My friends and I were in town for a business conference and Anthony's Townhouse was listed as one of the suggested accommodations.

I called them up to reserve a room and tried to give my credit card number to secure the room, but instead she asked for me to send a check for a deposit. I told her I didn't feel comfortable doing that and so she let me send her my travel details (time of arrival/departure etc) to secure a room.

We arrived later in the evening around 6pm and the door is locked so we have to ring the doorbell. Mind you, the main entrance area is the only area that is lit up.. the rest of the B&B seems to have all of the lights off. We walk in and Arthur answers the door & we tell him we have a room reserved. He goes, "NAME?" -- not a very warm welcome! He then tells us to come sit down in what appears to be the living room area, which looked a lot like "grandma's house" - green carpet, outdated couch covered in PLASTIC, and one lamp that was lighting the room. He gets us to fill out some forms and asked how much it was per night (because we couldn't remember) and then asked us to pay the full amount of our stay (5 nights) IN CASH. Seeing that they did not accept any other types of payment, and that Arthur was using his phone as a calculator (there was no computer or anything electronic that was keeping track of money, guests, etc.), all there was was a white box -- this set off a red flag/raised our suspicions. My friend and I surely did NOT have that much cash on us and he rudely asked us, "WHY DO YOU LOOK SO SURPRISED?" (paying the full amount upon arrival was not mentioned when we reserved the room) -- so he told us to withdraw money across the street. We weren't able to withdraw $500 in cash (not to mention, we would have been charged for some kind of transaction fee because we're not from the US). Luckily, our friends who had also arrived that evening found another place to stay and we were definitely put off by the rudeness and creepiness of the townhouse, so we decided to stay with our other friends instead.

We went back to the townhouse and told him our situation and he became very upset and agitated that we weren't allowed to do that. However, we hadn't signed any contracts with stipulations of our stay at the hotel (such as a cancellation fee). He insisted that we "weren't allowed to cancel" and became even more upset but we explained to him that we couldn't even withdraw that much cash. He then insisted that we pay $99 (equivalent of one nights stay) to "cancel". Again, there was no cancellation fee stated ANYWHERE but we paid the $99 out of fear that he had a shotgun in the back room because he was really upset.

Overall, terrible experience from the moment we stepped in. Creepy/sketchy, rude service. We called our other friends who had also booked a room for that week & were arriving even later in the evening to skip the place and find another hotel to stay at.

pros: friendly, spacious and comfortable, spotlessly clean, half the cost of most boston hotels. cons: share the bathroom, carry your bags up the stairs.

We have stayed in Brookline previously and I much prefer Anthony's to the previous place. The staff are extremely helpful and friendly and the rooms are so spacious. The Fine Arts Museum, Isabella Gardner House and Fenway Park are close enough for a nice walk (not much more than a mile). There are lots of restaurants and coffee places on the next block. I really didn't mind that breakfast wasn't included once I saw the large fridge on each floor. The "T" is just steps away. We will definitely stay there again.

The location was fabulous, getting on the subway was just outside the door. The staff was knowledgable and available for directions ect. The decor is fitting with the old brownstone, very victorian. The downside was that parking was on the street a few blocks up.