse Square. The Nines is named for its location – occupying the top nine floors of the famous Meier and Frank building.  The iconic building housed what was once the Meier and Frank department store where the top floors used to have the fanciest clothing, thus providing another euphemism for the hotel: dressing to the ‘nines’. I love stuff like that. Aside from the internal location, the geographical location is perfect and great to walk out the door and see the city on foot.

IMG_9305

 

Check In –

There is a  bellhop stand on the street level of the hotel. The building is actually shared by Macy’s which occupies the lower floors, so your bags are collected and you are off to the 8th floor for check in.

The hotel was having some sort of technical issue and all of the phones, internet, computer systems were down. So, as a result there was no way to add an SPG number, another registered guest, call for room service, or even make a call at all. It was very late, roughly 1am, so for the most part it wasn’t a big deal. However, check in couldn’t even confirm SPG benefits ( which I’m gold from the Amex Platinum card )  or for that matter tell us if we had breakfast included in our rate. Not life or death, but when dealing with a hotel that caters to high end 5 star clientele it, in my opinion, should have compensated in some other way.  “Of course breakfast is complimentary for your room, etc etc.”  The more I think about it, the more concerns are raised: what happens in the case of an emergency – fire, etc?  How would one call out for a medical emergency if they didn’t have a mobile phone? In this day and age where technology rules I couldn’t even get a dial tone on the room phone. HELLO! Beyond check-in it was never again addressed.

Other than that tho…check in was easy. The elevators are all keycard activated allowing guests access to the hotel and since there is a very popular bar/restaurant on the roof ( Departure ) it proves necessary.

The lobby bleeds into the restaurant/bar area called Urban Farmer. Just off the lobby is a cool library/pool room that would be really dope to kick it in while grabbing a drink at the bar.

IMG_9322
Lobby area/Entrance to Urban Farmer
IMG_9357
Library off the lobby
IMG_9323
Urban Farmer
IMG_9356
urban farmer

The Room –

Huge room. HUUUUUUUGE 

It is a One bedroom suite, buttttttt there was a pretty big range advertised by the hotel ( 440-823).  This was roughly 750 sq ft – I’m a nerd and walked it off, cause it did seem incredibly spacious. The hotel is actually two squares of rooms with a hallway in between. The outer rooms face the street and have windows exposed to direct sunlight, the internal rooms ( where our suite was ) face the Urban Farmer restaurant in a big, open atrium providing indirect sunlight.

IMG_9297

IMG_9314IMG_9354IMG_9355IMG_9289

How am I supposed to do this…

IMG_9271

When the hotel does this?!?!?! AHHHHHH. IMG_9296

Needless to say – the room was fantastic.

Very nice gym

IMG_9324 IMG_9318 IMG_9319

Business center is everything you need. Even a place to sit while someone does their business…

IMG_9316

View from the lobby level ( 8 )

IMG_9302

Stunning view from Departure!

IMG_9337

The Conclusion

Standard rates over the weekend started just under $200 and there was a big convention in town that had occupied a lot of rooms across town. I would have expected them far higher. For that price I’d say the hotel was very competitively priced and worth every penny.  I would expect this hotel to typically command rates north of 250-300 and cater primarily to business folk or wealthy tourists that wanted a luxury hotel with some funk. The Heathman, I would assume, caters to those customers that are looking for more of a traditional take on luxury ( it was also featured in 50 Shades of Grey ). The Nines provides outstanding location, an incredible lounge on the roof, 24 room service, a really cool vibe, free wifi, and nicely appointed rooms. The next time I’m here, I’d like to try out the Urban Farmer as I hear it’s very good.

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

a blue credit card with lines and symbols

Learn More

 Affiliate link 

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


4.8
4.8/5
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott.

Welcome Offer

60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months

Annual Fee

$95

Points Earned

Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards

  • 3x on dining
    •  including eligible delivery services for takeout
  • 3x on select streaming services
  • 3x on online grocery purchases
    • (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
  • 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel Portal
  • 2x on all other travel
  • $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Chase Travel
    • The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
  • 10% Anniversary Bonus
    • Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
  • Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
  • Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
    • Primary rental car coverage is my favorite

We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.

Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.

Main Cast: 

Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.

Supporting Cast:

Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on. 

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.

If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners

Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

1 Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.