When I was visiting friends while in college, I was lucky if the stains on the couch where I inevitably ended up sleeping were only from beer. But in Boston, there's now an alternative for the weary budget travelers of America. The newish Hotel 140, right off Copley Square, offers most of the amenities you'd expect from an urban hotel circa 1995. Ikea-inspired modernist rooms, continental breakfast, an iron and an ironing board in the room, your own bathroom with a shower, etc. In other words, this is a no-frills kind of place. But it's clean, it's relatively quiet, it's in the middle of the city, and it's 109 bucks a night. All in all, not a bad deal. However, if you try to make your reservation on the hotel's website, you'll find two pricing options: rooms for $109 and $119 a night. The problem is that they fail to mention what the difference in price goes toward. When I asked an actual employee of the hotel to explain, he simply charged me $109 a night because he wasn't sure. So begins the parade of quirks at Hotel 140. Why, for example, is there a lobby elevator bank that you can't use? The hotel asks that you use the elevators behind the ones that you can see. Why is Internet, wireless or otherwise, nonexistent in a hotel that markets itself to a young, connected demographic? Why are there all these signs pointing you to an exercise room when there doesn't actually appear to be an exercise room? Nevertheless, if you've just spent the semester backpacking through Europe and you're at all familiar with youth hostels, none of this will seem all that strange, and, as I said, at this price point, you could do a lot worse if all you're looking for is a place to sleep.
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