infinityplusone

My first hotel report to the *wood forum...

The Westin Copley Place
Stayed at the Westin Copley from 01/11/2004 - 01/18/2004, this was the second time I have been to this hotel, last time was two years ago.

Hotel is about a 15-25 (depending on traffic and lights) minute drive by taxi from BOS (Logan), which costs about $27 - $30 in fare. You could also take the "T" (subway) for $1.25 w/ one transfer and it would probably take about the same amount of time, maybe a little bit longer. Enter at Airport station (Blue Line) and get off at Copley Station (Green Line) or Back Bay Station (Orange Line). Both Back Bay and Copley will be a little bit of a walk. A few hundred yard walk from the Back Bay Station and a couple hundred yards from the Copley Station. From Copley Station: walk out of the Copley Station and walk straight past the Boston Public Library (on your right) and you will run into the Westin.
Map of the T

The Westin Copley is centrally located, near Hynes Convention center, near lots of great restaurants, public transportation, Newbury Street (shopping / restaurants) , John Hancock building, Prudential Center, Trinity Church, Boston Public Garden / Commons. Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market are about two miles away, a nice walk in nice weather.

My stay was business related and as such I believe our group got an ok rate of $150 a night.

Check-in
Check-in was quick and efficient. From the doorman to the check-in clerk to the bellhop, everyone was very friendly. Greetings always included, "Mr. infinityplusone..."
I had put off calling in advance to request a King room, so I was given a 2 Queen room upon check-in. I asked for a King room but was told that they were all full but if I would come down tomorrow and ask they could move me into one. For the first night I ended up on the 26th floor, in a 2 Queen room with not much of a view (towards South Boston). The next day, in the evening, I called down to the front desk and requested a King room. I was told that one was available on the 26th floor just down the hall from where I was currently at. I had asked for a better view as well. When I got into the room, the view was facing east. I could see Copley Square, Boston Public Library, the Fairmont Copley Plaza, the John Hancock building, the Charles River and the Bunker Hill Bridge. Very nice.

Room
Both rooms were slightly larger then your average hotel room. Both bathrooms were, I thought, slightly smaller then what I would have expected for the size of the room. First room, everything worked fine. Second room, the entry way light was burnt out, was fixed within 5 minutes of me calling about it. Bathroom tub drain did not work - would not close - did not call about it. I noticed in both rooms there is quite a draft when the curtains are open. Granted it was around 20 degrees every day with high winds on some days/nights. A/C and heat worked well.

Room Service
While pricey food was very good.
I ordered room service twice, dinner once and breakfast once. Delivery time was stated that it would be less then 30 minutes for dinner. Dinner arrived in approx 20 minutes. Food (Fatoush Salad and Buffalo Wings) was very good. Large side of bread was thrown in at no charge, by suggestion of the person who took my dinner order. Breakfast - two boxes of cereal and fruit - $15, arrived on time.

Fitness Center
I used the fitness center three times, should have been more but those Heavenly beds are hard to resist.
The fitness center has around 5-6 treadmills, 2 stair climbers and 8-9 elliptical machines. Plus they have Cybex machines (sort of like Nautilus machines) plus free weights (dumbbells - up to 45lbs). Each of the Cardio machines has a (approx) 10" LCD that receives all of the normal hotel TV channels. Just bring your own headphones. I would say that this Fitness Center is as nice (not as large of course) as the one I use at home (YMCA). I did not use the pool or hot tub, but all three times I worked out (in the evening) no one else was using the pool area. Towels and drinking water are provided. Plus they had music piped in which was a mix of Techno/Dance and Hip-Hop, which I enjoyed. I ended up not using my MP3 player while working out, which I normally do. Each evening while I worked out, there were no more then 3 other people using the fitness center.

Other
Hi-speed Internet cost $10.45 a day. Worked each time I used it without a hitch.

I did not use any of the hotel restaurants or bar on this trip. Although I did on my previous trip and both the bar (Bar 10) and the restaurant (Turner Fisheries) were both average to above average.

One thing I noted, I never had to wait more then 30 seconds for an elevator. Some might not think this a big deal but when you are running late for a meeting, it can be a big deal. As well I have stayed in some hotels where I seriously considered taking the stairs (from 20 floors up) because the elevator had not come after three minutes. I know, I am impatient.

Also of note, the Westin is connected to the Copley and Prudential mall(s). This means, you can walk from the Westin almost to Newbury Street indoors (approx 1/2 mile). The walk from the Westin to the Hynes Convention Center is indoors as well. A Sheraton and Marriott are also connected to these two malls.

There are a few nearby restaurants I would suggest� Ciao Bella (upscale Italian - Newbury), La Familia (casual family style Italian - Newbury), Finale (upscale appetizers and desserts � � mile East of Westin). There are lots of other great places to eat, I just don�t want to list them all here.

Check-out
The only issue I had on check-out was that there was a refreshment center charge for $4 on my bill. I had not used the refreshment center so asked that it be taken off. It was, no questions asked.

Summary
I would definitely stay at this property again. The staff is very friendly with greetings for everyone. I hope to bring the wife and kids the next time as its central location would be great for a long weekend Boston trip to do all the tourist things.

TechBoy

Nice trip report. Only quibble that I would have is the distance of the T stations. They are both only 1 block from the hotel. I don't think that that is "hundreds of yards."

fly co to see the yanks

nice trip report.

i used to prefer the sheraton since they have a much nicer gym. but, the last two times i stayed there, the property had gone down hill in a big way. i'm not into lines for the front desk that stretch through the lobby and out the front door.

last year, i actually stayed at the hyatt because i got such an incredible deal on priceline and the westin was just too darn expensive (yankees/red sox weekends). i stayed for something crazy like $30 a night at the hyatt via priceline/hotwire (forgot which).

i would definitely give the westin another shot. i'm sure others have had this experience: but isn't there one hotel on earth where something always goes wrong? well, the westin copley used to be that property for me. but, i would certainly give it another shot. it's in a great locale.

Ready2Go

One more quibble -- the name of the hotel is the Westin Copley Place. The Copley Plaza is a different (older and better known) hotel, located across the street. It is now a Fairmont.

Ready2Go

Pardon my manners -- I meant also to say that this was an excellent report.

infinityplusone

Thank you.
I did not measure the distance exactly but if you are measuring from the entrance/exit of Copley Station to the either of the front entrances of the Westin, you are talking about approx 100 yards, maybe a bit more. BUT if you are talking from getting off the actual T train at Copley to the front desk at the Westin, I would put it closer to 200 yards (which would be a couple "hundred of yards").

Anyways, I had said, a couple hundred yards from Copley, which infers 200 yards. And a few hundred yards from Back Bay, which infers 300 yards or there abouts. I do believe that the walk from the train at Back Bay station to the front desk is at least 300 yards, possibly 400 yards.

Sorry if you thought my measurements were off, I was going on the assumption that the reader might be carrying a couple to a few pieces of luggage while they were doing these walks so I thought best to not leave the impression that the walks were "right next door".

D'oh! And thank you Ready2Go for the correction, I corrected that above.
I think the signage on the side entrance, at least, for the Fairmont is The Fairmont Copley Plaza. But there are several Places and Plazas in the area, plus a Square or two.

pgalore

It probably seems further because it is so cold in Boston that it hurts to walk very far!

I like this hotel because it's connected to walkways to the various malls, so you don't feel "trapped" inside your hotel by the cold!

Don't ever stay at the Fairmont. I stayed there once and found mouse traps behind the bed!

BostonBasedMetsFan

Great trip report! Figured I'd finally post a first post on here after reading for a few months by just saying that if you take Amtrak into Boston, you can get off at the Back Bay station (also Orange Line on the T), and use the underpass directly into the Copley Place mall. In severe weather you can actually avoid ever going outside to get to this hotel.

TechBoy

Infinity, I wasn't trying to be critical, just keeping the record straight. I haven't measure it either but it always struck me that the hotel was close to both stations (1 block). If someone told me that the station was a couple of hundred yards from the hotel, I wouldn't consider the T, but I would for a block or 2.

Trying not to be picky here, but I guess I'm failing at that.

lesteryen

I went to stay at the Westin Copley Place Boston using Starpoints between March 16-18. On the phone, the agent confirmed a room with 2 Queen-size beds and an extra bed for me, however, when we arrived there, the receptionist told us that we had only reserved a room with 2 Queen-size beds with river view, and insisted that we need to pay $30 per nite in order for us to be upgraded to a Junior Suite so that we can have 2 Queen-size beds and a sofa bed. We did pay the premium and got ourselves onto a very nice Junior Suite with excellent river and city view.

The decoration of the room was very modern. However, I was not satisfied with its bathroom. It was very cramped and only fitted with white tiles. However, I really like the double-head Heavenly Shower.

In Conclusion, I really find the location of the hotel and the views from the rooms are excellent. However, the hotel must improve their service. In our case, the sofa bed was not set up until I called the housekeeping in the evening after we came back to our room.

johnlw

What color tiles do you prefer?

RunawayNFly

I have stayed MANY times at the Westin Copley Square and have frequently stayed in junior suites (rooms in the 12 and 13 series, such as 2512 or 2513). I have always been MORE than satisfied with the rooms and service. In fact, this is one of my favorite hotels and IS my hotel of choice when I am in Boston (which is once a month). Sorry to hear that you did not care for the service.

cla_bos

Stayed there this weekend with a couple of friends (needed to burn those free weekend nights) and was pleased with the hotel and service. I was upgraded to a junior suite (an 01 room) which had great views of the city and the river.

No complaints, and an upgrade on the free nights makes me a fan. So far I'm at 100% for upgrades this year.

DJC

I was also there this past weekend and had an excellent experience apart from some small maintenance issues in the roome (plugs not working and a couple of burned out light bulbs).

I was upgraded to a high floor room with a view, well away from the lifts. I thought service was excellent and very attentive. I had dinner at Turner's, which was very good and breakfast in the other restaurant which was very enjoyable.

I have bounced around hotels at BOS in the past but have now found a preferred location in the Westin.

Bulldog King

I am headed to Boston over the last weekend in April.

Originally, I had booked at the Sheraton....but then cancelled my reservation when it seemed that my plans were changing.

However, once I knew for sure that I would be going to Boston.....the Sheraton was already sold out for the nights of the 29th and 30th and I was forced to look at other area hotels (including the Marriott Copley Place, where I once stayed a number of years ago).

In the end, I got lucky and ended up booking a junior suite at the Westin for those 2 nights at the exact same nightly rate that a regular room at the Sheraton was originally going to cost me.

This will be my first stay at the Westin.

Based on the comments in this forum, I think I came out ahead of the game after all is said and done.

A.J.