You say you want a night at Revolution? No thanks.

Back in the day. Way back in the day. I camped. Sometimes the bathroom was an outhouse you had to walk to in the pitch dark. Sometimes it was a communal but conventional institutional multi-stall bathroom you had to walk to in the pitch dark. Sometimes all you had to do was walk a few steps away from the tent in the pitch dark. Sometimes there was no tent to walk away from.

Back in the day. Way back in the day. I hosteled. The bathrooms were indoors. And (mostly) clean. But they were a walk down the hallway.

Back in the day. Way back in the day. I stayed at some really dumpy hotels. Like the 50 cent a night hotel in Turkey that looked like something right out of a Camus novel, and had a shared toilet in the hall. It was one of those hole-in-the-floor toilets, with the footholds on either side of the hole. But in this particular hotel - you really do get what you pay for - they turned the water off at 10 p.m. So if you had to make a toilet run in the middle of the night, you did it by the light of a 10 watt bulb that "lit" an entire corridor and, when you got to the hole-in-the-floor toilet, there was sewage sloshing over the sides of the hole and onto the footholes.

Back in the day. Way back in the day. I stayed in a few AirBnB precursors. One I remember was in Madrid. There was no window in the room, and the shared toilet had a rim of silt - at least I hope it was silt - around the upper reaches of the bowl.

Back in the day. Way back in the day. My husband and I stayed at a very nice inn in New Hampshire. Very nice, except for the fact the there was a shared toilet in the hall.

That was then. This is now. At this point, I have no desire to stay anywhere without a private bathroom. I'm fine sharing with family and friends. Just not with strangers. And if it requires a long, dark walk in the night. Or a hole-in-the-floor toilet with the water turned off. I'm just not interested. My adventuring days, I have no problem admitting, are OVER.

So I guess it's a good thing I live in Boston. And have my own private bathroom, thank you. Two of them, in fact. Because if I were coming here, and thought to myself, 'Hey, I no longer camp or hostel, why not treat myself to the hotel that readers of Condé Nast Traveler have deemed the best hotel in the city: Revolution Hotel' I might have ended up without a bathroom of my own.

This is a hotel in a converted YWCA that features shared bathrooms. Yes, you read that correctly. Readers of a travel magazine that dispenses tips on where to find the most unique Hermès scarves in Lucerne thinks shared bathrooms are the bees knees. (Source: Boston Globe)

Converted Y? Shared bathroom?

Globe writer Christopher Muther is younger and braver than I, so he checked in to check it out.

The large lobby looked like a history lesson for millennials. Boston’s best and brightest were rendered in street-style murals throughout the expansive space. As the hotel’s website says, “the Revolution will be Instagrammed,” and it’s practically begging for likes at every turn. The lobby, plus the industrial look of the rooms — including some rooms with bunk beds — gave the place an air of a youth hostel with a trust fund. 

Me? I long for the good old days when we thought that the revolution would not be televised. Come to find out, it's going to be Instagrammed. Oh Lord.

Muther estimates that the target Revolutionary is in "around 27" and are okay with a 120-square-foot-room without a bath and are willing to pay $150 for it.

While Muther is younger than I, he's no 27 year old. And it turns out he's no braver than I am. He sprung for a room with its very own bathroom (plus living room and kitchentette). My kind of guy.

He did venture out to take a look at the sharesies.

There is a main room that looks like a locker room. It’s filled with towels. There are petite private rooms inside this faux locker room that include a toilet, sink, and shower, all tiled in basic white. You can lock the door behind you, and do your thing in privacy — or at least some level of privacy. This setup may not be everybody’s cup of Earl Grey, but honestly, it’s not as bad as it sounds. But the best hotel in the city shouldn’t be bothering with a shared bath.

I agree with his opinion here, and I would probably agree with his assessment that, while it may not be the best hotel in Boston, it's probably not the worst. And Chris Muther rates it as just fine for Milennial and younger. 

Muther also unearthed an interesting side note.

The Revolution is part of the Provenance Hotel chain, which was founded by none other than Gordon Sondland, the noted Trump donor, ambassador to the EU, and Ukraine-corruption maven. With respect to the The Revolution, Provenance - which is currently chaired by Sondland's wife - is in partnership with Mt. Vernon.

The Revolution? Mt. Vernon? I'm feeling achingly patriotic. 

Anyway, while The Revolution will not be televised - television? what's that? -  at least Gordon Sondland's testimony was, for all the good it will end up doing...

Bet he never stays in a hotel without a private bathroom...

Meanwhile, since so much leads back to the Beatles, "You say you want a revolution. Well, you know. We all want to change the world." We just don't want to do it by sharing a hotel bathroom in the hall.