This has become our only place to stay when we visit Boston. We tried the Aloft across the lot, but this just fit our family better. Rooms are spacious and well designed and maintained from what we could see. We tend to clean everything ourselves when we get to any hotel as an extra safety layer, but things always appear to be taken care of when we get there.

Breakfast has always been great. It can be a little noisy and hectic with limited seating depending on when you go, but the food choices are always excellent and plentiful. We have never been there when they do the free food and drinks during the week so I cannot comment on that.

Free printing is a plus. You can print from the computers in the lobby or use http://printme.com As a note, PDFs tend to print slowly from printme and will tie up other people.

The pool is awesome. Nothing much to say there. If you're staying in the summer, be sure to check out the patio area. There is a large grill that anybody can use. Just ask the hotel and they will light it for you.

In room kitchens are a huge help. Instead of eating at expensive restaurants, we tended to buy fresh pasta and sauce from Boston's North End and cook it ourselves back at the room. Huge money saver. The dishwashers are extremely quiet as well. Sometimes the hallways will smell a little funky because of other peoples' cooking, but the smell has never seemed to work its way into our room.

Staff have always been friendly on the phone and in person. I actually called them the other night around 11 PM inquiring about rates and it was as pleasant a conversation as it would have been in the normal hours of the day.

As another money saving tip, the hotel is very close to public transportation into Boston. If you have a car there's a 10 minute drive to Alewife station where you can park for $7 a day (vs however much you would pay in the city at a hotel or a lot). On weekends the hotel shuttle will go to the station as well. If you don't have a car, there is a bus stop right on the road outside the hotel for bus number 70 which goes to Alewife. A short subway ride will get you right into the heart of the city.

The only noticeable con so far is some of the noise from other rooms, something that happened multiple times. One time it sounded like the people above us were hammering their floor or repeatedly dropping their luggage around midnight. Not sure what that was about.

We booked two rooms for New Years Eve: one for our family of four (two kids, 12 and 9) and one for our friend's family (two kids, both 11). We had some ups and downs during our stay here. The first "down" was that we had to wait an hour and 45 minutes to check into our room because it wasn't ready--housekeeping was still cleaning it. Fortunately our friends' room was ready so we could drop our stuff off in their room, change into swimsuits and while away the time in the pool. Their room had dirty dishes in it so we had to quickly run a load in the dishwasher which on some level is no big deal but on another level, who wants to see someone else's dirty dishes? This was our second "down."

The ups were: full kitchen (minus an oven), small but nice and very warm pool (no hot tub), fairly spacious rooms, and a friendly staff, who offered us some small compensation to make amends for our late check in.

Later in the evening, the four kids got stuck in one of the rooms because the deadbolt was stuck in the door jamb. ("Downer" number three.) They sent up a fixit guy who was able to open the room and who cautioned us not to use it any more. He would fix it the next day, after we checked out. He then brought the kids some M&Ms and a bottle of Sprite to help them feel better, a nice touch. Given the late checkin and the deadbolt fiasco, the friendly staff upped the compensation to a free night's stay, which we really appreciated.

Other nice parts of the hotel: it is quiet. I did not hear another guest while I was in our rooms, and there were other families staying on our floor with infants and toddlers (this was NY Eve, after all, when families like to go to a hotel for the night). They have a friendly pet policy, though two floors are pet-free for people who're allergic. They provide a very nice breakfast, free Wii games (many of them, not just a a few), a small but very nice fitness room, free WiFi, and access to a couple of desktop computers in the lobby. Our rooms were clean as was the rest of the hotel (hallways, lobby, pool, fitness center, etc.). The parking is free and plentiful, and the location (at the intersection of Rtes 128 and 2A) is very convenient to any high-tech companies in the area or visiting the Revolutionary War tourist spots in Lexington and Concord.

The last thing I want to comment on is their "green" approach. I wish other hotels would adopt this hotel's policies. I like the shower gel and shampoo dispensers in the shower--no more little bottles of shampoo crowding the countertop and filling up our landfills. Their dual-flush toilets and the low-flow but good pressure shower heads save precious water. They give preferential parking to hybrid cars. The water filter at the kitchen sink eliminates those annoying plastic water bottles. These things all add up to responsible business practices that our family embraces. But best of all, these green practices contribute to a nice stay at a decent hotel.

The hotel had a great feel to it. The rooms were clean and there was a kitchenette in the room. The bathrooms were nice and modern. Breakfast was included in our stay and that was a nice treat. The staff was very friendly. My kids loved the small pool, it was very hot. I would stay here again.

this is what the lady who answered the phone told me: "you cannot request any preferences because you went through a third party. we can only take care of the people who call us and reserve through us! it's if we can't even see your reservation. we won't even guarantee that you will be staying with us at the hotel on the nights you booked." WHAT KIND OF WELCOME TREATMENT IS THIS?

i travel frequently and understand that most hotels accommodate based on availability, but COME ON! this kind of over-the-phone customer "service" is horrible. we'll see what happens when we actually get there this week.

-two physicians