The Farrington Inn — Attraction in Boston

Hands down the worst experience I have ever had. Bait and switch. The owners should be utterly ashamed of themselves for this nonsense. The price for what you receive is borderline criminal. I have no idea how this hotel hasn't been shut down yet. Does the state not know you rent out the building next door?

Half the reviews are positive as they stayed in the ACTUAL hotel. The other half were shuttled next door to a converted tenement building, and they do not inform you of this fact until you arrive. The images shown do NOT match reality. Parking is not free and they do not inform you of this; nor is there enough parking for all tenants. First come first served, good luck if you're late.

My hotel room consisted of the following:

A door that did not close properly and only featured a doorknob lock. The hardest mattress known to man paired with the flimsiest pillows ever stuffed. A small wall-mounted television hooked up to nothing but power; no cable, no satellite, no TV watching for me! Poorly functioning Wi-Fi. A microwave! Here is a positive! No fridge!? Here is a negative! Unvacuumed room carpets. There was even food on the ground when I walked in. A heavily stained mattress, not concealed by the thin bedspread. Mystery liquid stains on the walls when I walked in.

Very clear the only thing done to prep the room was take out the trash and change the sheets. Everything else was untouched.

An AC unit caked, and I mean CAKED, in dust. An extention cord used to plug the window AC in(fire hazard) with visible burn marks. I mean, come on.

A communal bathroom located in the hallway(this is fine) with a shattered door frame, rendering the deadbolt lock useless(this is not fine). The door freely opens. It doesn't even latch into the door frame. Wall molding swinging in the breeze or lying on the hallway floor. Full tiles are missing in the shower and on the bathroom floor. How can there not be a mirror in the bathroom? Generally clean, though, I must've gotten lucky.

Tenants that prop the outer door open with a fire extinguisher, not once, but twice, once overnight. Excellent security standards here.

I slept for a grand total of one hour. Some exceptionally loud, consistent clacking noise from the hallway for a full three hours for who knows why or from what. Certainly not a tenant. It lasted from 1 to 4 in the morning.

I arrived at 3:30PM on a Saturday. The front desk was fully unoccupied with the attendant in what seemed to be the basement. What? How? Why?

Don't try to save money, book the more expensive hotel. Without a doubt the worst experience I have ever had at what is supposed to be considered a hotel.

Perfect location though! Find somewhere other than this cesspit...

Due to a canceled connecting flight, I was stranded in BOS for 18 hours after nearly 20 hours of travel and lost luggage. I looked up several properties ranging from exorbitantly expensive (which I couldn't justify for a random layover by myself) to run-of-the-mill chain hotels outside of the city (which to me offered nothing "special"). I took a whim on Farrington Inn and was SO happy I did. Cab ride from BOS was a rip-off, def suggest Uber it was half the cost. First of all, if you prefer "white glove service" with turn-down, wakeup calls and a concierge, this hotel is not for you. If you clutch your pearls in "urban" areas, this hotel is not for you. If you are disgusted with older facilities with clean but chipped tiles and threadbare rugs this is not for you. |If you appreciate the unique, very old architecture, creaky wooden floors, high ceilings, glass doorknobs and a location that puts you in easy access to walkable restaurants and a 40 min walk to Harvard Square like I did, this place IS for you. |I encountered 3 of the staff working here and each was amazingly sweet- one that checked me in, one who brought me to my room and one the following day picking up trash around the property who answered a couple questions for me, even helping me set up my Uber back to the airport. |The property and rooms are CLEAN albeit old. I had to laugh to myself after getting to my room as it reminded me of student housing that had been cleaned up to the best of their ability for "parents weekend." I found it charming. Upon checking in it was explained that they don't offer it online as it depends on availability but for $15 more there was a room available with a private bathroom, did I want it?- yes. There are 2 separate houses with rooms. I was in the second. Each building has a locking main entry door with a key and my room had THREE locks on it. Traveling by myself I felt very safe. The room I was in even had a kitchenette and a desk. Working wifi. |There were cracked tiles in the shower and dust along the floorboards but none of this bothered me as I knew what I was booking. |I walked to a convenience store and for takeout in the evening, about 10 minute walk and to parts of Harvard the next day,about 40 min. |Honestly the Farrington and it's staff was a breath of fresh air for someone travel weary as I was, in a great, accessible location and I enjoyed its...

I want to start off by saying that the staff at the Farrington were polite, especially the gentleman who I believe owns the place who initially greeted us and helped us by holding our bags while we were out and about before check-in (although, we didn’t think we were early for check-in because there was no time listed on the site or anything like that). ||I would say that the accommodations are meant to be affordable and that you get what you pay for, however, i don’t think that what we received was worth around $150 a night whatsoever, which is what we ended up paying after we decided to upgrade to a private bathroom. After we returned to check in: ||- We were walked to a completely different building than we thought we would be staying in. ||- The room was so dirty. We were given only one towel, there was no hand soap or anything in the bathroom. ||- There were little hairs all over our sheets.||- There was old food and dirt behind the microwave that looks as though it’s been there for years. ||- We then called to ask about a refund and they instead offered to move us to another room after saying that they weren’t even aware we were staying in the room that they had places us in. ||- We were asked what the issue with our first room was and when we explained that it was quite dirty, the employee said that they don’t really know which maids clean which rooms, so it’s hard to make sure they’re all cleaned to the same standards. Our second room was nicer than the first, so we agreed to stay. I supposed I could have advocated more for a refund rather than just accepting the second room, but we didn’t have anywhere else to stay and, upon first glance, we genuinely did think the second room was an improvement compared to the first.||- Because we were just staying for 2 nights, we figured we could just put up with the place for a little longer, as the second room wasn’t horrible overall. Our sheets were much cleaner, and the room was much less dusty, etc. ||- However, on our last night in Boston, we spent the whole evening trying to deal with the roach that made an appearance while we were trying to get ready to sleep.||Overall, I would not recommend staying at the Farrington Inn unless you absolutely have to. It is a simple accommodation if you must urgently find a place to stay, but be aware of cockroaches and other things that may surprise you later...