For Red Sox fans only. Yankee fans need not apply.
Wondering what's up with Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, and Josh Beckett? Head to Bean-town's Liberty Hotel for their "Swing! Batter, batter!" package.
This historic hotel is actually a former prison, but you'll be too deeply immersed in baseball heaven to ponder such trivia. Your room will come with a view of the lights of venerable Fenway Park, one of the country's oldest baseball fields, as well as the historic Citgo sign.
After 117 years of existence, anyone would be in need of having a little work done, which is why we're excited to hear that Boston's Copley Square Hotel is finally being renovated.
While guests loved the historic hotel's location in the city's Back Bay, they also complained of peeling wallpaper, threadbare sheets, rough towels and erratic hot water. After the $14 million renovation, which should be complete later this spring, all 143 guest rooms at the hotel will have new interiors and baths, pillow top beds, new fabrics, fully stocked work stations with ergonomic chairs, iHomes and Wi-Fi--although no word on whether or not that Wi-Fi will be free.
The lobby and other guest areas also are getting revamped, as is guest services, which has been dubbed "just OK" in the past. The hotel is closed until further notice (though its Saint venue remains open) and if you're into architecture porn head to the hotel's web site for a renovation diary and a surprisingly candid blog maintained by the hotel's general manager.
The Colonnade Hotel in Boston loves its business customers, and has a new special that's bound to attract a few extra guests.
Luxist reports that until the end of June, anybody reserving a room on a weeknight can book the Bulls & Bears Package, and then your room rate will be calculated based on how the Dow Jones average pulls up at 4.30pm, stock market closing time. Unfortunately, there's no fancy formula which could get you a free room if the stock market went wild, but it is a win-win situation for guests whether things go up or down.
If the market average is up, you'll get 10% off the price of your room; and if it's down, you'll be able to drown your sorrows in a 20% discount off the room rate.
The room rates for the Bulls & Bears deals--before the discount--start at around $300. They include a double room and breakfast there, parking and internet access.
The Colonnade has recently finished a nearly $20 million renovation, so it might be a good time to check it out. Just try to check in on a day when the stock market is headed downwards and you'll be getting better value for money.
Last week on the West Coast, Wollywood was rising and this week the answer on the East Coast is the W Boston Hotel & Residences.
The Boston Now blog has this picture of the crane going up at the construction site at 100 Stuart Street. The hotel will have 235 guestrooms, 123 private condo units, a restaurant, a retail space and probably a Bliss spa. Oh yeah, and some anti-views of the neighboring Radisson.
The hotel scene in Boston is definitely picking up as Beantown is expected to get more luxury condo-hotels like the Four Seasons Hotel & Residences, Ritz Millennium and the new Residences at the InterContinental in the coming years.
As for the W Boston, the place is set to open August 31, 2009.
You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.
We're always keen for our hotels to have a convenient location, but we have a feeling that the new luxury boutique Liberty Hotel in Boston is a little too convenient to the Massachusetts General Hospital. As the guests who snapped this Anti-View said, "We had a great view of the Eye & Ear Infirmary"--just what you're after during a stay in Boston.
The hotel sent over some photos of the last minute preparations before today's big event. Workers were setting up furniture in the lobby, above, and picking up uniforms. The hotel also had to rig up an art installation by British designer Eva Menz, featuring a bunch of herons inspired by the water.
Rooms are starting at $149 a night, but you'll have to pony up $13 a day for in-room wireless.
After the jump, two more photos of the pre-opening finishing touches.
Let's say it loud and clear first of all: we don't think that the Jurys Boston Hotel has bed bugs. And they don't either, but they're using something special to make sure that it remains that way and they never have a case of ex-guests feeling itchy and bad-mouthing them to the world.
It's not a high-tech solution at all, but a cute one instead: Jurys Boston has a kind of a contract with a bed bug sniffer dog. Every three months, the dog takes a walk through all 225 rooms at the hotel and barks if he finds the vaguest scent of a bed bug or its eggs.
Late last year the sniffer dog barked in two rooms: as a result, Jurys fumigated both the rooms and burned the mattresses, even though they'd had no guest complaints. We kind of like this low-technology approach to make sure we have a good night's sleep without any bites or other nasty surprises.
Just when you thought you were done guzzling the bubbly in the New Year, there's another reason to keep on swilling champagne: Veuve Clicquot is launching its first branded bar in the U.S. at The Liberty Hotel in Boston.
The champagne house plans to open the bar on Friday under the name La Grande Dame, the champagne label's nickname.
The bar is an "elegant alcove" located on the second floor of the hotel, formerly the Charles Street Jail. Flute glasses and bottles of La Grande Dame as well as full selection of current and past La Grande Dame Vintage and Vintage Rose will be available.
Veuve Clicquot has already opened two bars in Hamburg and Macau but this is the first US operation. (In a former jail no less!) We wonder if Karim "The White" Rashid's pink Veuve Clicquot loveseats will be inside.
