I stayed here at the start of a New England holiday in Sept 2005. The hotel is in a great location adjacent to an excellent shopping centre and subway station. There are several restaurants within the shopping centre and many a short walk away. The room was furnished to a high standard and the staff were all friendly and professional. Couldn't fault the hotel or the price, the Sheraton across the road asks twice the price and is full of Conference delegates. It was also in an ideal position for driving a hire car out of town as there was no need to transverse the centre of Boston.

There are 2 Hiltons in the central Boston area. Last year, we stayed at the Hilton in the Financial District. It was great and only walking distance to Quincy Market etc. No pool though. This year we thought that we would try Back Bay and again opted for a Hilton primarily to experience another area of Boston and to benefit from the indoor pool. Although the staff were very friendly, the hotel was rundown and jaded. Certainly not what we would have expected from Hilton. The cleaning staff also did not have that much attention to detail! As for the pool, it was okay but nothing special. No Hilton Executive Room either which was something that we missed. We did like the Back Bay area though and there were lot's of attractions in that area. We particularly enjoyed walking all the way to Harvard Square and back! We do like staying with the Hilton chain but would not use this one again. The Hilton in the Financial District is a much better option. If you want Back Bay, from our brief observations, The Lenox looked good.

Location is close to ideal: Across the street to the Prudential Center entrance (via Sheraton) and a short walk to Hynes Convention Center Subway station as well as an even shorter walk to Newbury Street with all its Restaurants and Specialty stores.
Lobby is somewhat small but all common areas were clean and updated.
Service was friendly and professional.
Two free computer terminals are available in the lobby for brief internet access and boarding pass printing.
Rooms were clean, updated and our kingsize bedroom size was acceptable. Bathrooms are a bit small but updated and clean. No complaints about the Roomservice.
Wireless internet access is available for $13/24hrs.
Pod-style coffee machines and ceramic mugs were very welcomed.
Now for two somewhat serious detractors which might have to do with the location of our room ( 7th floor on the south side, room 713)
1. you can constantly hear the elevators skating up and down. The sound seems to reverberate through the room, -- not loud at all, but still noticeable. I suspect that the rooms to the north side might have less of this problem since they are not adjacent to the back wall of the elevators. Perhaps even rooms further up would experience less of this noise.
2. somehow cigarette smoke was occasionally coming into the room through the bathroom vent . It was not visible, but it was definitely very noticeable. We could not determine if the adjacent room neighbor was smoking in his/her bathroom or if it was coming from the 8th floor which apparently is the smoking floor. There was no active exhaust action happening in the vent from what I could tell, rather, air was coming into the bathroom from the vent. Either way, the bathroom venting seemed inadequate to keep this from being rather annoying. Again, perhaps rooms on higher floors would not have this issue due to the greater distance from the smoking floor.
Without these two items, I would have definitely rated this hotel above average.

We stopped at the Hilton for four nights at the end of July. We paid for the upgraded corner room but couldnt see a difference from the standard room apart from a bit more space. The room was clean and comfortable, with a small balcony that you could manouvre a chair out onto at a push.
The swimming pool and gym were fine nice to have a quick dip after a long day sight seeing.
Used the bar but not the breakfast room which seemed to be overpriced.
Overall it was a good experience and we would stop again if in Boston.