mczlaw

I might give the FS a try on my next Boston visit...but not for any of the reasons noted above. MO is right in the heart of the Back Bay. FS is a few blocks away...meaningful in the winter months at least. MO has always felt warm and welcoming from the doorman to the front desk to the concierge. Comparing it with an office building is absurd. Mostly what I've looked at from my windows are the shops along Boylston. My only gripe about MO is they aren't terribly forthcoming with upgrades, but that's sort of an MO thing. The rooms I've been allocated are nothing to gripe about. Feng shui? Sorry, not a concern of mine.

mike_la_jolla

Hmmm. Then you weren't in the room I was assigned. My view was to the alley that is Ring Rd and was worse than an 'office building'. An 'office building' would have been an improvement. I remember the art in the room being bad also. I went back to FS and never returned to MO ...

callmedtop

I spent a single night last week at the Ritz-Carlton Boston for work. The property has undergone an extensive renovation that wrapped up earlier this year, which included a refresh of all rooms. I don't believe the lobby/bar areas were renovated, but they also still look relevant - the rooms certainly did not pre-renovation.

I last stayed here in 2012 for a one-night stay and was not impressed with the hard product. This stay was much better from that perspective, as the rooms are fresh and quite nice. It doesn't look like they did much with the bathrooms, unfortunately, though they are by no means antiquated at this point (and have a separate shower/tub which is a mandatory).

I was in a regular, deluxe room and there is not much to report beyond that. I enjoyed the TV which has built-in streaming (e.g. Netflix) which was a nice touch. The HVAC system is easy to use and very responsive, which is still too rare in 2017 (all should be like the Pen IMO).

A few pictures are below, but for whatever reason make the room look much shabbier than it did in person - keep that in mind:


My first room had two issues: 1. a strong cigarette smell in the bathroom, and 2. the HVAC was extremely loud and was whistling like a tea kettle. I called down to the front desk within 5 minutes of getting to my room, and they sent someone up. After 15 minutes of no one showing, I called again. The front desk told me they "literally just sent someone", though I waited another 10 minutes and called again. Finally someone showed up and quickly fixed the HVAC but noted the cigarette smell, and fetched the manager on duty. She was apologetic and quickly moved me to a new, smell-free room. I took a note from bhrubin's playbook and made it known I wasn't happy with the time it took to resolve, and suggested that the manager takes care of drinks in the hotel with my work colleague. She was happy to do so and applied a $50 credit on my bill. This was my first time actually asking for compensation when I felt it was owed, and I was happy with the outcome if not a little peeved for having to ask.

Drinks in the lobby bar were quite good and service was great. I had room service breakfast the next morning and came exactly at 7:30am as requested. It was of high quality and I was happy with it.

All in all, this was a fine if not noteworthy stay. Withstanding the room switch situation I would not hesitate to return if the price was right and perhaps would pony up for the Club level next time. That said, having to wait 40 minutes to switch rooms b/c of cigarette smoke is unacceptable. Given the Ritz was going for 60% of the Four Seasons and 50% of the Mandarin (at least with the corporate rate I was using), this is a no-brainer, but at rack rates I believe that the Mandarin is still the best hotel in the city.

bhrubin

Glad to hear it! I always believe that a luxury hotel should compensate in some way when guests are obviously inconvenienced. This was an obvious inconvenience.

And while I agree that the manager should have offered some comparable service recovery without you needing to ask, it's better to have asked when appropriate than not to have asked at all. Imagine how peeved you'd feel if they hadn't done anything because you hadn't asked.

The service recovery reinforces to the manager and the hotel that something went wrong and needs to be addressed, and that is better for the hotel and for all future guests.

ridefar

That is disappointing about the RC service. Their service was their strong suit prior to renovation. I do really like the new rooms, which were badly in need of updating. I stayed several times last year and had consistently good service. My only complaint about the property is that the fitness facility is a giant public gym in the attached building (plusses and minuses to that). Hopefully your service glitch was an anomaly.

instyleprincess

Agree

Location-wise, I like MO BOS the best too

callmedtop

Agreed on the location wholeheartedly, but I may be biased as I lived a stones throw away from the Mandarin for a number of years.

I'll be back at the Mandarin for a 3-night stay in a couple of weeks and looking forward to seeing how the hotel has evolved over time.

bhrubin

My impression always has been that there is no obvious best hotel in Boston...and that even the best group of hotels here in Boston (in no particular order, RC, MO, FS, Liberty, XV Beacon, Boston Harbor) are a bit below the top luxury standard in cities such as New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc.

I have a stay over Easter 2018 planned for the renovated RC. Executive Suite. Not Club, as I never use the Club amenities. Best deal of all the major luxury hotels, as I won't return to the Liberty due to its air con issues and concomitantly pitiful management response.

callmedtop

I don't disagree that there is no obvious overwhelming winner in Boston, and despite the large selection of luxury hotels given the size of the city, they are all operating at a tier lower than the best in their respective brands. For me I like the MO primarily because of the location. The Liberty makes for a fun stay given the historic nature of the property, but I do not think the service is at the same level as the top players.

I will say that although I did not test how low the RC air con goes, I've never been in a hotel room that got down to 68 degrees quicker than at the RC. It's either incredibly powerful or the reading is wrong .

bhrubin

Hehe. I've got my new portable thermostat to keep hotels honest now since the PdG Paris bought one for me. So now I'm armed and really dangerous.

Your experience makes me happy about and positive for the stay, though!

The W Boston has amazing air con, but I was disappointed with their service for a one night stay in spring. They're trying to lure me back, so who knows.

I'd like to enjoy a proper luxury weekend over Easter between 3 weeks of travel. So I think I'm gonna stick with the RC. I'll give them a call next week to make sure they confirm the suite can cool to 67 F in writing in advance. If they can do that, I can feel assured to stick with the RC.

MikeFromTokyo

Now, that is service from PdG!! ^

ridefar

I have had consistently much better service at the RC than the W. The W has a few things in its favour, such as the gym, and the breakfasts. But for service the RC wins hands down. I find the W to be pretty... meh (they think they are too cool for school type of service). With the exception of the valets. Not all Ws are like this, not even on average in my experience, but this one stands out as having a (bad) attitude. That is from 4-5 stays at each.

callmedtop

I wrapped up a 3-night stay at the Mandarin a couple of weeks ago on a fantastic corporate rate and wanted to report back. The stay was by-and-large uneventful, but the room has aged somewhat since I was last here a few years ago. Nothing in particular, it just doesn't look quite as fresh as it used to. Still, a very comfortable room with great bedding that made it difficult to wake up in the morning. I do wish the entry-level category had double vanities but I know this is not as common as I would like. Shower pressure was great, though while I love the concept of a shaving mirror in the shower, it's not very useful when it fogs up within seconds.

It was the first cold weekend in Boston with temperatures in the 20's, despite it being in the 60's earlier that week. As such, the heat was a little finicky. The room was extremely dry at night, to the point of being uncomfortable. I called the front desk the morning of my second night and mentioned this to them, and by the time I was back in my room that afternoon, they had set up a humidifier which essentially remedied the problem. There were about 10 others in our party and they all reported a similar issue so I think it may have just been the heating system being used for the first time this season.

We had breakfast at Bar Boulud one morning which was excellent and with fantastic service. We also as a group had drinks one night at the bar and had some fantastic cocktails, but otherwise don't have much to say about F&B. The hotel does set up a nice tea/coffee stand in the lobby which was appreciated though we never used it.

Check-in and check-out was uneventful and processed quickly. Unbelievably this hotel still charges for WiFi (although this is not relevant for Virtuoso and direct bookings), a $15 daily fee I was shocked to see in 2017.

The location is fantastic and I believe it's the best situated luxury hotel in the city (e.g., the FS and Ritz location is a bit stale other than being closer to the Common). Perhaps I'm biased after living a couple of minutes from the MO for years. I wouldn't hesitate to return for the location alone during our next stay, but even not considering that, I view the MO as the best all-around hotel in Boston.

dhuey

I've generally been happy with both the Four Seasons and the Ritz-Carlton in Boston, but earlier this year the R-C cancelled my reservation and moved me to the Boston Harbor Hotel. They said that a construction project went longer than expected. They covered my first night and got me a very good rate for the remaining two nights.

Thing is, I liked the Boston Harbor Hotel much more, and because of its location. It's, as you might expect, on the harbor. Beautiful views and the location is tops for visitors. For the novelty, I took a water taxi to the airport on my return -- it departs from right outside the hotel.

330West

If it wasn't for the location(wedged in between the Sheraton and Hilton behind the Prudential and Hynes) I'd think the new Four Seasons could set that standard a bit higher. With all of the development in the Seaport area, there's probably a high likelihood of something in the luxury category opening there in the next few years. There was also an interview last year in the BBJ with the Marriott CEO indicating that they'd like to make further investments in the Boston luxury market, specifically mentioning JW Marriott as being notably absent in Boston and that there would be a good demand base for Edition. Beyond that, there was some mention of a desire to bring the old Ritz(Taj) back under the Marriott flag in some manner.