Buckingham Apartments, Boston

The Buckingham is in a great location and is a perfect launch point for checking out the local colleges. Still, I am very conflicted whether I would stay again. The entrance is very impressive and historic looking and I just loved that but it also felt spooky! There is a spiral staircase with an awesome wood rail up to the fifth floor where we stayed in a single small room between two other suites. I loved the old world look of the place with the worn rug along the dusty, creaky stairs. I ignored the creaky footsteps and mumbling that could be heard through the thin walls in the seemingly mostly unoccupied building. There was also a nice view from the breakfast room to Commonwealth Avenue where there are lots of nice trees and other beautiful brownstones. On our 2nd of 8 night stay, there was a pounding on the door. Suddenly I woke to lights on and a man standing at my door at 4 a.m. We later discovered that my daughter unlocked the main lock and there is no safety lock on the door. I wasn't sure who else was in apartments and whether it was an employee preying on two women travelling alone. I yelled for him to leave the room as my daughter woke up screaming. After I coaxed him to leave, unsure what to do, I barred the door with the available furniture and called the main number. There was no answer so I left a message as to what happened. I received a very concerned call about 7a.m. that made me feel a bit better and later while I was describing the incident to the gal at the front desk, the man that was at our door entered the building. The receptionist asked me to step aside so she could speak to each of us separately to find out what happened however I decided to speak to him directly. I felt that the she was more concerned about keeping a returning customer, turns out it was a Japanese executive that frequents the Buckingham, rather than concern that I felt safe at their location. However once I spoke with the person, I realized that while he was extremely drunk and ominous looking from that vantage point in our room, he probably meant no harm. Overall good points to consider: Great walking location to the Prudential center where there is great shopping. Newbury Street is located directly behind with also lots of great boutiques and designer stores and nice restaurants. The public subway is very close with Trader Joe’s a short walk away (we ate very clean the first couple of nights). Essentially all the great tourist sites are within walking distance. Breakfast was also nice to have but the mini bagels seemed quite hard a couple of days. Not so good: The staff did not move us for our sense of security or deliver the small studio suite that was promised, even after most of the guests were gone and rooms were available. Also we found it quite comical lugging our 50 pound suitcases up and down the stairs to our small and overly heated room. On the flip side, I was given a slight discount since it was off season. Also, there was a two week cancellation penalty that was not mentioned at booking but was tucked along with other email attachments at registration. In retrospect, I’m glad there was a huge penalty, because it convinced me to go to Boston in spite of the pouring rain forecast. We dealt pretty well with 3 days of rain but were very glad to see the sun come out and then it was spectacular weather. I was also charged twice for the room and was almost hounded during our busy schedule to return all the receipts for reconciliation due to their mistake. I am still waiting for the second charge to be removed. In all, we had a great time in Boston and would love to go back but not to that small room in the Buckingham. And finally, as were leaving before dark for our early morning flight, we were treated to the sounds of a couple enthusiastically making love that added one more event to our mother/daughter vacation/college-finding trip. Those will be days to be remembered.