There are worse places in the world by far. This place is okay for a one week business trip. Book something nicer if you can find it.

Pros: 5 minute walk from train into Boston (Ticket was $13.50 round trip for a group of 3), near lots of suburbia (food, movies, shopping), close to the interstate, soft cookies at the front desk on most days, and lots of machines in the on-site laundry. The fireplace in the room was a nice touch and helped to warm up the place quickly.

Cons: Breakfast never tasted fresh and the manager’s reception is nothing to brag about. The gym was terrible if you like to run but pool was really big (indoors). The in-room kitchens are not frequently cleaned in any room. The rooms always had a rotating array of smells.

I stayed in the two bedroom suite for three weeks with a co-worker who I met at the hotel for the first time ever. This was a work trip.

The living room has a couch, coffee table, end table, arm chair, dining table with four chairs and a full kitchen. There is a microwave, full size fridge/freezer with ice maker, toaster, coffee machine, dishwasher, and an oven/stove unit with four coil burners. The kitchen has some dishes, pans, and storage containers. The problem is that the oven is filthy with food caked onto the grills and the coils are left covered in grease so you can set off the smoke detector. How hard is it to burn the grease off when someone checks out? There was also food chunks obviously between the oven and cabinets and food kicked under the fridge. The pans for cooking are terrible. You will burn everything from a grilled cheese sandwich to a steak in those pans. Go to Walmart or Big Lots and spend $6.00 on their cheapest non-stick and some cooking spray and you will thank yourself if you plan on using the kitchen. Also, there was no dish soap so the housekeeper would run the dishwasher even if all you used that day was one glass.

The room had a general appearance of cleanliness. The couch has about 1 more year in it before you would think of putting a towel down to sit on it.

The bedrooms are not created equal. One bedroom is slightly bigger than the other with a desk and nightstand instead of two nightstands. There is one iron and board per suite; not per room. The bed was clean. It’s triple wrapped in different fabric protectors so there is NO worry of bed bugs. I really had to try very hard to get to the actual mattress to inspect for bed bugs (I’m a paranoid traveler) and found the mattress was clean. There were a couple of feather pillow and a couple of cotton ones which is great. I need the feather ones to sleep nicely.

The bathroom has the toilet and tub in one room and vanity separated into the main bedroom. The vanity was fine. They give you two soaps, a shampoo, and conditioner. Make sure you pack your lotion if you’re a southerner here for the winter. The tub had a couple of spots on the grout that needed some tilex. It’s a 4 piece plastic surround so there’s not many seams to get dirty. It has a bowed fabric curtain. The bathroom fan is a gift and a curse. It is powerful and really will pull all the steam out of there; works great. It is as loud or louder than a hair dryer. The bad thing is that the occasional smell will come back through the bathroom exhaust fan. Sometimes it is tobacco and other cigarettes and one time it was a skunk. If you are scent sensitive just leave it on, close the door, and put a towel under the door.

The TV’s are Flat Screen and have some true HD programming. It is a Direct TV feed so you will get some picture freezing. The channel selection is terrible. You have the major networks, 8 or so news channels, about the same number of sports channels, HBO and about six other channels. There was no MTV, VH1, Bravo, TLC, HGTV, Showtime. I hope you like Pawn Stars and Gold Rush if you’re not into sports. They do have Cartoon Network if you bring the kids. It wasn’t their fault but NBC was having a dispute with Direct TV pretty much the whole time we were there. There are open RCA jacks on the TV but you may have a hard time finding the input channel so bring your universal remote if you’re planning to bring DVD’s or game systems.

The breakfast was the standard selection of hot and cold food. Most of the hot food was just bland. They do have the waffle maker and did have my favorite yogurt (Dannon Light & Fit) but the meat and eggs just never tasted fresh. No matter what time I went down there everything was soggy. About once a week they carried the English muffin breakfast sandwich which was the best thing there; I would be happy if I could get that every day. They had three cereals only. I wish they would have a better selection of fruit. It was always green apples and bananas. What about oranges or red apples? The rest was standard Residence Inn fare. Buy your own pan and cook breakfast. The manager’s reception was one chafing dish with some random BBQ pork, chicken and noodles, pasta dish. They always had a nice bowl of salad and an assortment of sodas. It’s there if you want it. They did put out some cookies every night after the reception that were quite soft and tasty.

The place had a really nice indoor pool. It was big and relatively warm. It also has a hot tub. My only complaint is that the whole thing is clearly visible to the world. The gym is two treadmills, an elliptical, and some freeweights. There is a TV that can be controlled in there. It doesn’t have HBO activated on that TV. The treadmill is still in good shape. At least the one by the window. They keep a cold water machine and some towels in there which is nice. I wish the gym had more equipment but there is no room for it. I will warn you that when you walk in you will find that the gym is set to 77 degrees and will get to 82 degrees by the end of your workout. The climate control is locked and linked up to the sales manager’s office; let the front desk know and they will take care of it for you. They were really nice about that to me.

If you do some hunting on Google you will find out about Wednesday Hump Day; management was oblivious but the locals know all about it. The hotel was very close to a good new Japanese place called Ichigo Ichie and also over the interstate is a great plaza with a supermarket and several suburbia staples. Great location!

There is free wi-fi that works better than most hotels. It has it's times when it slows down but in general is good for average users. You can get some work done here.

This place is okay. There are worse places out there but there are certainly a lot nicer extended stays in the world. Do your hunting and cross your fingers that this place gets a remodel in the next couple of years.