The Eliot Hotel — Hotel in Boston

Updating my original review to respond to the reply from The Eliot. You are NOT ADA Compliant because you have steps up to your front door and in the lobby leading down to the check-in desk and elevators. Without wheel chair ramps, how can you call yourself ADA compliant? I also called to ask this prior to coming and your staff NEVER told me there were different rooms available for accessibility. When I showed up with a rollator, your staff assisted by carrying it up and down the stairs for me. Luckily, I can climb stairs but if I were in a wheel chair, I would have been stuck outside. There is plenty of room out front and in the lobby for ramps, build some! I appreciate the apology for the wake-up call. Your staff is overall phenomenal! As far as the delivery options are concerned, not everyone uses delivery apps that require putting financial info: in the hands of unknown third parties. This is an easy enough accommodation to offer. Why not order for us on an app connected to your hotel and add the charges to our bill from the hotel? This was my experience at The Waldorf Astoria Towers in NYC which I liken a bit to your hotel.

This was our first time staying in the heart of Boston and we chose this hotel due to its close proximity to BU and its pet policy. We had a one bedroom suite. It was stunning! The view was gorgeous and the room was luxurious and comfortable. The only exception to this was the inefficient bathroom. The sink is too large for the small bathroom leaving little space for the more important utilities. The toilet is crammed between the wall and sink with barely enough room to efficiently clean oneself without banging your elbow on the sink. The shower is very small and has a half glass wall and a shower curtain. The glass half wall and huge protruding handicapped handle make it very difficult to move or raise your arms without banging into something. I don't understand the handicapped handle because the hotel is not ADA compliant. So who is it there for? It is a tiled non slip shower floor so that can't be it. The wet bar room/kitchen obviously got the rest of what should have been a normal sized and more luxurious bathroom that would have complimented a room of this caliber in a hotel this elite. The hotel is gorgeous and the staff is exceptional! I only gave the staff 4 stars as opposed to 5 because our 7:30 wake up call one of the days came at 7 and was a call and hang up where on other days it was a pleasant good morning. Also, the list of local restaurants is not descriptive about who delivers and it was left to us to figure that out, which required lots of calls on out part and annoyance. The restaurants suggested were all high priced too. We found Cafe 427 which was good food, friendly staff, and free delivery. We told the hotel about this at check out and they are adding it to their list. Hopefully they will take my suggestion about figuring out and listing who delivers. I would definitely stay here again but won't since the traffic in Boston makes my revisiting the city...

The Eliot Hotel, Boston, A Living Wake for a Once, Great Institution

There was a time when the Eliot Hotel stood as a proud sentinel of Bostonian hospitality, a place where elegance was not an affectation but a lived standard. That time has passed. What remains is a shell, the grand architecture and storied reputation still visible, but the soul of the place reduced to a dim ember, kept alive by a few loyal staff who appear to be fighting a losing battle against the slow decay of standards.

One floor manager, the second star of this review solely to their credit, remains a stalwart presence, pushing against the tide of neglect that has overtaken much of the operation. Their efforts are laudable, but they are singular, a lone candle in a drafty hall. The junior staff, many of foreign backgrounds, are not in themselves the problem; diversity has long been the lifeblood of great hotels. But here, too often, their work feels untrained, unpolished, and disconnected from the seamless service this level of property should demand.

The building’s quirks, stopped-up pipes, uneven finishes, might be forgiven under the heading of “vintage charm” if the service matched the setting. But the day I was handed not my room key, but the spare, without explanation or apology, marked a different kind of antiquity: the erosion of basic attentiveness. The small battles, like having to negotiate an umbrella from the front desk on a rainy day, spoke volumes.

This is not the grand, final gallop of a storied hotel riding into the sunset with dignity. It is, instead, a slow, uninspired trudge toward mediocrity, an institution that refuses to die but has long since...

Unfortunately, our experience fell drastically short of these expectations. The most significant issue occurred on the morning of September 7th when I went to retrieve my vehicle from the valet. When I presented my ticket, the front desk manager—a young man—was shockingly dismissive. He stated in a rude tone, "we ask our guest to call ahead twenty five minutes so that your car can be ready." I explained that my wife and I were in a hurry to get to the airport and asked him to please retrieve the car. Instead of showing any urgency or offering assistance, he simply repeated that it would be a twenty-five-minute wait. His lack of concern and rude demeanor were unacceptable and caused us considerable stress.

Furthermore, we experienced another lapse in service the previous evening, September 6th. As my wife and I stood with the doorman and the same front desk manager waiting for an Uber, the manager remarked that it might rain but failed to offer us a hotel umbrella. It was only upon returning that I realized this basic courtesy was available. This lack of proactive hospitality is not what one expects from a hotel of your caliber. Both of these incidents, particularly my interaction with your front desk manager regarding the valet, were met with an indifference that I found truly surprising. For an employee representing The Eliot Hotel to be so overtly rude is a disgrace to the standards you claim to uphold. This experience significantly detracted from our visit to Boston.

The toilet is too close to the bed and the air conditioner too loud to run while...