Ramada by Wyndham Boston — Hotel in Boston

Where to begin….

I booked this hotel room for a family trip to Boston with my spouse and 2 children. One of my children has cerebral palsy and needs a wheelchair. According to the description on this hotel we expected to find an elevator on premises. When we arrived we had been assigned to a second floor room. The person at the desk watched us walk in with all of our gear and our child in a wheelchair, pointed us down the hall to where the elevator was only to discover that it was not working - boarded up in fact. (We would later find out through some internet research that it has been boarded up for at least a month.) We went back to the desk and were told that there weren’t any first floor (accessible) rooms available. If we wanted a place to stay for the next two days, up the stairs we had to go.

We knew that we should probably get another place but they wouldn’t give our money back and our kids had their hearts set on using the pool. (More on that later)

The room was fine - we’re not fussy on that - just as long as it’s cleanish and cool. There was a prevalent smell of stale cigarettes but again, Nbd.

I should mention before this next part - I specifically asked about the pool the day we checked in because it was really the only reason we stayed despite the inaccessibility issue. We spent our next day at the zoo and could not wait to get back and go in the pool. We got everyone changed up and headed to the surprisingly empty pool. Boom - locked up tight (we also saw them cleaning/adding water that morning). The times listed said that the pool is open 10-7 W,Th,F, Sa, Su. Surely there is a mistake. I went to the front desk and asked someone to unlock it and was told that it wasn’t open. No lifeguard.

Obviously I was frustrated at this point and I expressed my displeasure at the series of disappointments we had encountered at this facility. I was told by a very rude front desk employee that they had handicap accessible rooms on the first floor so they are fully ADA compliant. Ok…

I did call and file a complaint with the main office at the Wyndham hotel group and I got the following response from hotel management: “We at the Ramada Boston are very sorry that our elevator was not functioning during your stay, Unfortunately our hotel was close to full capacity and we did not have a 1st floor room to offer you. Please feel free to contact me directly if I can be of any further assistance to you. I hope that we have the opportunity to better serve you in the future. “

Some other things for potential guests -

There is no “hot breakfast” as advertised. This morning’s offerings were yogurt cups, oranges, bananas, microwaveable egg and meat sandwiches. That’s everything.

There are parts of the hotel that are noticeably in ill repair - one bannister was falling apart when we tried to use it.

The television remote did not work and neither did the television. It turned on but was very fuzzy and cut in and out. Reading other reviews indicate that this has been a problem for others as well.

Oddly, we didn’t get any washcloths.

There is no do not disturb sign so make sure you’re decent when the housekeepers start their rounds.

The lock on our door was super sketchy and the deadbolt didn’t function at all.

TLDR: reserver beware, unhelpful staff, amenities not available as advertised, not...

Ever have the experience of getting the wrong room? I’ve stayed at many hotels before, always thinking in the back of my mind: “What if somebody already has this room and the front desk made a mistake?” Admittedly, it was probably a little paranoid of me to keep thinking about that possibility, since it never actually happened, but no more. I can now say this can, and actually has, happened to me.

My coworker, boss, and I each got separate rooms when staying in the area for bridge inspection work. They all were next to each other, or were supposed to be. My room was initially 228. But when I got to the door, I heard the TV was on. I said “No way I got the wrong room”, and my coworker in front of his door at 227 thought I was joking. But I thought maybe it was left on by the cleaning crew or something. So I very cautiously used the key to open the door, and after only opening a foot or so, noticed that lights were on and the heat was turned up. A vacant room is typically kept cool, and so I asked “Is someone in here?”, to which a lady said yes. My obvious response was “I’m so sorry, they gave me the wrong room“, and I closed the door immediately.

My first thought, as I shared with my coworker, was that I was grateful the door opened away from the bed, as it would’ve been ten times more awkward for everyone if it didn’t. And thank God I didn’t walk in on any extracurricular activity, as that would’ve been one hundred times worse. My boss and I walked back to the front desk, and the girl behind the counter was apologetic and said I was supposed to get the key for 229. Mistakes happen, so ultimately no big deal, and fortunately 229 was unoccupied.

As for the rest, the hotel is not much of a pretty sight on the outside, and the rooms don’t have windows to the outside, just the hallways. Those hallways are semi-indoors, but are partially open to the outdoors, which means they are freezing in the winter. It should also be noted that the roadway infrastructure around the hotel is nothing short of convoluted and dangerous, but that’s exactly not the hotel’s problem.

On the flip side, the rooms weren’t half bad for a 2-star hotel, the lobby looked very nice with a grandfather clock and fireplace, and despite the noise from I-93, its proximity to said highway makes it fairly easy to access, in spite of the nonsensical layout of Morrissey Boulevard. It looked like the Red Line was nearby, too, which would be another plus for anyone trying to get...

We were excited to stay at the Ramada but when we got there we were quite disappointed in our room.

The corridor to our room had a strange smell. When we got to our room it had the same smell, if not worse. This was due to the air conditioning unit taking the air from the corridor into our room. We had to buy air freshener to make it bearable. Not sure if it helped or if we went nose blind but it definitely felt like it got better.

The room itself was very outdated and old looking. It wasn’t and didn’t feel 100% clean but I couldn’t see any actual dirt, it just gave you that feeling. The hotel needs a major refurbishment. We were absolutely gutted when we got there as the pictures didn’t resemble what we actually received. The bed however was soft and very comfortable. I think this is what made the room more acceptable because we both had a great night sleep.

The free breakfast was very limited. Pre-made oats/porridge in a slow cooker, bagels and bread as well as a few pieces of fruit and yoghurt. The best part of this was the waffles you could make yourself. However, this got very boring very quickly. The dining area is small but we didn’t have trouble getting a seat and eating each morning.

The pool is salt water. We didn’t go in, but when we wanted to chill by the pool with a beer or two after a long day we weren’t able to because it was shut. Even though the pool states it is open until 9pm, it was rarely open after 6. This may be because no one had used it, and the lifeguard was essentially being paid to look after no one, not sure. The website also says there is a fitness centre, we looked everywhere, could not find it.

The hotel says there is a free shuttle to local attractions. It is not free. It is $10 per person in a bus that holds 12 people. The airport shuttle is also not free, it is also $10 per person. The shuttle to JFK/UMass train station is supposedly free however this is usually busy so book it early if you want to use it, we didn’t manage to get a booking on this. If there is more of you it would probably be cheaper to get an Uber / Lyft if you were to go anywhere.

The staff were friendly and helpful. Overall we wouldn’t stay there again due to the location and the amenities on offer. We stayed there because it was cheap and we were on a budget, however we would definitely fork out more money to be in a more up to date hotel with better amenities if we were to...