The hotels that populate best-of lists tend to be flashy properties with nightly rates that make you say, “ouch” when you receive your credit card bill. You know the type — the shampoo scent is customized for the hotel, there’s a multi-page pillow menu, and the lobby bar usually has a name like Cloak + Talon or the Dandelion Collective.

That’s why I was surprised — gobsmacked, actually — when I saw that the Godfrey Hotel in Downtown Crossing landed at No. 6 on TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Awards of the best hotels in the country. There’s nothing gimmicky about the Godfrey Hotel; it’s not trying to appeal to travel influencers, nor is it pretending to be sexy, opulent, or over-the-top.

That’s not a dig at the Godfrey. Sometimes you want to stay in a hotel that’s more concerned with providing a comfortable place to sleep than curating a back story and an Instagram account. I’ve stayed at the Godfrey multiple times, and I’ve never had a bad experience. (As per Globe policy, I do not accept free rooms.)

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The hotel opened in 2016, and I reviewed it in 2017, writing “The location is fantastic, the room was charming, and I’m excited to go back and try the restaurant. This is a place where I want to spend more time.”

My most recent stay was last winter, and I liked it even more. The hotel now has free snacks in guest rooms. That means I wasn’t paying $8 for potato chips. The best way to describe the guest rooms at the Godfrey is well-tailored and crisp. They’re midcentury preppy, if such a thing exists. It’s like visiting a cultured uncle’s pied-à-terre in Harvard Square.

Just off the main lobby of the Godfrey Hotel is an elegant marble staircase.Godfrey Hotel

I suspect that TripAdvisor readers weren’t thinking about the hotel’s architecture when leaving their reviews (I couldn’t find any mention of it when I skimmed through), but the Gothic Revival building that the Godfrey occupies was designed by famed architect Arthur Bowditch. It’s actually two buildings, designed by Bowditch in 1904 and 1906, that were combined when Downtown Crossing fell upon hard times. As a result, the rooms at the Godfrey are all unique.

While the Godfrey isn’t prohibitively expensive, it is not basic. This hotel uses Frette sheets and has a 55-inch television in each room. I’ve scored rooms as low as $150 a night during the winter. This time of year, every room in the city is expensive, and the Godfrey is averaging $400 a night or more. I’ve slept around this city a lot — in hotels, of course — and I think the Godfrey is fairly priced.

The TripAdvisor ranking is good news for the hotel, but I confess that it also made me feel good. Here was my validation that a hotel can be memorable without offering a custom-scented shampoo or obsessing over its Instagram account.

Christopher Muther can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @Chris_Muther and Instagram @chris_muther.