TOURISTS — Hotel in North Adams

Rating is a 3.5/5.0 but I always round up.

Recently stayed here attending a small medical conference for work nearby, and wife joined and we made it a long weekend trip. I would say overall this was a relatively positive experience, but also not as good as I had hoped, and there are negatives/cons that I think would have led to a much lower rating for others, I’ll explain below. I would still stay here again, as I believe it’s probably the best option in the immediate area, but only bc options are very limited at this time.

I have started to review more hotels since I base so many of my decisions on them and feel it’s good to pay it forward, so I figured I would make a pros & cons list and you can decide yourself.

PROS: -beautiful trails on hotel grounds, with access to a road that leads to Appalachian trail -simple but truly unique rooms and design, they really captured the ideal “vibe” for this area & hotel concept -Tourists radio station: it’s a small thing but they have a radio when you walk in to the room playing their own station and I gotta say it was perfectly curated and we used it A LOT! Sounds dumb but prob added 0.5 stars just for this! -close to both Williamstown & North Adams downtowns, both are cool in their own ways - check out Crust & Casitas in each respective town, we loved both -the beds are amazing, one of the most comfortable beds I’ve ever had in a hotel and I travel a ton for work & fun -Tourists “Field Guide”: QR scannable for hiking & restaurant recs to pull up, and they were really solid, almost like something you get in an AirBNB, wish more hotels did this -Stop & Shop is literally right out the front door of your room, and it’s a great one, they had everything we wanted.

CONS: -Not part of Hyatt: I booked this trip through Hyatt, as it’s my preferred hotel for work, but when I mentioned this to the front desk the woman acted like I was nuts and said they have no affiliation with Hyatt, so no late checkout or any other benefits! This should be made more clear, as we planned our final day around thinking we would get our standard 4pm checkout. -Noisy: we had people with large dogs on both sides of us and were woken up by it on our off days during the night. Also, the pics make it look secluded but it is about 20 feet off a main road and you hear it. We love dogs but if you’re going to allow them especially of any size more should’ve been done to soundproof. We had poor sleep bc of it. -no phone in room, it’s a little thing but had to call front desk from cell -I hate to say this, especially bc this is something I really never experience during my frequent travel, but I just did not find the staff to be friendly or welcoming, other than one person I spoke to prior to my arrival. They weren’t rude or anything, I just got the feeling I was irritating them when I asked questions. Like when I asked about the Hyatt affiliation and late checkout I was basically just told no partnership (which isn’t accurate) and hung up on before I could ask follow-up. Had to call Hyatt to get a list of what does and what does not transfer with their partnership. -Overpriced: there are extra fees which don’t make any sense imo, since you have to pay extra for anything you do there, so why am I paying a daily fee for this stuff too? It’s a 1 star rustic hotel which is cool I get the theme, but I don’t really get the pricing. If this wasn’t paid by work I’d be pretty unhappy. -No Gym: kind of feel like this is a weird one, since this is the type of hotel that attracts a younger & likely more active type of clientele, and on sunny days you’re likely going to be physically active outside all day, but this is an area with frequent rain & snow and not even having a small fitness area is kind of odd. There’s a planet fitness 10 min away in downtown North Adams but that’s it. Feel like for the price you’re paying, adding a couple cardio machines, some weights, and a yoga/stretch area is a no brainer, since some days it’s just not feasible to go outside, especially if you arrive later. -low shower...

I have been wanting to go to Tourists since 2017 ish when I saw photos of the initial plans and development on Instagram. It just looked so peaceful, pristine, clean, and beautifully designed. Finally in 2024, I had the opportunity to book a room there and I got really lucky because lo and behold, The week that I booked happened to be the Wilco festival that happens every two years

It's just so luxurious. The comfort is in fact superior to many Hilton's I've stayed at across the country. The beds are luxurious the sheets, mattress, pillows, towels--it's super clean and above all it's incredibly peaceful in the forest.

I chose a larger room at the back of the hotel and our walkout porch included an outside luxurious hot shower, and serene and beautiful view of deep trees. We also had a room, a king size, that was able to convert a sitting area into an actual bed so our son had a huge bed. He's a 6'6" volleyball player and he fit lengthwise. We had a king size bed ourselves. Normally, for him, he's have his own room, but they didn't have accommodation's. But the room was large enough and he has a bed versus a typical pull out couch bed.

You could order room service each morning you just fill out a checklist and you leave it at your front door with a magnet and then in the morning lo and behold, pastries, oatmeals, eggs, and tea and sugar and juices will just arrive at your door magically.

There's an amazing saltwater with chlorine pool, I didn't get to use it, but it looked perfect and clean and immaculate. There's also the grounds that you can walk around which are very very well taken care of. No animals, no pests, it's just was so wonderful to walk around your bare feet in their nature grounds.

There's also the full stocked bar in the main check-in area. It's like a lodge so there's a fireplace which I'm sure in the winter is pretty amazing. But the bar you can get cocktails and beer very late into the evening, which is important because in Massachusetts it's difficult to find bars that are open to get liquor. This is rural Massachusetts, we were in North Adams Massachusetts. It's really really far, almost to the Vermont state line.

Book direct through Tourists online. It's easy. And there is a friendly human that answers the phone if you need help with anything.

Check in process is easy. When you get there they are meticulous about verifying identity. Then they provide you some simple instructions and you walk to your room. The service is good. Not Hilton-level, but darn near close. This is a very intimate hotel run by an expanding hospitality investment group.

There is professional cleaning service daily for turn down service. I was actually surprised when I got there, I was like oh my gosh, this is actually a real hotel. This beautifully designed Dwell Magazine vibe place.

Inside the rooms, there are mini professional speakers playing Americano roots music which is great. One of the investors is a member of the band Wilco.

There are books in the room, little brochures that outline the history of the town in North Adams. It's really a remarkable hotel and I would love to go back sometime.

I highly recommend Tourists without reservation. It is a designers gem, hidden in a very rural part of the state of...

My overall rating is 3.5 stars but Google doesn't let you do half stars, so I rounded down to 3 stars because it wasn't a 4 star experience. In short: far too many instances of style over substance. Once the novelty of how cool everything looks wore off, it was a bit of a strange experience.

The biggest disappointment for me was the food. It was quite expensive considering the quality. The breakfast experience was particularly bad: $50-$60/day for two people to have coffee and a breakfast plate. The food from The Lodge was better than breakfast but still expensive considering the quality/offerings (nearly $100 for two people to have a drink and sandwich each, and share a salad). Dinner at The Airport Rooms was good, but again, not on par with the cost ($136 for two people to have a drink and a main each; actually felt less expensive than The Lodge meal). It's certainly nice and convenient to not have to leave campus to get food from somewhere else, and I wouldn't be surprised by some amount "up charge" for that, but this was egregious.

There were other, small things that stacked up and left me feeling like I'd just spent a lot of money on a not great experience: they charge you a daily Art + Adventure fee but still charge you to participate in any of those activities. The bed pillows are awful, full stop. The porch view is lovely but those chairs are not nice to sit in for very long. The staff were pleasant but seemed vaguely disconnected/disinterested from the goings on. Minimal signage/information: it wasn't clear where to check in (The Lodge, apparently), most communication is via text (like how to order breakfast), getting a pool towel was just "snag one from a chair that doesn't look used". Very few amenities in the rooms: no kettle, microwave, or iron. I wanted a cup of tea after dinner and had to go buy one ($5) from The Lodge. Even the basic hotels have a microwave!

Things I enjoyed: the campus and rooms are beautiful. it has that soothing minimal aesthetic with lots of white paint and plywood. They've done a nice job with the natural landscaping and everything...