A Barely Adequate Thing in Boston: Hotel 140
One last note on our trip to Boston this weekend, regarding the hotel we stayed at.
We found a room at Hotel 140 for a reasonable price ($149/night) through Hotels.com. The location is excellent; Hotel 140 is at 140 Clarendon Street near the corner of Stuart, right in Copley Square and just a block away from the Back Bay MBTA station. For convenience to shows and transportation, it would be hard to beat. The concierge who received us when we arrived was tremendously helpful and professional, cheerfully assisting us with directions and suggestions about how to get around.
Our room, while bright and immaculately clean, was also the tiniest cubby-hole of a room I've seen since LL and I landed at the wrong hotel in London some years ago. Our accommodation was so small that if we had spun around with our arms extended there would have been no way of avoided smacking one another in the head. There was no closet and the decor was straight out of an Ikea showroom. Everything was tiny and modular, including the bed. It was just barely big enough for the two of us to occupy at the same time. Security was good, at least; one could only access the elevator using a room key card. On the other hand, the vending machines also required a key card and they didn't work with our cards at all.
There's a diner associated with the hotel, the Stuart Street Grill, which is supposedly open at 8:00 AM on weekends. When we tried to eat there at 9:00 AM on Sunday, however, the door was locked and the lights turned off. Left to our own devices in finding breakfast, we asked the only person at the lobby desk for where we could go. The man sitting there appeared to be chatting on a laptop computer and looked like he might have had a hangover. He didn't seem to want to be bothered and sounded exasperated by LL having the gall to ask him about restaurants in the area, informing her that "The only place I can think of is Dunkin' Donuts" before blowing her off and going back to his online chat. LL and I agreed that he was a schmuck; we walked over to Boylston and grabbed some food at a nearby Finagle a Bagel which, by the way, was open.
After we'd eaten, we decided to go for a walk and, of course, found about 20 places open and serving breakfast. Not fast food places, either, but real sit-down restaurants that looked like they'd have been quite nice. We'll probably try one next time we're in the area, now that we know they exist — no thanks to the jackass who was working the front desk at Hotel 140 at 8:00 AM on Sunday, March 30. I'm being specific on the off chance that somebody who makes personnel decisions at Hotel 140 should find this entry. If you're that person, fire that loser before he alienates more of your guests. Give the woman with the Scandinavian accent who was working the lobby at 3:00 PM on Saturday, March 29 a raise while you're at it; she was really good and you'd do well to keep her!
All in all, Hotel 140 was an adequate place to crash for a night, but by a narrow margin. I wouldn't want to spend more than a single night there, and I would suggest finding a place with bigger rooms for those traveling as half of a couple and recommend strongly against the place if you've got kids in tow. If you see a slightly cross-eyed guy working the desk in the lobby, don't bother asking him anything. He doesn't want to help you.
