- Lucky Charms Ireland: Introduction
- Lucky Charms Ireland: W Boston
- Lucky Charms Ireland: Aer Lingus Gold Circle Lounge Boston & Air France Business Class Lounge Boston
- Lucky Charms Ireland: Aer Lingus Business Class Boston to Dublin
- Lucky Charms Ireland: Four Seasons Dublin
- Lucky Charms Ireland: Exploring Dublin
- Lucky Charms Ireland: Ritz Carlton Powerscourt
- Lucky Charms Ireland: Hilton Dublin Airport
- Lucky Charms Ireland: Aer Lingus Gold Circle Lounge Dublin
- Lucky Charms Ireland: Aer Lingus Business Class Dublin to Boston
- Lucky Charms Ireland: InterContinental Boston
Since I had two overnights in Boston, it was my intention to spend one night at the W Boston and one night at the InterContinental Boston, both of which I’ve heard pretty good things about. For whatever reason almost everything in the city was sold out for my overnight on the outbound, so I booked the W Boston on points. It’s a category five hotel, so cost me 12,000 SPG points for the night.
I took a cab from Logan Airport, which cost about $30 including fees and tip. The doorman offered to help with my bags, though I declined since I just had a carry-on.
Hotel exterior
The lobby was much brighter than many other W properties I’ve visited, with high ceilings and floor to ceiling windows.
Entrance
Lobby/”Living Room”
There were three check-in counters just inside the entrance on the left side, where I was promptly helped. The hotel was sold out so unfortunately no room upgrades were available, which the agent apologized for. For the Platinum amenity I selected the complimentary breakfast, which is served in the hotel’s restaurant, Market, between 7AM and 10:30AM.
Check-in
The elevators were just around the corner from the check-in desk, and had ambient music that resembled urination (there has gotta be a prettier way to phrase that, no?).
Walkway to elevators
The hallways were funky and reminded me a bit of those at the Andaz 5th Avenue New York.
Hallway
My room was 720, a standard king room. In W speak I believe that’s know as a “Wonderful Room.” I’ll never understand W’s room categories — Wonderful, Fabulous, Marvelous, Spectacular — I wouldn’t even know if I’m getting upgraded or downgraded!
Room entrance
The room was reasonably large for a standard room with a comfortable signature W bed, desk, and a couple of mini-couches.
Room entrance
Room
TV and desk
Signature W bed
Desk and seat
Separating the bedroom and bathroom was some sort of a mesh curtain, that was sorta-kinda-though-not-really see through.
Room facing the bathroom
The bathroom was a bit on the small side though functional, and featured a single sink, rainforest shower, and toilet. As is the case at all Ws, the amenities were Bliss branded. I was also happy that the water pressure and temperature control were excellent.
Sink
Bliss amenities
Shower
Toilet
While the hotel is centrally located the views weren’t especially good, given that I was only on the 7th floor and facing another building.
View from my room
The following morning I went to Market for breakfast.
Market
In March Starwood introduced complimentary breakfast as a Platinum amenity option, which I thought was awesome. On the whole the execution has been much better than I expected, though at times I’m still left scratching my head. At Market, for example, Platinum breakfast only includes the “Market Breakfast,” which consists of eggs and coffee.
Market breakfast
In a way they’re going above and beyond in offering a “hot” breakfast instead of a continental breakfast. But I would’ve preferred to eat something lighter, like fruit, yogurt, cereal, etc. (also known as a continental breakfast, last I checked). I ended up ordering scrambled eggs (and paid for OJ separately), which were quite good. Still, I don’t understand a hotel’s incentive to basically dictate what people eat through the breakfast amenity. This item was $20 on the menu, so I don’t know why they won’t let me instead order a $12 fruit plate and a glass of orange juice.
Breakfast
Anyway, I’m just sharing my thoughts out loud here, as it’s nothing I lose sleep over.
While the hotel doesn’t have a pool, it does have a nice gym, with the exception of the strong odor in there (somewhere between Chinese and Indian food).
Gym
Gym
On the whole I enjoyed my stay at the W Boston, despite the hotel being full and the lack of an upgrade. The employees I interacted with were eager to please, and the fact that the hotel is new means it still has that “fresh” feeling. I’d definitely consider returning if the price is right.
@ BOS_Flyer -- The July 4 stay was actually reasonably cheap, it was the one on the outbound that was expensive (a week earlier).
you were in BOS on 4th of July, so no wonder the hotel was fully booked. As a matter of fact, BOS is running very high occupancy rates, and desperately needs more hotels.
You said: "it does have a nice gym, with the exception of the strong odor in there (somewhere between Chinese and Indian food)" I say: "eeeeeeeew!" Sounds really gross!
@ wxguy -- I had no clue, thanks for the heads up! Will use that next time for sure.
@ thalha -- Yes, I'll have that in the installment about the flight, so stay tuned. I posted the flight numbers and dates in the introduction post, since travel already happened for this trip.
Which flight are you flying out of, what day and time, just curios, i work in the airport.
Hi Lucky
Can post pictures of Air Lingus business class seat when its fully extended for sleep, i cant seem to find pictures of them fully extended, i believe they are angles sit, let us know how comfortable they are for sleep
You paid $30 for a cab, with only carry-on? Bad, Lucky, Bad! The city is now offering FREE transportation from the airport into the city: You should have taken the Silver Line bus to South Station, then Red Line subway to Park Street, then Green Line trolley to Boylson Street. About 30 minutes, and FREE!
This is one of my favorite spg hotels in Boston. Inn my last stay was upgraded to an extreme wow suite. Had no noise problems (interior or exterior), and for the breakfast received $20 credit per person. For foodies the market is a jean George restaurant which also provides room service.
Breakfast at hotels is just another way that they are taking advantage of customers (not to mention $3.50 and up for bottles of water). I just stayed at the Hilton Resort in Scottsdale and having Gold status the breakfast was free. Essentially they gave each of us an $11 credit which covers the cold portion of the buffer (breads, cereal, juice, tea/coffee and oatmeal). For us that was plenty but $11 for breakfast? And I...
Breakfast at hotels is just another way that they are taking advantage of customers (not to mention $3.50 and up for bottles of water). I just stayed at the Hilton Resort in Scottsdale and having Gold status the breakfast was free. Essentially they gave each of us an $11 credit which covers the cold portion of the buffer (breads, cereal, juice, tea/coffee and oatmeal). For us that was plenty but $11 for breakfast? And I know it can be much higher elsewhere. $20 is just crazy.
@ Jamison -- Yes, it was $380 for the night I was looking at when I booked.
ouch, i don't know if I would blow 12,000 starpoints on this property.... was this property going for $350+ ?
@Josh G, noise was a major problem when I stayed at W Boston in March. Stayed on a Saturday and street noise lasted all through the night. Internal noise is also a problem at this hotel. The walls are thin, and doors are set up so that they slam loudly when closing, so you can hear whenever anyone in a 10 room radius closes the door, which for a party hotel, is all night long....
@Josh G, noise was a major problem when I stayed at W Boston in March. Stayed on a Saturday and street noise lasted all through the night. Internal noise is also a problem at this hotel. The walls are thin, and doors are set up so that they slam loudly when closing, so you can hear whenever anyone in a 10 room radius closes the door, which for a party hotel, is all night long. In March, it seemed like they were well aware of the problem, however, because with very little pressure at check out, they refunded the points I used for the night.
@ Josh G -- I thought the location was great for restaurants and sightseeing. The finishes did feel a bit cheap, though not problematically so given how new the hotel is.
Meant to say how did you perceive the surrounding area? It's not the most spectacular part of the city and have heard about noise problems from the surrounding clubs
Glad you had a good stay. I have heard mixed things about this property. It seems the consensus is this is an aloft with lipstick given the size of the rooms and quality of finishes. The property has had considerable financial problems related to the developer and slow condo sales. How did you find the location?
I stayed there as a Plat when it was empty and they still did not upgrade me - so dont worry.