Hotel Commonwealth

A luxury boutique hotel in Boston could hardly ask for a more auspicious location than this one, next to bustling Kenmore Square, looking straight across the road at Fenway Park, a short walk from Boston University and nearly as close to Back Bay. And while its exterior does its best to blend in with the city in a classic colonial style, its interiors take things in a slightly more contemporary direction, though one that’s palatable for both modernists and traditionalists, based on the familiar aesthetics of old New England but updated for a boutique-hotel audience.

The location, just to the west of downtown, also affords the Commonwealth a bit of extra space to spread out; the rooms, and especially the bathrooms, put their square footage to good use. The in-room comforts may not be ostentatious, but they are substantial, from 48-inch smart televisions to Italian linens and Malin + Goetz bath products. Many of them face the iconic green exterior of Fenway Park, the nation’s oldest baseball stadium. And while the surrounding area suffers no shortage of dining and drinking venues, the Commonwealth comes with three restaurants of its own: Blue Ribbon Sushi, Blue Ribbon Brasserie, and the indoor-outdoor TsuruTonTan Udon Noodle Brasserie.