The Hilton Boston Park Plaza is in a nice location in Boston, but I encountered some issues with the hotel that more than offset the positives that come from the location.

This stay occurred in July 2024

Booking

Full disclosure, this stay was required as part of volunteer work related to the healthcare industry. While I did not pay for my room, the opinions and commentary below remains my own.

The room rate over my stay was $269 before taxes and fees for a one king bed superior guestroom. I thought the room was a bit expensive for what I received, but more details on why that was the case a little later. If booking with Hilton points, expect to get about 0.4 cents per point in value, currently capped at 80,000 Hilton points per night. Generally speaking, I don’t typically find value in Hilton points except when booking hotels that have very high cash rates relative to the points cap. In other words, special events where the cash price is abnormally high for a hotel or if you’re looking at luxury hotels (such as the Grand Wailea or the Maldives).

Earning Hilton Points

While there are multiple ways to earn Hilton points, I’m only going to focus on two main methods to acquire the points.

Signing up for credit cards can be a cost-effective way to earn points. American Express offers several cards at various price points, but it’s best to go with a card that gives great benefits if you plan on staying at Hilton hotels with any regularity. The Hilton Aspire card (not an affiliate link) is single-handedly one of the best cards out there, offering a free night on renewal, a $400 annual resort credit ($200 each half year) that can be used on room rate or room charges at certain resorts, Diamond status, and a $200 airline fee credit ($50 per quarter). Currently, there is also a sign-up bonus of 175,000 Hilton Honors points, making it a quick way to earn points.

The other option is to simply buy Hilton points. Hilton has frequent “sales” that allow the purchase of points for half a cent each. Since Hilton uses a dynamic structure for award prices, it won’t be possible to find deals for most hotels. But there is an implicit points cap for each hotel. That means you could find some deals by buying points to stay at some of the most expensive hotels (think the Maldives). For this hotel, a cost of 80,000 points at half a cent each translates to $400/night room rate. Better to save your points for a different, more expensive hotel, but it can make sense for a specific (expensive) use.

Arrival and First Impressions

So I had a bit of a disappointing start to the stay. Before my stay, I had done the typical thing when checking into your room with the Hilton app where you can select your preferred room. I’ve found when I’ve done that in the past, the room I selected was ultimately the room I got. However, this time it didn’t quite work out as planned. Despite choosing my preferred room, I was seemingly downgraded on arrival to a “wicked small” room. So what’s the point of choosing a room on the app if I’m not given it on arrival? When I arrived at the hotel, I did tell them I chose a room but the comment was largely ignored except to say that it’s a full hotel for our stay and this is all that’s available.

Ultimately I received a downgrade–as a Hilton Diamond, no less–which ultimately leads me to believe that Hilton Diamond status is mostly worthless. Why pursue a status that doesn’t protect you from an involuntary downgrade? I booked a regular-sized room so it’s quite disappointing for being given something less than what I wanted and the worst part of it for me was that it seemed no one at the hotel seemed to care, almost like it was standard procedure to just give whatever was available. Some, but not all, others in my group experienced similar treatment despite themselves having Hilton status. When they directly confronted the hotel about it, the response was simply just that the originally booked room wasn’t available unless they paid an upcharge. What a joke.

As for the rest of the benefits, Hilton Gold and Diamond status members would receive a $18 per person per guest per day (up to two guests per room) credit that can be used to offset daily food and beverage expenses at the hotel. This food credit can only be used at the Off The Common restaurant in the lobby, and not at any other food and beverage venue nor at the gift shop. There’s sadly also no credit for in-room dining, so it’s a bit limiting.

When checking in, the agent felt like she read off a memorized script, which admittedly was a bit difficult to follow. On the plus side, I did receive two water bottles at check in, though I needed to come to the front desk to get more.

When checking out of a hotel, it is interesting to understand the typical process agents follow. The only thing I was asked was simply if I wanted the bill and no commentary on how the stay actually was. The one positive was at least that the elite food and beverage credits were applied without me asking. That’s the first time I experienced that with Hilton, sadly, as usually it requires me to scrutinize the bill at checkout to make sure I get the benefits they say I get.

I will say that the actual shared spaces of the hotel were beautiful. The hotel was an independent until late October 2023 when it reflagged under the Hilton brand. There is a small library in the front of the hotel, which is a nice area for waiting, but otherwise not much to do here.

The Room

My room for this stay was 10109 (originally booked 7077 in app). Room 10109 was a “wicked small” room, which was an accurate description. The room indeed is wickedly small and I would venture as far to say it’s ultimately not a comfortable stay. This is especially true if more than one person is staying in the room.

Inside the room awaited a queen bed that I didn’t find comfortable. The bed lacked support and felt the sheets were thin. There was a real lack of table space near the bed to store items except for a phone.

Across from the bed was the desk, if you can call it that. I’d say it was more of a table to eat your dinner while watching TV, except that it wasn’t possible to watch TV and eat at the same time in the room. I certainly tried to use it as a desk to do work, but doesn’t offer enough room to work and use a mouse.

Additionally, the TV remote in this room didn’t seem to operate well, not functioning when I told it to change channels, and sending me backwards when I didn’t want it to do that.

Next to the bed was a small closet. This was where I ended up storing my luggage since the room was otherwise too small.

Under the TV was a mini-fridge and coffee machine. Given the lack of drawer space, this isn’t a room you should stay in more than a couple of nights.

The bathroom in this room is incredibly cramped. I’m not a huge guy but I kept banging into the doorknob and the towel rod when going in and out of the bathroom. Thankfully I learned to be a little gentler to keep from injuring myself each time I went to the bathroom.

I found the water pressure in the shower to be very weak. It felt like standing in a gentle rain.

I don’t normally like to comment on toilets, but aside from being rather industrial, which I didn’t think fit the theme of the hotel at all, it also was crammed into a corner of the bathroom and was rather uncomfortable to use.

Toiletries are the standard Crabtree and Evelyn.

While we’re talking about the room, you can see the wear and tear in the hotel. I found it quite odd that the room itself showed so much wear and tear when the common spaces looked so well-maintained. In my room, there was damage on the bathroom door and throughout the room. On top of that, of the two bath towels in the room, one had a rather prominent stain on it, suggesting they need new towels (they were quite thin and flimsy).

The view from the room is really of nothing, just a method to have natural light enter the room.

If you needed to refill your water bottles, there was a water refill station by the elevator.

Off The Common

I dined at the lobby restaurant Off The Common on my first night, and I thought the food was good. I ordered the clam chowder and the lobster roll. Personally I enjoyed the clam chowder more but fair warning it was quite hot when served and it burnt my tongue. The lobster roll wasn’t bad but a little too much mayo where I would have preferred hot butter. The $36 for daily Hilton elite food and beverage credits certainly help with the pricing but I’ll be honest and admit I generally just used my credit at the adjacent bar (which also covered the tip I left).

Recommendation: No

The one thing I’ll give this hotel is its location. It’s in a good neighborhood about a street away from Boston Commons (and the Four Seasons). If you’re here for a short stay and aren’t planning to be in the room much, it might be OK. But that’s about all I found nice about the stay.

I didn’t appreciate the service (being downgraded) and the guest rooms, both in terms of the size and condition. I understand that sometimes rooms get overbooked, but it’s hard to appreciate the decision to downgrade me–a top-tier Diamond member, no less–without mentioning it and then avoiding the issue when I bring it up. I don’t imagine they often downgrade members, but it’s hard for me to recommend when they don’t honor what you booked.

While in Boston, see this post for ideas on what to do in the city.

Where do you like to stay in Boston?