> The US is a big place and there's plenty of places to choose.

Indeed. You can get a nice room in Des Moines for well under $200. Same for almost anywhere throughout the Sahara of the Bozart.

Without knowing the number of travelers or your dates, it's almost impossible to advise you except to say that it's way too early to find low hotel rates for July 2016. With the exception of the 4th holiday, July isn't one of the priciest hotel times in Boston.

But for the fun of it, I plugged in July 10-15 for one room, two travelers, on www.lastminutetravel.com and the Hilton Back Bay came up at $214 without taxes. LMT is a good site for Boston and they usually have a liberal cancellation policy (3 days before arrival).