Back Bay Hotel Rating: 4.0 Pearls

Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts

The hotel is in Boston's former police headquarters.

It's hard to imagine that the homey, 225-room Back Bay Hotel, with its cozy, comfortable rooms, was ever an office building where the work centered around gritty crimes and hardened criminals -- but that's exactly what it was. Built in the 1920s, the building was Boston's police headquarters throughout the last century. In 2004, the Irish hotel group the Doyle Group transformed the building into Jury's Boston Hotel, and in 2009 rebranded it the Back Bay.

Today, the hotel pays homage to both its police headquarters history and its Irish ownership. The hotel bar is named Cuffs, and black-and-white photographs of the police days hang in the hallways. The hotel's meeting rooms are named after famous Irish writers, and the décor conjures a warm, tasteful European library. It's an eclectic mix, but it works, creating a hotel with a unique, unpretentious charm that focuses on small, thoughtful luxuries.

At just under 290 square feet, standard guest rooms aren't huge, but that's also true of one of its main competitors in the area, the Lenox Hotel. Rooms are nicely decorated with luxurious beds and modern electronics. Guests are greeted with hot towels at check-in, bathrooms have towel warmers, and rooms are stocked with free bottled water.

With a mediocre gym and turndown service only by request in standard rooms (it's automatic in higher room categories), the hotel lacks the feeling of full-on luxury you get in some of the more expensive hotels in the area -- the Mandarin Oriental and the Taj Boston, for example. For the price, though, the Back Bay is quite nice, especially with a worthwhile upgrade from a standard room to a Deluxe Room. The lobby is spacious and well decorated, the business center and in-room Wi-Fi are free, the restaurant has good food and friendly service, and the lively bar draws a steady stream of well-heeled young locals, especially in the summer when its outdoor patio area is open. And while the hotel is located in an area popular with conventions and large groups, about three quarters of the guests here are individual business and leisure travelers, so the property doesn't feel overrun by large groups, as nearby hotels like the Boston Park Plaza and Marriott Boston Copley Place can. For those looking for a moderately priced, fairly luxurious property with some historic charm, this is a top pick.

Doormen are quick to offer a hand.

Though it has more than 200 rooms, the Back Bay Hotel has friendly, personable service that makes it feel like a smaller boutique hotel. Doormen and porters are quick to offer a hand. At check-in, guests are greeted with a hot towel elegantly presented on a plate with a fresh flower. Service in the restaurant is warm, polished, and accommodating; servers remember guests from previous meals and greet them with a "welcome back." The only service disappointment I had was when I asked for a plate and some silverware to be sent to my room so I could eat some treats I'd picked up at the farmers' market and was told they'd have to charge me a room-service delivery fee; it felt like I was being nickel-and-dimed. Overall, the service is quite a bit warmer than that at the nearby and more formal Taj Boston, and comparable to the excellent service at the Lenox Hotel, also in the area.

• Hot towel at check-in
• All guest room refrigerators are stocked with free bottled water, and they are replenished daily.
• Concierge on duty from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• No free newspaper delivery to guest rooms, but papers are available in the lobby.
• Turndown service by request only in the standard Supreme Rooms, though it's automatic in Deluxe Rooms (about $40 more a night) and suites.
• Valet parking only, for $39 per night

View on a Larger Map

The hotel sits in the middle of the city in Back Bay, an upscale commercial and residential area where skyscrapers tower above centuries-old churches and expensive brownstone homes. It's a popular area for business travelers -- the Hynes Convention Center is here -- but it also has some of the city's best shopping, from quaint Newbury Street boutiques to the massive Prudential Center mall. Major attractions like the Public Garden, Boston Common, and the start of the Freedom Trail are within a few blocks; other tourist hot spots, like the North End and Faneuil Hall, are 20 to 30 minutes away via public transportation. The area is filled with midrange and upscale restaurants, many of them chains; the South End, a more lively bohemian area with trendy bars and eateries, is a quick 10-minute walk.

• The nearest stops on the T (Boston's subway system) are Arlington Station on the Green Line and Back Bay Station on the Orange Line, both about two blocks away. Regional trains and Amtrak also stop at Back Bay Station.
• Three blocks to Newbury Street, a lovely brownstone-lined corridor with great shopping and dining
• 10-minute walk to the South End's restaurant row on Tremont Street
• Copley Square, the endpoint of the Boston Marathon and a beautiful public square with an interesting mix of architecture, is about three blocks away.
• Five-minute walk to the Boston Common, the large park in the center of the city; 15-minute walk to the start of the Freedom Trail (inside the Boston Common), a 2.5-mile path that leads to 16 historic landmarks
• 1.7 miles or about a 10-minute drive to Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox
• 15 to 20 minutes on the T to Faneuil Hall, a historic tourist marketplace with more than 100 shops and cafes
• 25 to 30 minutes on the T to Harvard Square, across the Charles River in Cambridge
• 30- to 35-minute drive to Logan International Airport, about a $25 to $30 cab fare

Rooms are comfortable but small.

Guest rooms are soothing and inviting, decorated in a contemporary style in tastefully subdued colors. The standard Superior Rooms are 290 square feet -- comparable to those at the Lenox but smaller than those at the Colonnade. Within those 290 square feet, there are plenty of nice touches: wonderfully comfortable beds with Frette linens, refrigerators stocked with free bottled water, heated towel racks, free Wi-Fi. For another $40 or so a night, Deluxe Rooms are a bit larger, at 340 square feet, and feature standalone showers and large tubs. Deluxe Rooms also feature in-room Nespresso coffeemakers, outlet strips with audiovisual hookups, and automatic turndown service (which is available only by request in standard rooms). The old building has relatively small windows, so no matter what room class you're in, your won't be bathed in natural light. Thoughtful layouts and high ceilings manage to make the rooms feel airy nonetheless, but if you're worried about feeling closed in, try the Colonnade, where even the standard rooms have huge windows.

• Bathrooms have luxurious features such as heated towel racks, waffle robes, and Korres and L'Occitane toiletries.
• Standard rooms have roomy bathrooms that feature standalone showers or shower/tub combos. Deluxe Rooms have large, lovely bathrooms with standalone showers and extra-wide tubs.
• No minibars, but there are small refrigerators stocked with free bottled water
• Small windows and limited natural light
• Free Wi-Fi
• Luxurious beds with huge, fluffy down pillows, Frette sheets, and pillow-top mattresses
• Standard rooms have either one king bed, one queen, or two doubles.
• 37-inch LG flat-screen TVs
• In-room CD players but not iPod docks
• Analog alarm clocks are easy to read and set.

The fitness center is disappointingly small and dark.

As a smallish hotel in an old building, the Back Bay's features are limited. The small business center, just off the lobby, is nicely decorated and free to use, but the fitness center is disappointing. For a better fitness center, try the Colonnade Hotel. There's no pool or spa.

• The free business center features two computers, a printer, and a fax machine in a lovely, library-like setting.
• The cramped, ground floor fitness center with tiny windows doesn't really inspire one to run that extra mile. There are six cardio machines, a multipurpose strength-training machine, and some free weights.
• No pool or spa

With a delightful, unpretentious atmosphere and central location, the hotel can accommodate families, but it isn't particularly well suited to them. There's no pool, and standard rooms are on the small side, at 290 square feet. The nearby, comparably priced Westin Copley Place doesn't have the Back Bay hotel's historic charms, but it is better suited to families: There's a pool and, at 392 square feet, standard rooms are much larger.

• Adjoining rooms are available; you can connect a Superior Room with one king bed to a Superior Room with two double beds.
• Free cribs
• Rollaway beds cost $20 per night, but they cannot fit in a standard Superior Room with two double beds (only a Superior with one king bed).
• Kids' menu available for the Stanhope Grille and for room service. Options include pasta with butter and parmesan cheese ($12) and a quarter-pound hot dog ($14).

The dining room at the Stanhope Grille

The hotel's eating and drinking options are both enjoyable and convenient. There's a nice restaurant, the Stanhope Grille, and a bar that's popular with locals, Cuffs. Both have lovely outdoor patios. There's also 24-hour room service and a morning coffee bar.

• The hotel's upscale Irish bar, Cuffs, is popular with locals and draws a lively young crowd with seven beers on tap and $13 cocktails. There are also bar munchies like pita chips with hummus ($4) and cheeseburger sliders ($11).
• For a quieter drink, the lobby coffee bar also serves beer and spirits in a large area with huge windows and velvet sofas. In the morning, the coffee bar offers pastries and Starbucks coffee.
• The Stanhope Grille doesn't have a celebrity chef or a huge reputation, but the New American food is tasty, and service is wonderfully friendly and accommodating. The a la carte breakfast menu features items like Irish oatmeal brulee ($8) and lobster frittata ($19). There's also a continental breakfast, which ranges from $15 to $20, and a better-than-average hot breakfast buffet ($23) with made-to-order omelets. Dinner entrees such as Guinness short ribs ($21) and diver sea scallops ($28) are cooked with herbs from the hotel's rooftop garden.
• 24-hour room service offers the usual assortment, including pizzas for $11 to $12.

Though the hotel hasn't been fully renovated since it opened in 2004, it feels fresh and new overall. Guest rooms and common areas are thoroughly cleaned and well maintained. The only cleanliness issues I spotted were extremely minor: some streaks on the bathroom door and some debris trapped in the stair grooves in the lobby. Admittedly, I was looking pretty hard for them.