The Charlesmark Boutique Hotel — Hotel in Boston

This was the most disappointing, overpriced hotel experience I’ve ever had. The people leaving positive reviews sound like they’ve stayed exclusively at Motel 8s in the past, because their standards for leaving a four or five star review are the absolute minimum (“Easy check in…clean room.) I would expect a bit more than that from a luxury boutique hotel charging $350+ per night.

I’ll admit they did hold my bags before my room was available. But again, isn’t this the minimum of what one would expect from a high-end hotel in Boston’s best neighborhood? And the location is obviously spectacular. That’s where the pros end.

Here are the honest negatives:

-They charged me $800+ for a 2-night stay in the smallest hotel room I have ever stayed in. There’s no desk (so forget about coming here for business travel), extremely little surface space, and not even a queen-sized bed (it was a full and felt like a twin). And of course because I checked in a bit late, they felt I deserved the worst room on the floor—the very back of the building, facing the alley. But thanks to them for the massive mirror in the room that serves bascially no purpose. It upsets me to even contemplate what the smallest room option (the “cabin”) is like. Even many prison cells have windows. -They don’t clean your room unless your specifically request it. I usually never request, but I am still bothered by this blatant attempt still to cut costs at every opportunity. They do the same thing by having one person (the front desk associate) basically run the entire hotel (their the porter, doorperson, and administrator). -The woman working at the front desk did not have the social skills to be working in hospitality. She was mildly rude and led us to believe our bags would be taken to our room when they were actually carelessly left next to the front desk, where anyone could’ve easily stolen them. -There’s only one ice machine for the entire hotel, located in a random corner in the same area where the staff do laundry. -Obviously, there are no amenities—pool, gym, launch. There are many chain hotels in the area that have great amenities, for the same price. This hotel’s idea of luxuries is to giving guests random DVDs and VHSs to play on obsolete machines in their rooms. -This hotel is so antiquated and its owners so lazy that the rooms have actual literal room key. What halfway-decent hotel doesn’t have a keycard system? -The internet is awful. It’s slow and randomly disconnects every...

First, the customer service was lovely and everyone was very helpful and pleasant. The room was clean and neat and everything was very nicely decorated.

Now, the parking. During our visit at the end of February 2020 the highs were in the mid 30s and lows in the lower 20s. The parking garage with which they've contracted is 6 blocks from the hotel, even though there are 2 others within a block. Add that I have an arthritic hip and lower back degeneration (though only 53 at the time) and this was far from ideal. We could have parked at one of those other, nearer locations but didn't realize that until we were already in the recommended location. Only once I had walked the 6 blocks in 20 degree weather plus wind chill back to the hotel and specifically asked about other parking arrangements did we realize. If not for the weather and my pain this probably wouldn't have been as much of an issue.

Additionally, the window in our room is a single pane of glass so you could literally feel the cold flowing from it and the person closest to the window had a constant chill on that side. Again, if not for the cold weather this wouldn't have been an issue, but winter in Boston you expect to be fairly chilly most of the time. We thought heating savings alone would have motivated better insulated windows in the rooms that have them.

Finally, it was the firmest mattress I can ever recall. It was so firm I woke up from my hip aching (no matter on which I tried to lay). That was a first for me. I should say my friend, with whom I shared the bed, thought the firmness might have been good for his back. His younger brother was thrilled with the fold out couch/bed, though he didn't enjoy how cold it was that close to the floor and slept wearing multiple layers plus the blanket.

Obviously these are somewhat specific issues to my condition, but not entirely. The rest of my party was fairly unhappy about these issues and have none of...

Giving the Charlesmark 5 stars, due to its excellent value in a high-value area. We stayed in a queen room with windows, that had a small folding couch (looked like it could unfold into a sleeping futon) - -it was not comfortable, even for sitting and reading, but nice to have the extra space for bags, as the closet was extremely small. The bathroom was small but nicely updated, with shower stall, toilet and sink, and soap/shampoo toiletries. The decor is not stylish, but the room was clean with daily housekeeping. The bed was comfortable and we slept well. I was concerned being so close to the elevator, but it is a small hotel with quiet guests, so even though you can hear voices and doors closing in the hallway during the day, nothing disturbed us at night. In the morning, with the room rate you received a basic coffee and a pastry (a croissant, a turnover, etc. varied each day) in the attached coffee bar. We had full breakfast at Cafe Landwer one morning (and forgot to use our room discount!) which was very good with generous portions. Best of all was the location of the hotel -- numerous restaurants within a short walk, across Boylston from the Public Library (do take a few minutes to walk through the stunning staircase and reading room!), and around the corner from the shops of Newbury Street or a lovely walk/run down Commonwealth. The Sakabayashi Sushi Tavern just a couple doors down was an excellent dinner option one evening. A T stop is within a block, and it is a short drive/ride to the airport through ride-share (15 minutes early morning light traffic). We definitely would...