Chiming in to bring back some blood into this thread's veins. I have an upcoming trip and I ultimately decided on the FS One Dalton. I went back and forth for a while between the following properties:

1. Newbury -- this was my first option when I initially started planning this trip. The idea of having a fireplace was greatly enticing, especially since I'm going right before Christmas. Two things ultimately turned me away: (1) the fact that there's no real lobby or sense of space for the hotel, and (2) I emailed their concierge and found out they don't have any classic fireplace suites with a park view. That's simply absurd to me. So you have rooms that face the park and then....studio suite (no park view), classic studio (no park view), classic fireplace suite (no park view), and only until park view suite do you get a view of the park. Why are there 3 tiers of suites without park views but a good chunk of the rooms have them???? No thanks.

2. Langham -- I loved the rooms here and the club has only stellar reviews, but the location is simply horrible. Hard pass.

3. FS Boston Common -- This hotel had the charm but I was worried it was a bit dated. Also quite expensive (more then FS One Dalton), and I preferred the location of One Dalton.

4. Raffles -- This was a really tough decision for me. Raffles is by far my favorite brand, and I was so excited to find out they had a location in Boston. I had one minor concern and a really, really big concern. The minor concern was that they had no Asian food offerings at the property, which felt off-brand to me since their origins are in Singapore and a majority of their properties are in Asia. There are a ton of Asian-inspired aesthetics chosen throughout the interior...but no Asian restaurant. Secondly, and the bigger concern, was the service. I'm not going to invalidate or discount anyone's positive reviews upthread, but I have seen VERY polarizing reviews of the service at this property, and my travel agent (who I book through) also advised against booking here due to the service kinks that they need to work out. With how much they were charging, I'm not in a financial position to gamble with my money on that big of a risk.

5. FS One Dalton -- besides the reasons above for which I didn't choose Raffles (2nd choice), I absolutely loved the fact that they have Zuma here (see comment above abut no Asian food offerings at Raffles). The location was excellent, right by Newbury and Prudential, and I'm visiting a friend who lives near Northeastern, so that worked out in my favor. And finally, they had the FSPP promotion of a guaranteed one-tier upgrade, including suites. So I was able to spend $3,800 on a premier room for 5 nights, and I got upgraded to an executive suite. I'm not a huge fan of the bland decor, but I'll look past that for all the other reasons I mentioned.