V-Flyer

Hi my wonderful travel gurus,

Has anyone any experience of staying at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel? I'm just looking at some deals for my trip in October and it looks good, just wondered if anyone had stayed there.

All help appreciated,
Ta
John

Hi John
I can't comment on this hotel but can recommend this one. Better than the rank on Trip Advisor suggests.
http://www.ameshotel.com/
We stayed here last year, great location
We had a package with breakfast included which was very nice too.

Thanks, I'll check that out. I booked the Park Plaza as the deal was excellent. I currently have 2 hotels booked in Boston, thankfully both on a cancellable rate.

Much appreciated,
John

Hi john, never been. But we met some guys in Miami from Cape cod and from what the told us you need to take a trip down there!
D

Bretty - Have a look a The Liberty.
Stayed there a few times now. It's the old Boston Prison converted. Its not cheap but can get some pretty cool rooms. Lobby and bar are very cool. Of course if its just a good deal you are after may not fit the need
It's also very close to the T (and hospital!!) if needed.

LovingGold wrote:Bretty - Have a look a The Liberty.
Stayed there a few times now. It's the old Boston Prison converted. Its not cheap but can get some pretty cool rooms. Lobby and bar are very cool. Of course if its just a good deal you are after may not fit the need
It's also very close to the T (and hospital!!) if needed.

+1 to that LG ,think I've mentioned this to john already

Thanks guys, The Liberty is off the table as they want £537 per night and they're not currently linked into any comparison sites. I might be flash with the cash but not that flash!

I'm booked at The Loews at a rate I'm willing to pay at a pinch but don't want to (£248 per night). I found the Park Plaza at £150 per night on some kind of executive floor with a lounge and inclusive breakfast etc. I like a bargain and want the best I can find at a good price but am aware that our trip coincides with peak Fall Foliage viewing and some university events.

@ultreen - I might get up to Cape Cod, not sure what our plans are quite yet.

Cheers all,
John

2 hours to Cape Cod a must.
Whale watching unbeatable.

Try The Colonade Hotel, great location near Back B ay and awesome roof top pool.

mswadley wrote:2 hours to Cape Cod a must.
Whale watching unbeatable.

Try The Colonade Hotel, great location near Back B ay and awesome roof top pool.

I spent a couple of weeks in Cape Cod. If you like antique shops it's a great place to be. There are hundreds of them.
Provincetown I thought was really tacky and not worth the drive.
Whale watching: We did a trip out of Plymouth which was guaranteed to see a whale or your money back. It was really choppy with people being sick and the captain kept out there hunting until we got a flash of something grey and came back. It was the worst three hours I've ever spent.

I would recommend a visit to Quincy Market for an amazing choice of eateries.


Dick D

For what its worth, I have spent perhaps too much time in that part of the world and have some good friend both in , south of and north of Boston.
While Cape Cod etc are nice its a long drive and the traffic can be the worst and I have sat on the M25!!!
Depending what your plans are and how much time you have, a trip to somewhere like Plymouth is interesting (for a Brit!!).
Also in a few hours you can open up Vermont and New Hampshire.
In NH especially you have the Lakes Region which have some fantastic views and the NH sea coast has the best sea food I have every had, in the world. NH is also a Tax Free state for lots so it you come across a big mall (Rockingham,MA) you can fill your boots

Thanks for the advice all, don't think we'll be hiring a car this trip so will look at what we can do as day trips using public transport.

I had looked at the Colonnade hotel, until recently it was showing as fully booked, but is now coming up with rooms starting at £280 per night which is more than I want to pay.

I'm keeping my options open and watching a few hotels for prices. I can always cancel what's already booked if I find something else, but right now the Park Plaza is looking good though it has far more negative reviews than I normally find acceptable. That said, with 3,500 reviews on tripadvisor it's not bad, about a quarter of them negative reviews.

Always looking for the bargain, but think I might have found it. You never know though, one of the other more desirable hotels might open up at a rate I'm looking for.

Bretty wrote:Thanks guys, The Liberty is off the table as they want £537 per night and they're not currently linked into any comparison sites. I might be flash with the cash but not that flash!

I'm booked at The Loews at a rate I'm willing to pay at a pinch but don't want to (£248 per night). I found the Park Plaza at £150 per night on some kind of executive floor with a lounge and inclusive breakfast etc. I like a bargain and want the best I can find at a good price but am aware that our trip coincides with peak Fall Foliage viewing and some university events.

@ultreen - I might get up to Cape Cod, not sure what our plans are quite yet.

Cheers all,
John

Bretty, I stayed in the Loews when it was part of the Doyle group of hotels and absolutely loved it. In those days it had a basement bar which may or may not be there now but the vibe was great. I personally am disappointed it has been rebranded because it was great.

HL it does look a great hotel, and I'd be happy to stay there if the price is right. It looks really swanky!

Any idea why October 2016 is so eye wateringly expensive?

Boston hotels are eye wateringly expensive most of the time at the moment.
I am going tomorrow, and have been watching for a while - I nabbed some only mildly ridiculous rates at the Renaissance Waterfront ages ago and then watched the rates rise to over $350 / $400 a night, and have seen the Copley Square Marriott over $600 a night!!

Add into this, the fact that September / October are leaf peeping months and you will get silly rates I am afraid.

Nick

Have you tried manipulating priceline?
Taking the 1st week of october and lets look at
Colonnade - immediatley we can see it has a Swimming pool & pet friendly.


Now lets look at their Express deals.
We know Colonnade is in Backbay - so we tick that box for the area.

Now we see 3 hotels listed. We know Colonnade is a 4 star (from the 1st pic), so we can ignore the other 2.

lets look at the 4* hotel in BackBay & pay attention to the amenities.


It has a business centre, pet friendly, restaurant, internet, Pool, fitness centre & no smoking.
Nothing mentioned about parking........ so assume no parking available.

Now lets look at the main listings with the info we have. TIck the relevant area & facilities. As its a process of elimination. Straight away there is only 10 Hotels that are 4*
Only 3 of them have a Pool.
Out of those 3, 1 does not allow pets.
So we are left with 2 hotels.

One is the Sheraton at £260 a night & the other is the Colonnade at £228 a night.
They have the same facilities, both are scored 8/10 on trip advisor, so not possible to know exactly which of the 2 is the Mystery Hotel being offered for £186 a night based on this. So a 50/50 chance.
I will say, that one says free internet - but neither offer it on amenities list! Otherwise we could have used that to split them!



However, you can look at the room/bed type on offer & compare them with the deal.
Sheraton offer Double, Queen & King beds. Colonnade do not offer a Queen size. The £186 offer only offers Double Bed & King Bed rooms - nothing with a Queen.
So I would be 51/49 with the room being the Colonnade over the Sheraton.

You could even try further & Name your own price with the details you have learned above & save a few more quid.

This method does not work all the time, but you can save a bundle of money if you dont mind gambling.

I used this method for 5 different hotels in 5 different cities last year & 4 times I had my 1st choice hotel within my set budget, the 5th was the hotel I expected it would give me, but was hoping it would have been something else - as it wasnt a hotel I wanted to stay in! So it really worked 5 times out of 5 :oS

I stayed at The Godfrey in March and it was pretty good (issue with noisy air conditioning though). Good central location as well - close to 'T' stations, opposite Macys and a minute from Boston Common.

As it is still new there are still some good deals for it.