The Harlo — Local services in Boston

This is my end-of-lease review after 14 months at the Harlo! I don't believe in giving fewer than 4 stars, especially when the staff at the Harlo work really hard, but there was one tough issue with our time that we dealt with throughout the lease, so please take the time to read this in full if helpful.

Things that made for a generally good experience: Professional and responsive management team (thanks, Olivia and Aaron!) Great food/drinks at community events Solid amenities, especially the 5th floor lounge Concierges were really helpful - and were even after our move-out when we had an item shipped to the wrong address (thanks, Kayla!) Fast maintenance Smooth move-out process - in particular, the management team was really understanding about wear and tear on flooring that was documented in past reviews and didn't charge us Decent sound-proofing between rooms

The one challenge was the noise of the garbage truck in units, especially in the lower floors, facing south. I've lived in noisy areas in the past with ambulances, next to the Caltrain in SF, etc., but the garbage truck was by far the loudest, sharpest screeching noise I've dealt with. Make sure to look down out of your window to check this during a tour; we video toured during COVID, and this wasn't shown in the video. The truck came around 3 times a week around 7am.

We felt trapped with the noise as there were heavy penalties for leaving early (the management team kindly offered to let us switch our room, but the market had changed so we would have been paying $1k a month more). The lease mentions an option to switch out roommates, but management did not permit that option to be used to move both me and my partner out (only one of us could). We were also not permitted to find our own replacements for a clean lease break despite the increase in market rent prices relative to what we were paying. That said, management was responsive and did work with the garbage company to reduce the noise and come later in the morning, which we appreciated. However, the noise and early timing ended up getting worse again, and after that we...

I was a resident at the Harlo for about two and a half years and recently moved to a new city. I'll miss everyone at the Harlo and living there. The apartments are beautiful and have everything you could need, the building amenities are outstanding, and Fenway is such a cool neighborhood with everything nearby. The staff are all incredibly kind and friendly people who make the Harlo a welcoming place to live. In the management office, Amanda, E-Jinn, and Allie are so helpful and understanding and they do a great job planning events and activities that bring the residents together...so you can really get to know your neighbors and the staff (every month there are lots of fun events). On the maintenance team, Sobner, Chris, and Jos are great guys and they do a fantastic job fixing any maintenance issues that come up quickly in residents' apartments. Sobner keeps everyone laughing with his hilarious sense of humor. The concierge team is amazing. Manny is an awesome guy who makes all the residents feel welcome and makes the Harlo feel like home, and he goes above and beyond to help residents whenever something comes up. Kayla is extremely friendly and helpful too, and Joyce on the weekends is great. The night concierge staff are also all friendly and helpful. On the cleaning staff, Jesús and Tomás keep the building super clean. The residents are a wonderful and diverse group of people. For anyone who is looking for an apartment building in Boston, the Harlo is an amazing...

It is going to be a super long review :) My boyfriend and I are international students and recently moved to Boston for our grad school. David was very patience with us from applying Harlo all the way to move-in details. Due to Covid-19 we were unable to visit the apartment but David's apartment video was very smooth, detailed and was exactly then same as the one we were about to move in. He answered all the questions clearly(even silly ones I asked) via email which were super helpful for us because we are still learning American Life as foreigners ;) The new concierge girl, I am so sorry I forgot to ask for an accurate name, she was very nice and helpful when we arrived at the apartment after 8 hours drive. She came to us provided us a cart for us to move our luggage while we were at the loading dock struggling. Then showed us how to use the loading elevator (Several times). Later, someone else used the loading elevator went upstairs and we didn't know what to do, she went upstairs for us and brought the elevator back! Both David and the new concierge girl provided excellent and beyond service which made our move-in so much easier and...