Tag: Massachusetts Hotels
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Massachusetts Cuts Homeless Housing Hotel Program
Citing an inefficient use of resources, Massachusetts has decided to phase out its program that puts homeless families in hotels and motels if there's no room at a local shelter. It's expected to end by June 2014. The reasons make sense. The lack of kitchens and play spaces for children in most hotels and motels was an issue, as well as the safety risks and liability involved in housing large families in a single room. Regardless of your political stance, the announcement has created an interesting limbo situation for many properties that invested in the program.
The Quality Inn in West Springfield, for example, chose in 2011 to only offer its rooms to people in the transitional housing program. Understandably, they didn’t want to clash clientele and have leisure travelers mixing with homeless families and social workers. Assistant Manager Ron Teji looked at it as a business decision. The program kept the hotel at 70 to 80% occupancy, and it pretty much took all the work out of filling his rooms.
“It was more about the economy,” he said. “You sell all your rooms out; it’s fixed revenue and higher occupancy.”
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Mirbeau to Open Second Inn & Spa Outside Cape Cod
Are you a fan of the Mirbeau Inn & Spa in upstate New York? If so, you might be excited to learn that the award-winning property has just announced it will be opening a second location just outside of Cape Cod in the Pinehills in the spring of 2014.
Offering 50 rooms, the new Mirbeau will no doubt provide some healthy competition to the area's bazillion bed and breakfasts. Plus, the property will be only four hours from New York City and just under an hour from Boston.
The inn itself will be designed in the spirit of an old manor house in the French countryside, with Monet-inspired gardens. There will be fireplaces in every guest and massage room, and a restaurant and wine bar on-site. Not to mention, the property will overlook Pinehills Golf Club, which contains the only two 5-star public courses in all of New England.
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First Look: Langham Boston Pops Cork on $6 Million Lobby Reno and Champagne Lounge
What we've learned about the Langham Hotel Boston this year: Subtle is not in its vocabulary.
The hotel, in the city's financial district, popped both a theoretical and literal first cork when it revealed its $6 million lobby renovation. Big deal, you say? That's what we thought, until we heard the lobby came with the new Reserve, a luxury European Champagne Lounge that will, for now, pair light cuisine with global selections of bubbly and wine.
For the first few weeks, it looks like it’s all mimosas and munchies: The Reserve will serve continental breakfast, lunch, and plenty of champers until it opens for dinner later this month (it will join BOND Restaurant and Café Fleuri as a third option for dinner within the walls of the hotel).
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All Around The Wauwinet Inn, the Only Relais & Châteaux Property on Nantucket
A wedding tent goes up on the lawn
Last weekend, the island of Nantucket played host to some 46 weddings on its 50 square miles of land; that's almost one wedding per mile. One of those weddings completely took over the 32 rooms, cottages and great lawn of The Wauwinet Inn, a Relais & Châteaux property that sits at the very northeast point of the island, but we managed to sneak in and have a look around before any bouquets were tossed.
Something you should know right away about The Wauwinet is that it does not allow guests under the age of 12—no babies, no toddlers, no pre-teens. Sure, they may come to dine at the restaurant, but staying here is a get-away-from-it-all retreat thing that includes getting away from the possibility of kids running up and down the halls. And, since The Wauwinet start at $225 per night but hits $595 during the height of summer, this guarantee of peace and quiet can be worth the extra money.
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Found It! The Perfect Summer Hotel Lunch
Tomorrow is officially the first day of summer. This past weekend, we ate what we're declaring the official lunch of summer. It went down at TOPPER'S, the restaurant of The Wauwinet, a historic Inn situated at the very Northeast tip of Nantucket Island. Tomorrow we'll welcome summer properly with a tour of the Inn itself.
Want to chow down on all this? The Wauwinet, despite being one of the most remote inns on the island, is surprisingly one of the easiest to reach thanks to its free shuttle that picks up in central Nantucket town several times a day and makes the 20-minutes drive out to TOPPER'S. Check the schedule on the bulletin board next to the door of the Nantucket Visitor's Bureau Info Center.
· APPETIZER: Steamed jumbo asparagus with hollandaise sauce $9 (above)
Asparagus is at the tippy-top of its season in late spring, so this is a perfect transitional dish before fully jumping into summer foods. Plus you should eat your greens.
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Provincetown's Gay-Friendly Oxford Guesthouse Closes
Yesterday, we got word from a tipster that Provincetown's Oxford Guesthouse has shut down. As it turns out, the popular gay-friendly inn recently closed on September 12.
The English country-style inn, which operated for 12 years, was sold and we suspect it has been converted into a private residence.
If you want to stay in a similar-type place in Provincetown, the former Oxford Guesthouse owners recommend spending the night at the nearby White Porch Inn, a nine-room bed and breakfast that offers perks like views overlooking Providence harbor from a number of the rooms, a 24-hour coffee bar and free WiFi. Rooms at White Porch start at $125.
[Photo: Martin Pinker/The Oxford Guesthouse, Provincetown's Facebook]
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Inside Aloft Lexington :: Now We Get It
Aloft was probably the most over hyped hotel brand, ever, so needless to say we were all a little asick of aloft long before they opened a hotel. However, visiting the aloft Lexington changed all that.
We get it. Starwood is gussying up roadside hotels and making them millennial nostalgic, if there is such a thing, and you know what? Roadside hotels were in need of some millennializing.
Bad Rate / Massachusetts Hotels / Comfort Inns / Thanksgiving Hotels / → All Tags
Bad Rate :: Roadside (Un)Comfort Inn in Plymouth
[Ed. Note: Welcome to our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature where we look at hotel prices in the same region and decide which one most deserves your hard-earned benjamins. Rates quoted here were captured on November 6, 2007 and are subject to change. Enjoy.]
If you're going to historic Plymouth, MA over Thanksgiving, do you really want to sleep in a below-average chain hotel room with lousy breakfasts?
On the official site the Comfort Inn Plymouth motel is listed as "conveniently located just minutes from historic waterfront attractions," which here translates to "next to a non-descript highway and nothing is within walking distance."
This Comfort Inn ranks near the bottom of hotels in Plymouth on TripAdvisor, with these being a few of the choice comments:
· "Your view is either of Samoset St., a long street of chain malls that used to be Route 44 before they built a bypass recently, or of low-income housing on the back."
· "The pool was so cloudy you couldn't see your feet."
· "The woman in charge of the breakfast area clearly disliked her job and they did not replace many food items that had run out. The coffee was worse than mud."
You get the idea. The lowest rate we could find anywhere over Thanksgiving weekend was $119 at the hotel's own website. On the other booking sites we didn't see anything under $149 unless we were a member of AAA or AARP.
So book direct if a ho-hum motel by a highway is your idea of the best bet in historic Plymouth. Otherwise check into one of the Bed and Breakfasts with character, good chow, and a location good for strolling--this week's Good Rate.
Related Stories:
· Good Rate :: A Plymouth B&B for Thanksgiving [HotelChatter]
· More Plymouth Hotels [HotelChatter]
Bed and Breakfasts / Good Rate / Massachusetts Hotels / Thanksgiving Hotels / → All Tags
Good Rate :: A Plymouth B&B for Thanksgiving
[Ed. Note: Welcome to our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature where we look at hotel prices in the same region and decide which one most deserves your hard-earned benjamins. Rates quoted here were captured on November 6, 2007 and are subject to change. Enjoy.]
To get to the roots of Thanksgiving, there's no better spot than where it all began, in Plymouth, Massachusetts. See the Plymouth Rock! See the Mayflower! See a replica of the original settlement! And hey, it's right on the water, with a nice beach panorama.
Staying in a cookie-cutter chain hotel just doesn't seem right in a place like this, so it's best to book at one of the dozen or so New England bed and breakfasts scattered around town. Rates run anywhere from $80 to $250, but most fall in the middle of that range.
The top two spots with TripAdvisor reviewers are A Beach House Oceanfront Plymouth (named by a search engine optimization specialist apparently)and By the Sea Bed & Breakfast - pictured here. In both cases you'll have a nice location, a quality breakfast, and attentive service for somewhere between $140 and $170 a night.
We couldn't automatically check availability over Thanksgiving weekend, so you'll have to nose around. Most Plymouth bed and breakfasts are not listed in the big corporate booking sites such as Expedia or Travelocity. You'll need to look in a specialized directory or book direct through the B&B's website.
[photo by cozybeach]
Related Stories:
· Bad Rate :: Roadside (Un)Comfort Inn in Plymouth [HotelChatter]
· More Plymouth Hotels [HotelChatter]
· Visit Plymouth [Official Site]
