Courtyard by Marriott Boston Cambridge — Hotel in Cambridge

Kind of surprised at the rundown condition of the room. we are marriot platinum members, over 60 nights a year spent in Marriott hotels. The bathroom was fine but on the lower end of appointments. The furniture in the room is definitely showing some heavy wear. bureau finish heavily chipped, and when you see the picture of the chair, I wouldn't even let anybody sit in it, for fear that the foam bits would cling to someone's clothes. The hotel staff were perfectly fine, no issues with the employees. The app prompted me if I wanted anything extra, so I asked for extra towels but they were not in the room when we arrived. not a reflection on the hotel itself but the fact that the app systems aren't working is worth an honorable mention. I got the standard email from the hotel asking me what I thought, with the language saying that the manager wanted to make sure that everybody's experience was a 10. if management checked the rooms from time to time they might actually see the wear and tear, but I have a feeling they haven't been in the upper floors for a while. $45 a night for parking is borderline insulting. probably the worst part was the architectural design that requires you to push your luggage wagon up a very long, winding, uncovered ramp. anybody with any kind of physical limitations will have a very hard time getting their luggage into the hotel, because if you're not going to use a wagon then you have to carry everything up to medium size flights of stairs just to get to the front desk. had I known about these design elements I might have considered spending much more money to stay at a hotel that had better ease of access. The ramp into the hotel should at least be covered to protect from the weather, as us, our luggage and other items were fully soaked from the long walk up the ramp during a rainstorm. I'd respond to the email from the hotel if I thought someone was actually going to read it but it seemed just so very "programmed". maybe they'll see this. I think most of the issues with this hotel stem from greater corporate management issues and not so much the local on-site managers, I think it's time for the hotel to just be fully replaced. The parking garage design is pretty horrible. it's really the location that makes you stay here, and I think they know that, and therefore there's not a lot of incentive to upgrade or improve the facility. The pictures of the chair are the perfect visual metaphor for the greater hotel. I would stay here again, be grudgingly, and only because the location is closer to my events...

DO NOT STAY HERE. Unfortunately, staying at this hotel ended up being an extremely aggravating and upsetting experience, due to my partner being unexpectedly being charged $250 for a smoking fee. Neither me nor my boyfriend smoke or vape whatsoever. When we saw the charge, we immediately went to the front desk to discuss. We emphasized that neither of us had smoked or vaped in the room, and it was clear that the manager did not believe us. He stated that he would look at the smoking report. Due to being unable to reach the manager before we had to check out of the hotel, we contacted the hotel a couple of days later to discuss the charge. Note that it took multiple calls to reach a manager, because many times we called it was stated that the manager was "unavailable." Eventually the manager sent the smoke detector report via email, showing that the sensor happened to go off right as we were getting ready for dinner and I was spraying lots of hairspray around that time. When this was pointed out to the manager, he STILL claimed that my boyfriend was lying, and there was NO WAY that the sensor could have gone off without smoking or vaping. This is not a great way to be treated when you have been a quiet, clean, and respectful hotel guest. The hotel still refuses to refund my boyfriend the $250 fee, and corporate has been no help.

What a shame that the managers of this hotel would rather claim that loyal repeating Marriott customers (who have never received a smoking charge before) are liars, rather than look into the claim that they may actually have a broken smoke sensor. Looking at the multiple recent reviews that share similar experiences, this establishment is clearly scamming their customers, and have absolutely no regard for ethical business practices. I would recommend anyone considering staying at this hotel to stay elsewhere, otherwise you may be putting yourself at risk for a fraudulent $500 charge (corporate customer care informed us that they smoking charge has been increased to $500). If you do stay here, may the odds be ever in your favor!

And for the manager that may respond to this review, if we were smokers, we would have at least had the decency to smoke outside. But, alas, we did not smoke or vape, period. I hope you see this review and seriously consider getting your detectors re-calibrated in order to...

The hotel in undergoing extensive renovations. There is no lobby, no swimming pool, no working restaurant in the morning, and the options for breakfast are a non-starter.

I attended an important conference and job fair, therefore certain amenities and services that are standard in hotels of equivalent stand were essential. I called the front desk on the week before our stay and inquired about several things, regarding transportation, shopping nearby, food at the hotel, etc. The person who answered the phone never mentioned the renovations nor the fact that food availability was very limited.

Upon arrival, on Thursday, I inquired about the swimming pool and I was told that I could use the facilities of a neighborhood hotel which was "just around the corner". Since I had a short time to register for my event, I accepted staying at the hotel and went on to my activities. The fire alarm went off Friday morning, at around 445 AM. I was forced downstairs in the cold and end up with running noses and sore throats right before the beginning of the conference. I would have accepted the situation if it was not a false alarm caused by some reason related to the renovation. Rooms had no hot water for a while around 6 00 am which just added to the complications. I arrived back to the hotel right after lunch, in great need of some rest before interviews early evening. The fire alarm was going off again and the employee told me to go get the elevators before the fire department arrived and locked them. Resting was also not possible due to the noise of the renovation around my room.

Saturday evening was another great deception. I arrived very tired after a long day of meetings, interviews, etc and decided to use the swimming pool of the "right around the corner" hotel. I inquired about how to get there and was told that there was no shuttle service to take me there, that I could walk, just about 10 minutes!!! This in Boston's winter, with temperatures below freezing, I guess close to 0 F. It made me feel that the crew at the hotel are bending the truth in an ill intended way.

I believe that the deception and lack of transparency were the worse, I can say for sure that this was by far my worst experience regarding...