Boston Marriott Cambridge, Cambridge

We have stayed here five or six times. The real estate folks say "location, location, location", and this hotel is in the right location because it is beside the Kendall Square subway station, so you can catch a Red Line train to downtown Boston or Harvard Square and be at an interesting destination in only a few minutes. The rooms are smallish, but comfortable enough. The views over the Charles River can be pretty spectacular if you get a room on that side of the building, but pretty ho-hum if you get a room on the other side. Hint: don't stay here at a discount rate if you want to get the river view. One nice feature is the proximity to a rather nice roof garden atop the parking garage next door, and there is a convenient access to that from the 4th floor pool and jacuzzi facility. Dreary in the winter months, the garden is rather nice in spring and summer. We never ate noon or evening meals in the hotel's restaurant, prefering to dine elsewhere, usually at some restaurant we want to try. Breakfast we have taken in the restaurant, and though the food itself was good, we thought the fare pricy. There is an in-house lounge/bar too, but its interior is rather starkly appointed, and again the prices for drinks encourage one to limit one's intake. Because the hotel is close to MIT, there are plenty of eating establishments within a couple of blocks, some of which occupy a food court reachable via a door on one side of the hotel's lobby. One nuisance is that a visitor is limited to a parking garage in the next building, which is often full Monday-Friday, but at least it clears out by 6 PM. Still, there is the matter of the $23/day rate. Cheaper parking options can be had, but all the ones we found are inconvenient. All in all, every stay was comfortable, and we never had service issues with the hotel staff.

I planned my wedding at this hotel and from start to finsh it was a disaster. The communication and service was terrible. Not only from employees but the managers as well. Our wedding coordinator never seem to know what she was talking about. The week of our wedding she informs us that she gave us the wrong pricing and we would have to come up with an additional $1700. Needless to say that wasnt possible for us to come up with that aount the week of the event. The food served was cold and not everybody got served until they asked for their plates. Upon check in there was an $800 hold pu on our account that was never told to us. This in return cancelled our limousine for the wedding because the hold plus the cost of the rooms didnt leave enough on our account for it to clear. The hotel seem to never really care if we was happy they just seem to want money. there was a charge for everything. The rooms were a little dusty. After the way we was treated by the managers and the lack of attention for our event, i would never recommend this hotel to anyone for anything. The staff was to unprofessional. I would only stay at a marriott if it was the last option and definently not more than a day. When i emailed the general manager about my issuses his response was to only find out when could i pay the rest of the tab from the bar that night. This was a poor example of hospitality.

When staying in a city I expect to pay a lot for a small room, but it was comfortable, service was good, and the view was great. But by the end of my stay I was beginning to feel like a guest at the inn from Les Misérables, where everything has a price. After paying well over $200 per night, parking was still an additional $22 per night ($30 for valet). Internet access (wired or wireless) came with unlimited local and long distance, but cost an additional $9.95 per night (plus tax). To plug the computer (or a dvd player) into the video-in on the back of the widescreen TV would cost yet another $9.95 per night. (I wanted to plug in a dvd player so my toddler would have something to watch.) The TV was also set up to display even normal television in a widescreen format, so everything looked out of proportion. I've seen this in other hotels, and would like to point out that just because the TV has that much width does not mean you have to have it all filled at all times. If the show wasn't recorded for widescreen, don't try and force it! It would be nice to be able to get into the TV's settings and adjust them to suit my viewing preferences, but I bet that would've cost another $9.95.