Unlike at resorts, it can be tough for luxury city hotels to differentiate themselves. Sure, you might see amenities like a pool, a spa, and a good restaurant, but even those are things that guests might get limited use out of.
I always say that I believe hospitality happens at the margins, which is to say that often it’s the little touches that we remember the most about hotel stays.
I recently stayed at the Four Seasons Boston. While I’ll have a full review soon, I wanted to highlight two unique amenities that caught me off guard, and that I’ve never seen before at any other city hotel.
One is possibly my favorite city hotel amenity ever, while the other is perhaps the most dangerous hotel amenity ever (well, at least for those of us who occasionally lack self restraint).
In this post:
The Four Seasons Boston’s complimentary coffee shop
Longtime OMAAT readers will know that I care a lot about great coffee, especially when traveling. I’ll always remember a hotel with an above average coffee setup, but the Four Seasons takes that to the next level.
On the lobby level of the Four Seasons Boston is Sottovento Coffee, which is open from the mornings until the late afternoons. This isn’t a Starbucks or Dunkin’, but rather this is a legitimately great coffee shop. The best part? Drinks are complimentary for hotel guests, whether you want a cappuccino, americano, iced coffee, tea, iced tea, or lemonade.
The people working in there really care about great coffee, and both the cappuccinos and iced coffees were exceptionally good.
There was even a fridge with complimentary still and sparkling water that you could grab all day.
There were other rotating complimentary snacks throughout the day, from fresh fruit, to oatmeal, to popcorn, to candy.
Sottovento will even deliver coffee to your room complimentary in the mornings, if you prefer, as it’s listed on the room service menu.
On weekends, the coffee shop transforms into a bar with complimentary wine, beer, cocktails, and canapés, for hotel guests.
The Four Seasons Boston’s complimentary snack pantry
I haven’t weighed myself since my Four Seasons Boston stay, so I’m still undecided as to whether I love or hate this amenity. The Four Seasons Boston has something named the “Vault.” Even numbered floors in the hotel have special complimentary pantries of sorts, that you can raid 24/7.
What’s in the Vault (other than awesome wallpaper)? Just about every sweet and savory snack you could imagine, from jelly beans, Skittles, M&Ms, Swedish Fish, and “yogurt” covered pretzels, to chips, popcorn, cashews, and almonds.
There’s even a drink machine with still and sparkling fruit-flavored options.
Bottom line
The Four Seasons Boston is awesome, and in particular it’s refreshing to see a city hotel putting some effort into the guest experience. This property has two amenities I’ve never seen before — a complimentary coffee shop with amazing coffee, and the “Vault,” giving guests 24/7 access to food we’d probably be better off not eating. 😉
So what? As it does not appear that this hotel has a club lounge that coffee shop and self serve room just replaces that. The coffee and drinks cost very little (not to the customer but to the shop to make).
Previously it’s reasonable to find this in a St. Regis, nowadays probably only Four Seasons will do this. Too many people getting into this hobby……
I will be making a booking ...... increasingly unable to find Perrier water!
On a serious note, the free lollies will be a parent's nightmare.
I can’t wait to book a room !
How fun, creative and generous!
So with these amenities, we can organize a Tea Party the Four Seasons.
Have to be a good amount of people who grab some legal gummies and then go to town on that vault
Finally hotel nailed my pain points, had enough problems already of limited operation hour of Marriott lounges, as I care less about the alcohol and food, but care more about the non-alcholic drinks I can grab, especially sparkling water as Asian hotels don't usually stock sparkling water in the rooms given how little population of Asians perfer sparkling over still.
Sparkling water is super bad for your teeth, ask your dentist
@Don Kendick
'Know-it-alls' are super annoying for everyone, just ask everyone.
It’s also around $800-1000+ for a room at either FS Boston.
There are two four seasons hotels in Boston. Is this at One Dalton Street?
Nope. This is the original Four Seasons on the Public Garden near Beacon Hill.
I remember balking at a $12 lobster roll in the early 2000s in NYC. Times sure have changed...
Very impressive. Hope I make it into that tax bracket one day. While these guests probably don’t care about paying $10 for a latte, when there’s no paper to sign it feels much less transactional and more hospitable.
This reminds me of the ice cream stations they had at the W Maldives. They had it scattered around the island and it was fun to have.
This is excellent and should be standard across the hotel industry for the prices they are charging
The paid items at the coffee shop are LOL. $30 chicken Caesar salad, $24 avocado toast...
It's not free. It's just bundled into the room rate.
Thankfully, in contrast to some other bloggers, you generally don't rely on clickbait.
But that headline fees abusive;)
Four Seasons room rates are super expensive, but I've always liked that they generally don't nickel and dime their customers.
The Hilton in Berlin would offer "raid the minibar" perk to diamond HH members. The perk let you take all and anything out of the minibar for no additional charge, including alcohol.
Beer is essentially a basic necessity in Germany and lots of Berlin hotels have a free minibar with beer and wine. And I mean free for everyone. Completely regular hotels with ~100 EUR nightly rates. Dormero, Scandic, Park Inn...
Reminds me of Matild Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Budapest.
In a sense, it's a different type of club / lounge.
There an IHG joke somewhere in this story.