Hotel 140 Rating: 2.5 Pearls

Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts

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Commonwealth rooms are about 200 square feet.

Despite its best efforts to market itself as a boutique design hotel, the 54-room Hotel 140 in upscale Back Bay feels somewhat institutional -- like an Ikea-decorated boarding house. There's a reason for this: The hotel is owned by the YWCA and located in a historic 1929 building that once housed the nation's first YWCA headquarters. The Y's administrative offices are still here, in fact, and hotel revenue helps fund the organization. That's all very nice, but travelers who show up with heightened expectations of a stylish stay will end up disappointed.

My Commonwealth room, which is one rung above a standard room, was on the small side (roughly 200 square feet), clean and bright, with blond wood furnishings and a pillow-topped full-size bed covered in a pretty cotton stitched quilt. (Standard rooms, which were being phased out as of November 2009, are roughly $20 cheaper and resemble dorm rooms more than hotel rooms, with linoleum floors instead of carpeting.) A wooden armoire housed the tube TV in my room, as well as a mini-closet and a rollout desktop -- but it was inconveniently located across the room from the data port, which was hidden behind my bed and required me to move the mattress to plug in. The bathroom was clean but very small, and the water pressure in the stall shower was weak (though the drain was weaker -- it backed up anyway).

Service is nearly nonexistent. No porters or valets were on hand to help me with my heavy bags. I arrived a few hours early and was told that I couldn't gain entry to my room until the official check-in time. With a few hours to kill, I asked the college-age concierge for a lunch recommendation nearby. It took him several minutes to orient himself on a map, and after setting me up with a laughably indirect route to Newbury Street, he inexplicably advised me to visit the Juicy Couture store. Uh, thanks?

As of November 2009, there was no room service, but a special in-room delivery menu for upscale American restaurant Post 390 across the street was in the works for early 2010. There's a tiny two-machine fitness room, or you can walk two blocks to the full-service Revolution Gym, which is free for Hotel 140 guests.

If you must stay in Back Bay, you won't find much that's cheaper than Hotel 140. If you're willing to spend a little more, you have several solid options. The quaint, historic Copley Square Hotel offers much more in the way of service (free coffee and tea and a daily wine reception) and guest rooms with more modern trappings. The Marriot Courtyard Copley Square nearby affords much bigger guest rooms and an affordable breakfast buffet. And the Colonnade has a roof-top pool and a tasty on-site restaurant.

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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 away.

• Logan International Airport is about 30 minutes by taxi (a $25 to $30 fare).
• 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 are also stop at the Back Bay Station.
• Faneuil Hall, a historic tourist marketplace with more than 150 shops and cafes, is 15 to 20 minutes away via the T.
• 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.
• Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox, is 1.7 miles away, about a seven-minute drive.
• Harvard Square is across the Charles River, about 25 to 30 minutes via the T.
• Newbury Street, a lovely brownstone-lined corridor with great shopping and dining, is just three blocks away.
• Copley Square, the endpoint of the Boston Marathon and a beautiful public square with an interesting mix of architecture, is about two blocks away.