Nick and I decided to stop for a night in Boston on our way to Maine because we’d be leaving in the evening on Friday and we didn’t want to be driving until midnight. One of the things I love doing before a big trip is researching places to stay and last week was no different. We were potentially going to stay with one of my friends who lives in Boston but a week before the trip, we decided to get a room somewhere. I started my usual searches on HotelTonight and Booking.com, narrowing the price down to $100-ish a night and searching for something that was centrally located (though that didn’t matter much because we weren’t there to see anything).
In all of my searches over the week leading up to the trip, The Revolution Hotel in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood kept coming up for around $103 (about) a night. I looked at it and although the outside looked kind of prison-like, the interior shots looked really funky and cool.
Nick pointed out that the hotel was offering a 15% discount for booking directly on the website so our grand total for our room was $93.
It’s important to mention that this is a boutique hotel with very hip hostel vibes and not all of the rooms have their own private bathrooms.
We made sure to book a room with a private bathroom AND a king-size bed.
I was especially excited for the king-size bed.
Warning: The area around the hotel is a little desolate at night but don’t be nervous: it’s not a dangerous area. Keep your wits about you, just as you would in any other city, but don’t be nervous if you have to park your car somewhere and walk a few blocks to the hotel, just as we did.
To say it was freezing at 10pm in Boston was an understatement. It was frigid! My hands were nearly frozen by the time we reached the hotel a few blocks away. It was windy, too.
We opened the door to the brand-spanking-new hotel and saw colorful and historical murals painted all over the lobby. The Revolution Hotel is located in what was the very first post office in Boston! I walked over the desk and checked us in. It was very quick and we were given keys right away.
We were on floor 4 which was the ‘Civil Rights Floor.’ Another mural greeted us as we got off the elevator with all of the civil rights warriors who lived in Boston on it. We walked down the hall and used our key card to get into our room.
I turned the lights on and I was delighted. It reminded me of my room at the Dream Hostel in Warsaw and my hotel room at the Citizen M Hotel in London. It compact and tiny but had everything you would need for a comfortable night’s sleep. Honestly, I don’t know why Americans are obsessed with having big hotel rooms. How much room do you need to throw down your stuff and go to sleep? In my opinion, if you’re on vacation, you shouldn’t be in your hotel room anyway.
We put our stuff down and asked the front desk for a good spot for dinner. Yes, it was late, but we didn’t have the opportunity to stop on the way up so we were pretty hungry. Unfortunately, most bars and pubs in Boston stop serving food quite early (one of the things that makes me not such a fan of Boston) so we had a little bit of a conundrum on our hands. We finally settled on a place, a Boston chain, called Tasty Burger. The veggie burger was meh, but I did really like the onion rings!
On our walk back to the hotel we wandered the streets of Back Bay, looking at the rows of pristine, historic townhouses that lined the streets. I kind of fell in love with a few of those streets if I’m being honest.
I kind of felt as though maybe I’d been unfair to Boston in my prior size ups of the city. I’ve been to Boston maybe a half dozen times in my life. I remember doing the history part of Boston when I was in grade school, followed by another trip there with my parents in high school during which I spent most of the time with my then-boyfriend who went to a small college in the city, and then I’ve been back a couple of times to see musicals.
But seeing this quiet side of it, with the quiet tree-lined streets, I began to soften a little for the town that inarguably closes way too early for the comfort of this New Yorker.
However, this isn’t about Boston itself. This is about The Revolution Hotel.
On the wall in the lobby are things that were invented in Massachusetts like (insert things). And here and there in the lobby, you’ll see little magnifying glasses through which facts about the hotel can be spotted if you look through the glasses themselves. There’s also a cafe in the lobby, too, which is nice since their restaurant isn’t open yet (they’re waiting on their liquor license).
The rooms are equipped with flat-screen TVs and basically anything you could need for a comfortable stay: hand dryer, drinking glasses, towels, bins that go under the bed for storage.
The Good:
– The beds were SO comfortable. I emailed them after to find out what kind of mattress they had and I plan on buying one whenever I replace my mattress.
– The blackout curtains REALLY did the job. The room was pitch black at night. None of the lights of the city outside could sneak in.
– Again, I loved the room: the size, the decor, everything.
– The front desk staff was so friendly!
– The location is EXCELLENT!
Where Improvements are Needed:
– When you check-in, they give you a number that you can text, instead of calling, if you have issues. They are not very responsive to this number. I would suggest you call instead.
– The sink in the room is really small. There is also a shelf over the sink which makes it nearly impossible to get your face over the sink when you’re washing it. There was water all over the floor under the sink after. They need to move that shelf over to the adjacent wall.
– Label the temperatures on the shower faucet! I think it’s the opposite of how it is in New York so I let the water run for 10 minutes, willing it to get warm, when it was just on the cold setting.
– There needs to be a barrier in the bathroom between the floor of the shower and the floor around the toilet so that the water from showering doesn’t get everywhere.
– I’m not sure how you could change this, but be aware that you can’t have the bathroom door open and also use the sink at the same time.
Although I think there are areas for improvement, I really did love this little hotel. It was excellent value for your money, it was brand new (they opened in November), and I slept SO well.
The next morning we checked out, put our things in the car, did some window shopping on Newbury Street, and ate brunch at a little place called Thinking Cup.
On our way back to the car, we stopped off at a bakery called Flour which coincidentally (I swear because I did not know this information before stepping foot inside) is owned by famous pastry chef Joanne Chang, whose new pastry cookbook my aunt gave me for the holidays. There are no coincidences!
We made the decision the night before walking back from dinner to come back to Boston when it’s a much more reasonable temperature outside to spend a weekend taking in the history of the city and we decided we’d likely stay at The Revolution Hotel again if we could get a good price.
If you’re someone who doesn’t need a huge hotel room, The Revolution Hotel is for you. They’re also a pet-friendly hotel!
The Revolution Hotel is located at 40 Berkeley St, Boston, MA 02116 and their website can be found here.
Awesome post! Keep up the great work! 🙂