Wow. What a difference 2 years makes. This was my second stay at Yacht Haven, and I invited my mother-in-law along with my husband and
teenager to check out this place and Boston. I received an email from
Kathleen 6 months prior with a rate range, and called to confirm a $235 nightly stay with Ryan for two nights over the Columbus Day weekend. I came expecting a beautiful location, enthusiastic Frank and macaroons, and a clean room and nice muffins for breakfast. Well,
the location is still great, but everything else disappointed. No sign of Frank, no macaroons, a room that was dirty- bathroom smelled like urine, missing lamp lightbulbs, found some letters under the bed
from previous occupants, and limited breakfast. We called the evening
before we checked out to ask the front desk to call the water taxi for 7:30 am pick-up- called at 8:30 pm and got a snarly woman who informed us no one works between 8 pm and 8 am in the office- you're on your own to call and don't worry about checking out- we'll do it for you.

Right- got home to find out we were charged $300 a night and it ran through immed on my debit card. When I called- talked to Kathleen who
told me that was the rate and I was wrong to think otherwise, but she'd call me back after checking in. Ummm-no call back for 4 days- I noticed a charge or $275 a night went through. When I called again-got Kathleen and she let me know that was the rate, because they never would have quoted a rate as low as $235, when $275 was the rate
for the room (so why was I charged $300, you ask?)

No one could call to let me know, because she said no one had been working in the office since last Thursday. Obviously, some customer service issues here- which is too bad because it could be an amazing place if they were focused on customers.

So disappointing- be sure you ask for everything in writing from this
place- or stay at the Doubletree which is where I will recommend my Fortune 500 company based in Watertowne will stay in the future.

This is the second time I've stayed at Boston Yacht Haven. I stayed because I saw in USA TODAY that they're rated #1 urban B&B. Everything that you read in the reviews is true - fabulous views, even more fabulous location. The best thing about Boston Yacht Haven though are the balconies. It's so worth it to splurge for a balcony room. If there weren't so many things to do withing walking distance, I'd just sit on the balcony here all day. We love this place, and have spent two wonderful anniversaries here. We hope to spent many more.

We just returned from a 5-night stay at BYH, and would definitely stay again. For $300 USD a night, here is what you get: absolutely the best location, within walking distance from everything, and stunning views all around. Large, well-appointed rooms, most with big decks. Continental breakfast of pastries, mini-muffins, juices, and coffee, although the assortment isn't large, everything is fresh, and the uber Tassimo coffee machine offers several blends/choices, but the only fruit offered was oranges, and not every day.

Here is what you DO NOT GET: much in the way of personal service, except for Ryan, he's great. Beds are king-size but lumpy & in need of replacement, especially in Room 8. Room 5 leaks in the rain, when we checked in, there was a puddle in the bathroom and the bedding was soaking wet, you can see along the wooden beams where it has leaked many times in many places. It even leaked in the closet one night! Which is how we ended up staying in two rooms, they moved us to Room 8 for the first night while they cleaned/dried up Room 5, and we later learned they rented it out that night anyway. They just moved the bed over a foot, although in fairness, on a weekend, how would they get the roof fixed. Room 8 has no deck but a great city view. Anyway, we were happy enough in Room 5 once it stopped raining, great deck. Also the toilet quit working one morning but we saw the maintenance man in the hall and it was fixed by the time we got back to the room later that day. The most annoying, perplexing thing is the parking...what is their problem!? There are 6 spots by the front door, one handicapped. There are 11 or 12 spots along the fence, 2 for staff, and the rest were all roped off and stayed empty for our entire stay. They told us to park at Lewis Wharf, which is only a five-minute walk, at $25 per day, but if BYH validated our ticket, we would get $2 off so it would actually be cheaper for us NOT to park at BYH. Well, we did get BYH to validate the parking, but there was no $2 off, we paid the same as BYH would have charged us if we had been allowed to park there. The whole parking issue was very odd, we really didn't care because we walked or subwayed everywhere but it became our joke of the day. The funniest thing was one day we went to get something out of the car and saw the BYH van was parked at Lewis Wharf!!

Another problem is sound-proofing, in both rooms you could hear people talking and/or the TV from the rooms beside you, so take your ear plugs if you're a light sleeper. And there is a huge A/C unit over Room 5, which runs constantly and truly sounds like you're living under a jet engine. This is not a good thing, and I think Room 4 would be bad that way as well. But at least it drowned out the TV/people noise from the other rooms.

Despite all this, we would stay there again just for the location, although you should know that there are 3 taxes that you will pay on top of your room rate when you check out. That's worse than Canada!

Other things about the area: don't miss Little Italy, Giacomo's is worth the hype and if you want to avoid the line-ups you read about, go early through the week (5 to 5:30) and you won't have a very long wait, if any. Fast, friendly service, cash only. Caffe Vittoria worth a visit for the home-made gelato. Joe's at the end of Commercial Wharf -- save your money. Middle of the road food, mediocre service. Walk another block to Sel de la Terre (get the fried goat cheese salad, the steak & fries, and a great blend of coffee), also fast, friendly service. Or Legal Seafoods on Long Wharf, again good service and seafood selection is amazing. Jacob Wirth on Stuart St. is 130 years old, like an old German beer hall, with real home-made sauerkraut and red cabbage, instead of a wine list, you get a beer list that's over two pages long! Fast, friendly service and good, not outstanding, food.

Walk or take the T everywhere. Easy peasy. Get the audioguide to the Freedom Trail at the Visitor Info Center on Boston Common, it is well worth the $15. Old Town Trolley was good, but we had 3 different drivers, and since they don't use a pre-recorded dialogue, it will depend on how good the driver is as to how good your tour will be (it's a hop-on, hop-off). Our first driver was really great, the other 2 were just okay. You can skip the Museum of Science unless you have kids. Go early to avoid the crowds. Boston Duck Tours was okay, you hear all the same stuff as the trolley tour. I would suggest the duck tour just for the novelty, and take a harbour cruise or something instead of the trolley tour. The Fenway Park tour is good. My husband took as many pix there as he took of the rest of Boston!

Excellent location and within easy walking distance to Little Italy and the train station. This is not a city to drive around in so have a great location makes a difference! Parking is expensive everywhere and if you get here early enough, you can park here for a discounted rate! I would advise having breakfast at a nearby restaurant.