Why book?
A new building, a new brand, a new chapter for Boston’s luxury scene: Raffles’ splashy North America debut from 2023 still hits all the right notes.
Set the scene
Raffles has a huge footprint across Asia and Europe, and its first U.S. property delivers that same degree of cosmopolitan glamor. From street level, you’re whisked by elevator up to the seventeenth floor, where the soaring three-story Sky Lobby exudes a certain gravitas and scale that no Boston hotel in recent memory has been able to capture. Anchored by a massive, three-story floating staircase, the lobby buzzes with sophisticated energy, and the check-in process inside the Writer’s Lounge—a plush sort of living room space, and a signature of Raffles properties—is pulled off with élan and panache. When you’re here, you can’t help but feel like a jet setter.
The backstory
The development of 430 Stuart Street has been over a decade in the making, and the Raffles Hotel portion has experienced numerous delays. But now that it’s finally here, it feels like an exciting new chapter for Boston: a vote of confidence that this city is truly a major player in the scenes of international hospitality, design, and luxury.
The rooms
Modern, but make it Back Bay (read: classic). Stonehill Taylor (The Ned Nomad, TWA Hotel, J.W. Marriott Nashville) designed the rooms here in an old-meets-new, quintessential Boston ethos. Textured wallpapers, wood paneling, marble accent tables and custom glass-front bar cabinets and closets make the rooms here feel less like a hotel, and more like your most glamorous friend’s pied-a-terre. Homey touches abound, from fresh orchids on your nightstand to a minibar stocked with locally-sourced snacks and tipples, including maple bourbon pecans from Q’s Nuts and pre-mixed negronis from Bully Boy Distillers. The marble bathrooms are stylish and spacious, with deep soaking tubs, dual sinks, and impossibly plush Garnier Thiebault linens. The rooms do feel like Raffles, but they also feel like Boston—a duality that global hotel brands don’t always manage to pull off.
Looking to splurge? At 2,167 square feet, the Presidential Suite is one of the largest in the city–and comes with over-the-top flourishes such as a Steinway & Sons baby grand piano, dining table for ten, and a stunning platinum-leafed gold headboard over the bed.
Food and drink
There’s a lot of F&B to get excited about here. First is the Long Bar and Terrace (a nod to the original Raffles Singapore’s Long Bar, and not to be confused with the OAK Long Bar at the Fairmont Copley Plaza a block away). On warmer nights, the terrace is packed with sceney locals throwing back Boston Slings (a cranberry-tinged update on the Singapore Sling, naturally) and taking in the unobstructed views over the South End.
Next is Amar, a Mediterranean fine dining concept. And over at La Padrona, two-time James Beard Award winner Jody Adams cooks seafood-forward Italian food. Throw in the ground-floor Café Pastel, a European-style café and bakery, and it’s safe to say that Raffles has single handedly become a culinary destination on this otherwise forgotten block of Back Bay.
The neighborhood/area
Tucked away on Stuart Street between Clarendon and Dartmouth Streets, the location is extremely central without being smack-dab in the Theater District’s pandemonium. Everything you’d want to experience in the Back Bay–the Boston Public Library on Copley Square, shopping on Newbury Street, promenading down the Commonwealth Avenue mall–is just steps away.
The service
Raffles’s signature butler service makes the hotel’s steep price tag worth it, for the right customer. Friendly, personalized service is never more than a phone call or text message away, and beautifully walks that fine line of being accessible yet never overbearing.
For families
With all the glitz and glam—not to mention the pricetag—Raffles definitely skews towards a more grown-up clientele.
Accessibility
As part of a brand new building, Raffles is fully accessible, with regulation door frames, elevator access everywhere you go, and assistive devices at the swimming pool.
Anything left to mention?
Raffles is home to a small, exclusive-feeling Guerlain Spa with beautiful, aromatherapy-driven treatments. There is also a fantastic hotel gym, and a twenty-meter indoor swimming pool.
40 Trinity Pl, Boston, MA 02116
US
https://www.raffles.com/boston
(800) 768-9009