Hotel Commonwealth — Hotel in Boston

So back from three amazing nights in Boston with my oldest daughter staying at the Commonwealth. Five stars speaks for itself,but if I could go higher than five , I would! Never mind. This is the official hotel of the Boston Red Sox,So if you are a fan, it's a no-brainer and especially if you're going to games right around the corner! Location does not get better. You are right on the green line in the middle of it all staring at Comm.Ave and the Citgo sign or maybe Fenway Park out the back. Either way, this hotel is not just a wonderful place to stay but an incredible all-around Boston experience and the staff couldn't make you feel more welcome! The theme for this trip with my teenage daughter was" Boston vibes".. well, this hotel has got Boston vibes for days. Great people ,great service and the rooms are beautiful by any City standard. We stayed in a Commonwealth suite overlooking Kenmore on the 5th floor which is the top so your view may vary, but I promise the experience will not! From the second you walk in, if you were not a member of the Red Sox Nation before... You will be before you leave. Decor is luxurious and metropolitan, but with Red Sox and baseball highlights everywhere, including one of the elevators interior decorated as a baseball with infinite famous signatures all over the walls! I wish I could remember everyone but that said, I did not meet one staff member who I felt did not stand out as spectacular! Jeff, John, Jennifer I believe and especially Christian we're simply beyond welcoming and helpful with anything we needed or requested. Well I will say this is not the first hotel to offer me a bottle of water when checking in or checking out, I will say that they are the coolest bottles of water going. Going and yes, this taps into my Red Sox history as the bottles you are given are actually reusable bottles with fill stations available and each one is its own little souvenir with" official hotel of the Boston Red Sox" where the little Red Sox logo on every bottle. When it was time to unwind and put the feet up, there were beautiful plush slippers waiting for us in the room as well as beautiful custom logoed terry cloth robes and an extremely comfortable king bed as well as a couch in the living area that opened to a beautiful new posturepedic queen bed. Now if my review has not yet convinced you that this is the place to stay, let me put the Cherry on the cake. When I speak of service and wishing I could go over five stars. This story right here is why never did I request anything special or order anything like this. But that said my daughter was turning 16 and this trip was part of what marked it. I had made casual reference but never did. I actually ask if there was something I could do or could be done and when we returned on our first night at hotel Commonwealth after the Red Sox had just won their game we came back to the room to find what I thought was not just extremely nice but actually personalized. There was a beautiful tray with a fruit platter, two bottles of Saratoga, spring water, and a beautiful card in an envelope reading "Happy Birthday". No, that would have been enough right there for me to be impressed. However, it just gets better! This card was personalized for my daughter as well as the fact that it was her sweet 16. It actually mentions her father mentioning her birthday and wanting for this to be a special occasion, wishing her All the happiness in the worlds on this special birthday, wishing her an incredible experience here with her father and all of their best wishes for a truly special sweet 16! I truly cannot say enough wonderful things about this hotel and my stay there. Thank you everyone at the hotel Commonwealth for making this trip beyond special. I brought My daughter for three nights of "Boston vibes"& that's exactly what we got..."WICKED BOSTON VIBES"!!...

The short: Overall, the hotel itself was very nice. My fiance and I found the bed extremely comfortable and both fell asleep on it instantly. However, I can't say I'd suggest Hotel Commonwealth unless you must be in Kenmore Square. The staff isn't properly trained and they invaded our privacy despite us turning down housekeeping both with the door sign and verbally.

The long (for our 2 night stay): We called the day before our reservation to see if it'd be possible to do early check-in, but they told us to call back on the day of our reservation. We called 3 times that morning (spaced out by an hour each) and they couldn't give us an estimate. To be expected, they were insistant that we'd get a room if we upgraded- clearly advertised for each call. At the end of the last call, we asked to be contacted the moment they had a room available for us. In the meantime, we stayed with family at Buckminster for an additional hour. When we went over to ask in person, it turns out they had several rooms available. To make it worse, they knew we were part of the wedding, and we needed to get ready for the rehearsal.

The main issue was with housekeeping. Housekeeping came around 11am and asked if we wanted turndown service. We politely said no and received new towels. We left the sign on the door saying we didn't want service (black side facing out) when we headed out at 2:30pm. When we came back that night, housekeeping had made our bed, gave us new towels, threw out/taken some our bags we brought to organize our clothes and protect formal dresses, a tuxedo and a suit, and moved my undergarments I had left on the bed. We felt so violated. I had brought extra dresses that came in zip bags and hung them for the wedding for backup and housekeeping had thrown those bags out. I didn't wear a couple of the dresses, so hopefully I can still return them without the original packaging. I'm so appalled by the violation of our privacy, and hope that this was an outlier in their housekeeping service.

We called the front desk to request late check-out since we had a post-wedding brunch hosted at Hotel Commonwealth that ended at noon. They told us the latest we could stay is 1pm which was perfect for us. They abruptly hung up on us after we gave our room number which was strange and rude. At 12:46pm, someone from the hotel (not housekeeping) came knocking at our door and told us that it was past check-out. Apparently whoever was working the night before (June 2, 2017) at the front desk didn't record that we had been granted complimentary late check-out.

The rooms are very nice though. They've been updated a few years ago based on the chipped paint and minor dings around the room, but tasteful contemporary decor. The carpet and bed seemed clean and our room had a mini fridge which...

A decent hotel but overpriced and missing some basics

Pro's

The hotel is conveniently located in downtown Boston right next to the subway, across the street from Fenway Park and there's a McDonald's and 7-11 right next door. The staff was nice, especially Adam and Matt. The shower was nice and strong. The room was clean and had a giant TV with Chromecast. The elevator with the Red Sox autographs on the glass wall is a nice touch. The hotel was also very quiet except for the occasional rumble of the subway.

Con's

Very expensive. Extra fees including an automatic $25 a night destination fee and $58 a night parking fee. There is a super tiny fridge in the room but no microwave, no coffeemaker, no ice bucket or ice. You can ask for these things to be brought to your room with I'm guessing an assumed tip. You also can't take your own luggage on the cart up or down without a bellhop and another presumed tip. The sheets on the bed weren't fitted and didn't stay on well. There were no trash bags in the trash can. You get a token for a free bagel for breakfast and a candy when you check in but otherwise no breakfast unless you want to pay a lot of money. Despite it's convenient location, there was what looked like a condemned house a few doors down and people just loved to leave trash all over the sidewalk nearby and a bunch of graffiti but that really says more about the city than the hotel. The view from my room was just the back side of the building with AC units and such. Fenway isn't close enough to see unless you happen to have the right room and on an upper floor maybe because it's close by overall but it's across a major highway. The most disappointing thing and I guess this is not limited to this hotel but to seem like a higher end hotel they give you less included options so it can seem fancier when you have to pay extra for them.

Overall, it wasn't a bad experience but it's not worth the extra costs. If they had provided the same things other more affordable hotels provide for free and get rid of the high fees and maybe a few more little special touches it would be much...