I stayed here for four days while visiting Portland for a wedding. The bride told us to stay by the Lloyd Center, so that and cheap were our room-priorities.
I booked through shiloinn.com and w/ AAA, paid $70/night for a room w/ a Queen size bed, mini-fridge, microwave, & free Wi-Fi. There was also an ironing board, iron, blow-dryer, A/C, etc.
I will also add that the door had a regular lock (well, keycard style, anyway), deadbolt, and chain-like thing. The room was quiet too, even though it was at a fairly busy intersection. So those are pluses.
The room was pretty no frills (no closet, no notepad/pen, no extra pillows or towels), but it was clean, inexpensive, and right by the Max.
There isn't much in the immediate area, unless you are actually there for the mall or convention center.
There is free parking at the hotel, but it's first-come, first-serve. Of the 3 days we had a car, only once was there no parking. As it was Saturday night and street parking was free, everything turned out, but I did see on a different evening a guest yelling at the attendant about the parking situation, so I'd imagine it could pose a problem. Unless you are driving out to the boonies for wedding events like I was, I don't really know why you'd need a car anyway...
In any case, the WiFi is free but the signal isn't super-strong. The room was always impeccably clean. The front desk attendants were pretty much indifferent to us, but were pleasant enough.
If I was visiting Portland and was again told to 'stay by the convention center,' I might stay here again. If I couldn't find anything similarly inexpensive in a more interesting neighborhood, I might stay here again. Am I dying to return to the Shilo Inn? No. But it was clean, the non-smoking rooms didn't smell like smoke, and the water pressure was good. What more do you really need? read more