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This Raffles Boston Review is from our stay at the first Raffles hotel in North America, which opened in 2023.
Raffles Boston Location
The Raffles Boston is located at 40 Trinity Place in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, about a 13-minute walk from Boston Common, a 9-minute drive to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and a 10-20-minute drive, depending on traffic, from Boston Logan Airport (BOS).
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The ground floor lobby is small, but that's because the main lobby is on the 17th floor.
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The Sky Lobby on the 17th floor is where you'll find reception, where you'll check in.
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Raffles Boston Rooms and Suites
The hotel has 150 rooms and suites. Note that none of the suites have a sofa bed, so for three guests, the choices are between a room with two queen beds, a 1 Bedroom Suite with a rollaway bed, a suite connecting to a room, or two rooms.
We were in a Deluxe King Room (400 sq. ft.). To the right of the entrance was a small closet space.
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The welcome fruit plate was nicely done, with fresh passion fruit, berries, and apricots enlivening the grapes. And I especially enjoyed the Raffles dark chocolate mendiant, with a wooden mallet available to crack it. It reminded me of the chocolate and mallet that The Peninsula Paris used to offer as its welcome amenity, before it became a more prosaic assortment of macarons or the like.
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Ostensibly all rooms and suites offer butler service, but we had no idea who our butler was, if we had one. When I arrived, Housekeeping was in the room. I asked if she could step out since I had minutes to shower and change before heading out to dinner, and asked her to return in 20 minutes since we'd be out at dinner. She never came back, and the room remained only half serviced when we returned hours later after dinner.
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The mini bar is housed in a handsome cabinet, with ample glassware, a Nespresso machine as well as a hot water kettle, and Palais des Thes teas.
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The Deluxe Room bathroom is on the smaller side. It does have double sinks and a walk-in shower, although no soaking tub. The toilet is a regular one, not a Toto washlet, which seems like a miss.
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Breakfast on the Long Bar Terrace
In pleasant weather, guests can enjoy meals al fresco on the Long Bar's terrace.
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The Long Bar itself has comfortable banquette seating indoors.
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Here's the breakfast menu during our 2025 stay:
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We decided to indulge by adding lobster to the Rolled Omelet, but we were disappointed with the minimal amount of lobster, especially given the $18 surcharge, on top of the $30 omelet. Frankly, this pricing is wholly out of whack and should be revisited. I had a better lobster omelet at a Boston airport hotel, and for a lot less money. Also, the accompanying salad had several wilted leaves, which shouldn't happen at this caliber of hotel, or with this pricing.
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My husband's cinnamon roll looked fancy, but was only slightly tastier than some dry bread that's been smeared with cinnamon filling and rolled up. Grocery store cinnamon rolls would have been better.
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The best thing by far was something the kitchen (mostly) didn't make: the Ronnybrook yogurt with berries and granola.
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Perhaps that's not fair: the fresh squeezed orange-grapefruit juice was also very good. Not that it requires much cooking prowess.
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Raffles Boston Guerlain Spa, Pool, Fitness Center
On a more positive note, there's a lovely lap pool, jacuzzi, fitness center, and Guerlain Spa, which includes a steam room and sauna.
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Raffles Boston Benefits for TravelSort Clients
- Upgrade on arrival, subject to availability
- Daily breakfast credit of $50 per person, for up to two guests per bedroom, served in the restaurant and via in-room dining (credit is non-cumulative)
- $100 USD equivalent Resort or Hotel credit to be utilized during stay (not combinable, not valid on room rate, no cash value if not redeemed in full)
- Early Check-In / Late Check-Out, subject to availability
- Complimentary Wi-Fi
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The Verdict
Raffles Boston has a very good hard product, with one of the most modern luxury hotel rooms in Boston's Back Bay. The soft product, even after being open for about two years, was more inconsistent than I expected. On the one hand, the fresh fruit welcome amenity that included fresh passion fruit and the Raffles chocolate mendiant with a mallet to crack it were lovely. But Housekeeping didn't come back to service our room, even though I requested service while we were at dinner. Breakfast was very underwhelming for the price, apart from the yogurt with granola. And there's no longer house car service, which was originally offered. Overall, enjoy the rooms and suites, but temper your expectations when it comes to service and dining.
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