The Marcus Whitman Hotel And Conference Center

The hotel itself is very well appointed. We enjoyed the Marcus Whitman art exhibit.

The room lacked the attention to detail giving to the rest of the property. We shut the noisy heating unit off in January to get some sleep. There was no do not disturb tag for the door so room service bothered us. Just like the last time we stayed there were five tiny pillows instead of two or more large comfortable pillows.

A few disappointments

I liked the room, the very soundproof walls/floors in the old section of the hotel. The location puts you surrounded by tasting rooms. We had booked rooms in the conference center section of the hotel and paid a bit more to upgrade to stay in the old hotel. It would have been quieter to be in the conference area; the street running past the front of the hotel is very noisy and looks out at gas station signage. So although we were able to upgrade, we didn't get the best kind of king standard rooms, instead I felt they put us near the elevators and in the rooms that would be least likely to sell later that day. By the hotel staff's own admission, the old section of the hotel was very empty those nights.

It felt like in early November that the kitchen had gone into off-season presentation mode. A steak salad I had from the bar menu--since the bar was where most of the energy was the Sunday night we ate there--was soggy with a blue cheese dressing, although it was described in the menu as having a white balsamic dressing. The steak was two giant chunks of dry beef. Not sure it was steak; I asked for it well-done as I'm not much of a beefeater, but thought they'd be cooking sliced steak to-order, not hacking off a big chunk from an already cooked roast. House-made potato crisps were a bit past their prime and definitely made earlier that our order, and cold. Wine selection was good but no sommelier was in the building to assist. Coffee pot in-room was entirely plastic and there was no cream or sugar (or white stuff of any kind) for the nasty in-room brewed coffee. No tub in our room only a very nice large shower.