@disneybirds - I almost booked the Residence Inn Seaport myself today - DH and I just decided to do a weekend in Boston later this fall. But I wound up using the Amex Fine Hotels program to book the Liberty (yay!) because it was only $279 on the date I was looking at. Yes, expensive, but cheap for the Liberty. Deciding factor was that we have an offer on DH's platinum card for $100 off a $500 stay at high end Marriotts. I can spend the remaining $200 needed for the offer on a work trip of mine where I'm staying at a JW Marriott.
The FHR rate gets us a $100 F&B credit, plus breakfast for 2, and some kind of upgrade to our room (I've been lucky with these and gotten suites on occassion). I pre-paid, so I get 5x MR points on the spend.
So with the offer, it looks like this:
Hotel Cost $ 344 (includes tax/resort fee)
Amex Credit $(100) (cheating a little here - crediting entire credit to this stay, although it requires another stay, but I was doing that stay anyway)
F&B Credit $(100)
Breakfast for 2 $(50) (cheating a little here - I would get breakfast anyway because I'm a platinum member)
Value of MRs
$(17)
Cost of room $77
FHR rates are only available if you have an Amex Plat, but can be really good value if you hit them right!
ETA- there may be a fly in my ointment here. I'm not sure that my pre-paid FHR stay is going to trigger the amex credit - if it comes up as a charge to amex travel, I may be out of luck. May need to forego the 5x amex points, cancel this reservation and plan to pay the hotel directly when we stay. That will definitely trigger the credit.