Sara S.
Yelp
My son and I stayed here (just the two of us) back when he was three. We had an almost magical time and I told everyone I knew about it. He's five now, and I still had such fond memories of that stay, I decided to repeat it, this time for two nights.
I booked directly through the Sonesta website, and paid an extra $75 for early check-in at noon, so that we could make the most of our stay. When we arrived at the hotel, the lobby was completely packed with young adults (college kids?) draped across all of the chairs and couches, sitting cross legged in the middle of the floor, leaving crumpled bags of chips and empty coffee cups everywhere, blocking the entrances, and even interrupting guest check-ins to ask the front desk staff if they'd mind charging their phones. I saw signs for a Harvard debate team event and guessed maybe they were there for that? I'm not 100% sure. They were annoying, though.
I didn't (and wouldn't) say anything about that, but the friendly front desk staff member immediately thanked me for my patience and upgraded my room to a river view, which was a really nice surprise!
The $1 parking that I told everyone about after our last trip is now $45. (Inflation, I guess.)
After we checked in, we soon realized that one of the elevators in the west tower was broken, so there was a really long line to get onto the one working elevator, and as we slowly made our way up to find our room on the 8th floor, it stopped on every single floor, as exasperated travelers who were trying to check out kept squeezing in beside us, even while fully knowing that the elevator was headed up, not down. As we stood packed together like sardines, one woman said she'd been waiting for the elevator for more than half an hour before finally getting on. (That elevator remained broken for all three days of our stay, but it was really only a major inconvenience at certain times of day.)
Our room itself was clean, quiet and comfortable, and the view across the Charles River was every bit as captivating as I remembered from our last stay. The linens were crisp and bright white and the housekeeping and front desk/reception staff were all especially great. Just really helpful and welcoming and kind.
The big draw for us this time was the indoor pool. The heating unit in the pool room was broken, though - keeping the air temperature at somewhere that (I'd guess) was in the mid-fifties. Not comfortable at all in mid-February, so I opted out from any swimming... The water in the pool was warm-ish, though, and my young son still wanted to swim. I sat on the side, bundled up in a sweatshirt, using multiple pool towels as blankets, while he happily swam and played in the water on each day of our stay.
The hotel has multiple on-site dining options. We visited Art Bar for both breakfast and lunch on our second day, had dinner at Monteverdi on our second night, and grabbed coffee/snacks from the on-site Starbucks both days.
Food was great at both of the full service restaurants. Service was hit/miss. At Art Bar, the same server took care of us (and every other guest in the restaurant) at both breakfast and lunch, which surprised me. She provided quick, polite and efficient service to us both times, and was very kind to my son.
At Monteverdi, our young server was warm, helpful and attentive at first, but then she completely disappeared after serving our food and my five year old had a bathroom need that eventually turned into an emergency (and there's no restroom located inside the restaurant). I finally had to flag down the host staff to ask for our check. She was happy to get it for us and we thankfully made it to the restroom down the long hall and around the corner just in the nick of time.
The man who took care of us at Starbucks on our final morning was unfriendly and even a little bit rude. My son was admittedly tired and whiney and having kind of a hard time. The counter server didn't appreciate that, I guess. He was perfectly nice to everyone else who waited in line with us, but didn't even bother saying hello/please/thank you/you're welcome to me, and he actually seemed to be rolling his eyes and glaring at me as I placed our order. It seemed like an overreaction to the behavior of a typical five year old and did not feel like the best customer service, obviously.
Overall, our stay was not anywhere near as magical as I remembered it being the last time we stayed here, but it was still mostly positive. It's a clean, quiet, affordable option for families, the location is convenient and most of the staff are helpful and kind. You could certainly find worse options than this hotel.