The Hotel Zags - Portland, OR
Work has been keeping me pretty busy as of late which has meant I haven’t had a lot of time to spend on myself. With the busy summer season approaching at my restaurant, I knew that soon my schedule would get even more hectic so I decided to head to Portland for the weekend to take in some sights and try some good food from the city’s acclaimed food scene.
My first choice of hotel was booked for this weekend so after a bit of scouring through the internet I found a few choices for places to stay but ultimately landed on the Hotel Zags, conveniently located in the downtown Portland area.
Like I did in for my stay at the Grand Park Royal in Cancun, I found and booked this hotel while browsing on the Booking.com app in order to compare all the hotels in the downtown Portland area.
The Booking.com app is privy to various “mobile-only” prices where you can find even greater discounts than you can find on their website. Additionally, if you own a Samsung phone and have your Samsung Pay account set up, you can activate special cash-back deals when booking hotels on certain apps including Booking.com. I was able to activate a 4.5% cash back offer when I was reserving my stay but these offers fluctuate and I have seen them be higher and lower than that based on demand.
Like with most hotels on the Booking.com platform, The Hotel Zags did not require prepayment through the app or website, instead allowing you to pay at the hotel itself. This works great for me as my United Explorer Card offers 2x miles per dollar spent when I pay directly at a hotel.
The Hotel Zags has a limited selection with four different types of rooms including the Zags Suite which I was able to book for a little over $300 a night when fees are taken into account.
The Hotel Zags is found in the heart of Downtown Portland, conveniently located near various restaurants and cocktail bars and within walking distance of the Portland Art Museum.
From the Portland airport (PDX), The Hotel Zags is about a 15-30 minute ride by car (depending on traffic).
Two days before my check-in, I received an e-mail from the people over at Zags asking if I wanted to pre-pay for any “upgrades” such as pre-paying for parking (which I took advantage of), buying a bottle of wine for the room, and reserve early check-in or late check-out among other things.
Check-in time was at 4:00 PM but since we pulled into town earlier than expected, we tried our luck right around 3:00. Fortunately, our suite was ready for our arrival so we were allowed to check-in early for no additional cost.
In addition to two sets of keys to the suite, I was also handed a map of downtown Portland, a parking permit to place on my dashboard, $20 worth of vouchers valid at the restaurant on the ground floor, and was told the room came with a $15 credit to be used in the hotel’s pantry in the lobby.
Our Zags Suite was essentially a one bedroom apartment with a living room and dining area that can be separated from the bedroom via a large sliding mirrored panel.
