The Intercontinental Hotel is a new fancy hotel right on the site of the Boston Tea Party. Rooms are well decorated, clean and have a high end feel, as does the lobby, hallways, restuarants and lounges. Fancy spa area, small indoor pool, locker rooms with sauna. New fancy cardio equiptment.

Your welcome to the hotel is cordial at best. They take your car for valet (about $40/day) and they will send a bellman to help you (or at least they offered one to me because I am female AND I gave the man at the curb a tip.) We were able to roll our ownbags into the hotel. There is no doorman. Just the guy at the curb and a bellhop inside the door. You just go through a large revolving door yourself. The staff at the desk was business like and didn't make you feel like most higher end hotels. Perhaps it was that we booked through Hotwire and paid a really great rate. Perhaps they just aren't warm and fuzzy. We were well dressed and certainly looked like we belonged there, but they did confirm that I had booked through Hotwire, so they knew I didn't pay top dollar. Just a note: they didn't seem to be gushing over anybody else either, so perhaps it was just there way.

Arrived at the room through a fancy lobby with Anthony Quinn's artwork on display (interesting) and found the room very nice. All the things a high end hotel should have. There was no need to take pictures. They all look the same and the hotel is only 2 years old, so you know what you are getting. Bathroom was clean and nice, but we had to ask for extra towels and they must have figured that we only need ed them once because we had the same small number of towels the next day. The bath products were a strange brand, but on the last day they must have gotten their regular "fancy french brand" back, because we had nicer shampoo. As for linen count, I have stayed in 5 star hotels all over the world and the linens here were just fine. They were appropriate (and I am really particular) and certainly not 100 thread count as stated in an earlier review. The only bedding issue I had was that the pillows were really hard. They do have little reading lights by the side of the bed that were really great because they allow others in the room to sleep in the dark while you read!

There is no turndown service (which I thought was weird) and at times when you press the button on the phone for "any service they can help you with", they do not answer. USA Today delivered during the week but none on Saturday.

Internet is about $14/DAY and if you have more than one laptop, you are charged per IP address. Also, if you want to use your laptop in the lobby you are charged about $5/hour.

Drinks in the lobby or out on the rear patio start at about $10 each. The lobby bar gets very loud at night. There is a Sushi-teq restaurant that is tiny, but also serves drinks and sushi on the beautiful back patio overlooking the water. The area is small and if you don't get there early you just won't get seated. They take a waiting list, but people just don't seem to get up. My daughter and I tried to get seated around 7pm. They told us to come back in a half hour, so we went back up to the room. At 7:30...Still no table. We then sat in the lounge had a snack and waited. Around 9 they "DID US A FAVOR" and got us a seat. You really need to just stand around and hover or they will seat somebody else. It was expensive, the sushi was very "American", not very good if you actually eat sushi (non sushi eaters thought it was great ~ they always like potato chips and cream cheese in their sushi :)The desserts, which came from the French Bistro in the hotel were not great. I decided the high cost was paid for a really nice outdoor dining experience on a beautiful summer night.

If you want breakfast or a sandwich, room service, as anywhere, is very expensive and only OK. You can walk out the back of the hotel to the right. Walk over a tiny bridge and on the right is Finagle a Bagel and if you walk a couple blocks up on the left (I believe it was Farnsworth Street) is Flour Bakery & Cafe. They have daily specials, gorgeouscakes and the most delicious Raspberry seltzer. They make their own raspberry syrup and it is really good! Also an awesome Grilled BLT with applewood smoked bacon that is lush.

You can also walk out the front of the hotel turn right and walk about 3 blocks till you see the giant American Flag hanging down at Rowes Wharf. Just past that is a little cafe (I think it was called Rudi's, but I don't remember) where you can get coffee and pastries or eggs and eat inside or out. Reviews have noted that the staff is rude, which we were expecting, but did not experience.

We found the location of the hotel was upscale and safe feeling, but not a lot right there. You could walk about 10 minutes to Faniuel Hall where there were lots of expensive outdoor dining options, that were packed (again, you are paying for being outside in the middle of the action, which is fun sometimes)and a food court that I assume would be less costly. Food court and stores close between 8 and 9 on Friday nights.

Other than that, we took cabs, which seemed to eat up the Hotwire savings. We could have stayed in the Copely Square area near Newburry Street and walked everywhere or taken the green line T. This hotel was not on that train line and it would have meant switching trains which we just didn't have time to figure out. If you need to be in the Cambrige are for schools such as Harvard, Mit, etc. You could get a direct train from where we were.

Anyway, a cab to BU ran about $15 in each direction. We figured out if we wandered around and headed up toward Newbury it was cheaper to get a cab back to the hotel from there.

All and all it was a fabulous hotel for under $200/night in Boston, but if I was paying regular prices I would pick either a better area or a hotel with more gracious service. We will be back in August and October and we will be staying someplace else, regardless of price. It just wasn't convenient enough for us.

And don't think the service was subpar because it was Boston... None of the people working at the front representing the hotel were even from Boston.

Booked the hotel through AA vacations using miles. Hotel in great location for our purposes, used Red Line extensively. Travelled with 13-year-old niece. Near Silver Line, concierge called Water Taxi for return to airport. Hotel was clean, bathroom is amazing. Never had time for fitness center. Concierges and hotel desk staff were pleasant and helpful. Fire station across street kept niece up the first night. Could use better bedside lighting for reading in bed, a bit dark for me.

I was in town for a large conference. This was one of the closest hotels to the convention center and I was excited that I'd be able to walk over.

I didn't have the same problems with check in as some other people however the doorman did let me stuggle with the door while juggling my purse and two suitcases. Thankfully some of my coworkers and I figured out a system to get all of us through the door.

The rooms are nicely decorated and the bathrooms are great looking. However when I took one of the white towels and wiped up the water that I'd dripped on the tile floor so that I wouldn't slip and fall later the towel turned BLACK, so they had obviously not washed the floor in a while which was pretty off putting. I also didn't get a newspaper for 3/5 nights that I stayed. (I would have complained but I didn't notice that it was advertized when I booked the reservation.) The sheets were so poor that I felt like I got a free exfoliation...I'd estimate 100 thread count if they make them that low. Not having a coffee maker does make the place look cheap, I was just as shocked as the other reviewers about this. I also had the issue with the minibar charges (they AUTOMATICALLY charge you if you just BUMP the stuff in there)--however they weren't so nice about taking them off. I had to argue with them to get them taken off.

This was the kicker for me though. Since I wasn't footing the bill I wasn't too irritated with all of the other problems that I had...However on my second day there I returned to my room at 6pm that I had left at 7:15am only to find it NOT CLEANED. When I called down to tell them at the front desk that my room wasn't cleaned they didn't even aplogize. They insinuated that I was mistaken. As if I wouldn't know!! I thought that was rude. Once I convinced them that I wasn't mistaken I waited 30 min for someone to show up to clean the room. I was asked to wait outside in the hall...so there I stood looking like an idiot. The last straw for me was the next night I was left with 0 washcloths and had to call 2 times to get someone to come up with one...and then the guy showed up with a bath towel and no wash cloth. When I pointed out that I wanted a wash cloth he actually said, "What do you want me to do about it?" He did eventually come back with the wash cloth but this was now 1 hour after I first called for it. Remember this was not a call for an EXTRA wash cloth...this was to fix their mistake in the first place.

Also Miel is WAY over priced--you're better off walking to Finagle a Bagel!

We stayed at the Intercontinental for 4 nights over the Memorial Day weekend. We booked through Hotwire in March and received an excellant rate.

Rooms were not ready when we arrived and the bell staff held our bags for us. We enjoyed a couple of cocktails in the bar - Rumba - service and drinks provided by Kevin were fantastic. Prices are high but Kevin does make a great drink!

After a short stroll to Fanueil Hall for a late lunch we were able to check in. Our party had 2 rooms on the 7th floor - ours was a corner room and the views were great from two walls of windows. Our companions room was an interior and happened to be slightly larger than ours.

The rooms are definitely gorgeous. Very plush and comfortable. The bathrooms are to die for and I could have spent the entire 4 days in there! The glassed in shower is huge and water pressure was very good and my husband soaked in the giant tub one night after a day of walking in Boston! He enjoyed that immensely! Some people have mentioned that they don't like the sliding windows between the bathroom and bedroom but it is great for TV watching if you are getting ready to go out. Bath was well stocked with lots of towels, a hair dryer and Q-tips, cotton balls, etc.

The bed was extremely comfortable and triple sheeted. If you don't sleep well here you're just not doing enough walking!

Beware the dreaded mini-bar! If you even look at it the sensors go off saying you have purchased something. We had to have charges removed from both rooms, as we were merely trying to find a place to store our own wine. Charges were removed without hassle.

The only drawback to the I/C is the fact there is no in-room coffee and a pot from room service will set you back $10 plus gratuity, service charge and administrative fee - what? What's to "administrate" about a pot of coffee? We found our own coffee about 3 blocks away, at Rudi's, just past the Boston Harbor Hotel. Apparently we were not alone as every morning someone would ask us where we got our coffee?

We did get to experience the hotel coffee on our last morning when we had breakfast at Miel. Not only was it not good...it also was not hot....and we had to continually ask our waiter for more to fill our $4 "bottomless cups". Pass on the I/C coffee and go to Rudi's!

However, breakfast at Miel was terrific. The 3-egg omelette was too large to finish. A variety of fillings are available - including shrimp and lobster. One of our party had both of these ingredients and he proclaimed it the best omelette he ever had. Breakfast for 5 was $95 plus tax - one of the higher amounts we have spent, but I must say it was worth it.

Other things to note....our room was across the street from the Boston Fire Department - we hardly knew it was there. The neighborhood is mostly high rise office buildings and condos, a couple of hotels and little more. If it wasn't for Rudi's and their coffee we would have been sunk! South Station is about 2 blocks away and the T-stop at the Aquarium is 4 - 5 blocks in the other direction. The neighborhood seems very safe and is very pretty. Gardeners worked in the park across the street all weekend getting it ready for the summer and it will be very pretty.

Staff was very nice and competent - not overly friendly, but that's OK. Our housekeeping staff was excellant - we left notes for extra towels and tipped by the day so our housekeeper was taken care of.

The hotel is currently displaying some of Anthony Quinn's artwork, which was very interesting,

Hope I haven't forgotten anything...we would definitely stay here again if the price was right....but they must do something about the coffee situation to make it perfect!