Wonderful place to stay!
I spent a night at Irving House in July 2006. I originally reserved a room with a shared bathroom, but I had the good fortune of being given a free upgrade to a room with a private bathroom. The room was very tastefully arranged with beautiful light-green carpet that I still remember, tasteful wood furniture, and a comfortable bed that provided me with a great night's sleep--which was very important since I had to take a Massachusetts teacher licence examination the next day at the Cambridge Rindge & Latin School a very short walk away. (By the way, I just spent last weekend in Cambridge to take another test and the Best Western Hotel Tria bed I slept in was extremely uncomfortable and made it very difficult to get to sleep, even though that hotel was rated 3 stars by Expedia, which showed Irving House as a 2-star B&B. I would have stayed at Irving House last weekend, but all of its rooms were booked). Even more outstanding than the furnishing and style of my bedroom and the hallways was the outstanding, professional, and very kind and friendly staff of Irving House (again, much better than the staff of Hotel Tria). They were receptive to my questions and very helpful and pleasant to talk to. Irving House also offers a good, free continental breakfast and free wireless Internet access, both of which I was happy to have and take advantage of. Irving House is about 6 miles from Boston Logan Airport (BOS) and, although I had rented a car when I stayed at Irving House since I didn't know the area (and neglected to ask about public transportation) I since discovered that Irving House is very accessible via public transporation using the "T." You can walk about 15 minutes from the Harvard Square subway stop. However, although I didn't use them, I also noticed buses running much closer to Irving House (about a minute's walk away). The only negative point about my Irving House experience was the considerable difficulty of parking in their parking lot which requires you to maneuver (usually by backing-in) your car through this very narrow lane between the side of the building and a fence. There also didn't seem to be many parking spaces, although maybe the number of parking spaces was OK, as I'm not sure how many rooms Irving House has. In summary, though, I found that Irving House was a great place to stay if you want a pleasant, comfortable room that is mass transportation-accessible for a good price (I paid $113 for my one night arranged directly with Irving House, including all taxes) with great staff and free wireless Internet access and continental breakfast! I highly recommend it!
