Fairmont Copley Plaza

Prewar elegance, spacious rooms and thick walls are great, prewar plumbing not so much. Bathroom small and toilet barely flushed. Staff was great. Their club lounge was quite nice. Lobby check in lines could be a little long. Location great - Copley Sq close to shopping, not far from Freedom Trail in one direction and Fenway a pleasant mile walk in the other direction. T stop very near.

Gold floor experience was exceptional because of the exceptional staff. Great stay. BMW bicycles to ride the Charles River paths was a great suggestion to see City. Walking distance to Fenway. Great Property!

We have stayed at the Fairmont Copley every year for our anniversary, however, we noticed some changes this year. Seems they may be cutting back on some items as flowers outside the elevators on each floor, bellman, and the President"s Club check in. Although we had paid for a junior suite on the Gold level 4the floor, we were given a room on the third floor. This was disappointing.

Positives: - Large room area. - Polite/attentive staff at reception. - Great location. Right across Copley Square (2 minutes walk) is the Green line, and going down Dartmouth Street for 4 minutes takes you to the Orange line. In addition, opposite the hotel is a good-size CVS that we were never out of and you also have no shortage of dining options for all budgets and preferences on your doorstop being in the heart of Back Bay. - Good service at the OAK Long Bar. We had drinks there on arrival (because our room was not ready at 3pm and we were offered a comp drink each while we waited) and also went there once for breakfast – it’s a good breakfast (not a buffet) but if I hadn’t been using my FPC dining certificates I wouldn’t have felt it particularly good value at $27 each for the full cooked breakfast. Negatives: - The fitness room left a lot to be desired. I stayed longer than a week, using the facility every day, and in that time there were at least 5 pieces of cardio equipment that were in various states of disrepair, from non-functioning touch screens to faulty audio output sockets to intermittent TV channel reception - and in all the time I stayed no attempt appeared to be made to repair the equipment or even place “out of order� signs. I had to keep trying to remember each day which bits of equipment were actually in good order and I kept noticing other users having the same issue. In addition, it’s really nice to have fresh apples left out for the end of your workout as is the case here, but if they are only replenished every other day it gets more than a bit frustrating to realise there are none there at the end of your workout. Far worse was that on two days there were no towels left out for users, and on one occasion no cups for the water machine. It really seemed that the fitness room was being poorly run with a real lack of oversight by management – I saw a cleaner in several times but never a manager casting an eye over the facility. - This is the first time I’ve stayed in a Fairmont and my FPC “Fairmont Fit� equipment was not waiting for me in my room at arrival (the hotel did have my FPC details) and I had to mention this at reception to get it dealt with (which it was, very quickly). - Noise levels in the corridors are a significant problem. I was constantly woken up late at night with loud residents coming back up to their room and shouting/screaming/singing with no regard for other residents (presumably alcohol playing its part). On more than one occasion we also had to contend with screaming children late at night who clearly were being allowed by their parents to race loudly up and down the corridor. The problem would have been less of an issue with adequate sound insulation but the room door did not achieve this – thankfully the internal walls between the rooms seemed to be far more effective in this regard and we were usually unaware of other residents through the walls. - Our room looked onto Copley Square, and as much as that was a nice enough view, you couldn’t see that much out of the relatively small window, and in addition there was a musician with a p.a. who would play (very loudly) most nights until around 11pm. I’m guessing that he stopped because of a local agreement and obviously noise in Copley Square is hardly something to hold against the hotel, but if you value peace and quiet during a stay then this is something worth being aware of. I couldn’t get to sleep each night until he had finished. - The doormen were not as helpful as they might have been. In every other Fairmont property I’ve stayed in the doormen would be aware of you arriving/leaving the property and hold open the door for you – not here. I was struck by how many times there was a doorman present who was just standing at the door and not doing anything and failed to undertake this basic job that you would take for granted at a luxury hotel chain. - Cleaning in the room was just about adequate but on more than one day we were left with only one toilet roll for the day and also the comp shower gel/shampoo was not replenished. Overall this was a good experience in a beautiful classic hotel building but it is the weakest Fairmont we’ve stayed in and it just felt like it wasn’t quite being managed as a 5 star hotel in all areas – lots of staff were friendly and positive but it just didn’t have the required level of consistency and oversight from management to put it in the top tier of hotels (that it clearly aspires to). We would return in the future but would be realistic about the hotel’s shortcomings and ensure we weren’t paying top dollar rates.

When we arrived at the hotel it was like walking through a fairy tale. The hallway, ceilings, chandeliers gorgeous. The main lobby was just as beautiful and the staff was amazing. Artur, a bellman, is an amazing ambassador for their hotel, he went above and beyond. Julie at the front desk awesome. Their love for the Fairmont shows and is contagious. We will be back!!