Yes, we'll be back
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 1/13/11
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.