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Kendall Hotel
Rating Details »
Categories: Hotels, Restaurants [Edit]
Neighborhood: Kendall Square/MIT350 Main St
Cambridge, MA 02142
(617) 577-1300
- Nearest Transit:
-
Kendall/mit (Red)
- Attire:
- Casual
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Price Range:
-
$$$
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
20 reviews for Kendall Hotel
I had to spend a week in Cambridge for training and this was one of the few hotels within blocks of the location. I had a choice between this and the two Marriots. Of course I chose this because it looked like it had the most personality.
I'm sure glad I did. I just ended my 5 night stay there. They have a nice homey feeling with their boutique hotel / bed & breakfast model. The lobby was full of persanilty and felt comfortable hanging out there.
I kept on meaning to ask for down pillows instead of the flat poly fill ones. Their restaurant downstairs was really good too.
The staff here are courteous and definitely want to please their clients. For example, with a small dispute over the bill, they not only gave us the cheaper rate, but they also offered to give 1/2 off on parking.
This hotel is best described as half b&b feel, half "hotel" feel. The chachkas everywhere - relating to a firehouse, of course - were cute but a little kitchy. However, they make you remember that you're not in the Marriott around the corner, and we liked the more homey feel overall.
Breakfast buffet is quaint but totally satisfying. Eat outside if you get a table; you'll barely realize you're right on Main Street.
Oh - and don't pay for parking. You can definitely find street parking in the 'hood.
This is my kind of place. Not corporate in the least, but more like staying at a bed and breakfast than a traditional hotel. The lobby struck me immediately upon walking in....mismatched and beautiful furniture and decoration. It felt more like an old pub than a hotel lobby, in a good way.
The rooms are small but that's because the building is old. Everything is clean and cozy. If you're in the area and like 'cozy' instead of 'corporate'. This is your place.
Very charming stay. We stayed in a quaint room with a very comfortable bed, complete with old wedding photos adorning the walls. I would say more of a B&B feel than a hotel.
Great location - close to the T and the riverside, perfect for a postprandial stroll.
Dinner - ate dinner at the restaurant. Pretty good food and phenomenal service. Only suggestion is to not sit on the side of the building if you choose to sit outside. The hotel's dumpster is behind a large fenced-in eating area, but you could see rats running to and from the dumpster, behind the fence. Not so pleasant.
This review is for the restaurant. The hotel its self seems cutesy and nice enough.
I wish i could say the same for the food. We had slow rude service, lots of confusions over the appetizer we actually ordered and as if that wasn't enough, the food was bland and oily and it made both me and my sister sick.
if your going to stay here, go out to eat.
We enjoyed our stay. The staff was friendly, and although we seemed to always talk to the same young lady (I don't remember her name any more), the rest of the staff always seemed to be friendly and helpful (except for one guy who tried his best never to make eye contact with anyone).
We had to check out early due to a death in the family, and the staff gave us no problem. We received a very nicely discounted week-long rate, so I was expecting difficulty when we needed to check out early, but was pleasantly surprised when they said no problem.
The room was spacious, but it did appear to be unfinished, only because the baseboard trim is missing, which causes the corners to get dinged.
My one complaint is that our door was not square in the door jam. The door shut and locked, but it had a decent gap, to the point where the front desk called us at 10 pm one night to tell us that our door wasn't shut - but it was. We had to get up at 5 every day, so that was not appreciated.
I stayed at this hotel over the labor day weekend for four days and I found it overall decent but overall quite forgetable. I wouldn't really recommend the Kendall to someone unless they needed the convenience of being in the heart of Cambridge and wanted something smaller and more quaint than the Marriot. However, quaint comes at a price as you'll find the service and staff leaves something to be desired.
The housekeeping was a joke (even with a tip) that after the 2nd cleaning I didn't bother letting them come in as they didn't do much to the room. The free breakfast consisted of exactly the same thing every day (tasteless scrambled eggs, okay flapjacks and suprisingly crisp bacon) which gets old very quickly. Also, if you're driving here there are about 15 parking spaces total in their underground garage and they're all tiny... even if you pay for parking, which for some reason you have to in Boston hotels, it's still first come first serve here. They do give you free Internet access in your room though and Wifi in their lobbies so that was kind of cool if you've brought your laptop.
Another negative is that there is very little in the area and if you want something better to eat than Legal Sea Foods and Quiznos then you're going to have to walk or take a train. However, Boston is a very walkable and easy to travel city so this isn't that big a negative.
Whenever my parents came to visit me while I was in school, they would stay at this hotel. On occasion, I'd spend the night with them in the hotel. I really like hotel itself. It used to be an old fire station. I believe it's listed in the Historic Hotels of America: (http://www.historichot...). Each room is decorated in a different color scheme, but they are all so inviting and make you feel like you're in a cute BnB out in the country somewhere, and not right in the middle of Kendall Square. They offer complimentary hot breakfast for each guest as well, which I thought was really really good. For a city hotel, it's not that expensive, and I think if you go to their website and book early enough, you can get specials for as low as $99/night.
3.7 stars
I got to stay here for free when I was moving out of Boston. I didn't have a bed, and was totally exhausted. At that point, motel 6 would have been a welcome sight, but luckily my friend and ex-roommate put me up here.
Now, it wasn't all rainbows and roses. . .although that was kind of the problem. the decor of my room was very "grandma wants a cape cod" feel. Not really my vibe, but I could see it working for a certain slice of society.
Secondly, the room didn't have a channel listing for the TV and the staff seemed a little. . .how do I say this. . . undertrained. I wanted to watch something on comedy central as I passed out, so I called the front desk and was told:
"We don't get that station"
"Uh, it says here full cable"
"that is correct sir"
"well, comedy central is in pretty much every basic cable lineup" "please hold" *comes back* "It's channel 37 sir"
"Thanks!"
I mean really, they've got everything else crammed into my room, including a king sized bed, could they not fit a single sheet of paper into a binder?
All in all it was a pleasant experience, and I'd stay there again. . . I'd just wait to walk in at a minute after midnight, so I could rock the bed as much as possible.
Found a good deal on http://Hotels.com for this place ($180/night) and the Yelp reviews were pretty positive for the most part, so I tried it out for a couple of nights when I was in the area for business. To echo some of the other Yelpers' sentiments, this is a really cozy, quaint hotel. The hotel is also steps away from the Kendall T stop on the red line and it's easy to get to/from the airport from this stop.
Other than that, I didn't find anything at the Kendall Hotel to be extraordinary. A few Yelpers praised it for the customer service, but it didn't seem exceptional to me. In fact, when I first go there and was checking in at the front desk (around 9 pm when it was hardly busy), the front desk clerk answered the phone just as I had stepped up to the counter and proceeded to chat it up with someone (who I'm guessing also worked there ) to tell him/her about her not-so-busy day. I stood there waiting for at least 5 minutes listening to a clearly non-important conversation.
The hotel also doesn't offer room service (and the kitchen at their in-house restaurant closes at 9:45 pm). I don't usually order room service, but I got in late and hadn't had dinner yet and it was on my company's tab anyway. There's a Legal Seafoods bar/restaurant across the street, which seemed to be the only dining option, at that time of night, within walking distance.
I had to catch a cab to the office one morning and unfortunately they don't have a taxi stand outside. You either have to ask the front desk to call a cab for you, or walk around the block to the Marriott's taxi stand.
My mom stayed here and really enjoyed it. Said she'd gladly return to a an urban hotel with relatively reasonable prices. We both thought that the staff were really nice and professional, but had not had the humanity drained out of them at too many forced corporate seminars on customer service.
Really good (and free for guests) Continental breakfast. (Guests are welcome to indulge for a small fee.)
Unfortunately I am staying here because my apartment's water heater went asplodey, so I'm trying to make the most of it. It's a very quaint historic hotel with kitschy firehouse decor reminiscent of the building's long ago use. It's reasonably priced for a Boston hotel (under $200 a night via http://hotels.com) and clean and fairly cozy, no frills really but located very conveniently by the Kendall Square T, with free wi-fi and minimal cable TV. The inexpensive rooms are small with not much natural light, but all in all it's a tidy and well run hotel that I would shelf relatives at and whatnot if the need arose.
This is definitely a "horse for course" situation. This isnt the Ritz Carlton by any means, and it isnt the Marriott. Its an well run, boutique-y small intimate hotel with a lot of charm, in Kendall Square. If you dont need to be at MIT (on in the IMMEDIATE vicinity), you really dont need to come here. Ever. If you do need to be at MIT or in the IMMEDIATE vicinity, you should stay here. Public transport is handy so you can get over to Harvard (if you must) or into Boston easily--but again--this is a place to stay only if you must be at Kendall Square. As to the hotel itself--its a B and B in a converted firehouse with a little country cute kitsch thing going on that has been toned down in the years that we have been staying here. Beds are comfy, showers are hot, sinks work, toilets flush, windows open. If you want games on the TV and full porno cable you will be disappointed. Breakfast is breakfast. Food is acceptable but you dont have to eat here--you arent a prisoner. There are many handy eating establishments right handy (although the easiest one is Legal Sea Foods right across the street--ish). Kendall Hotel five stars for Kendall Square--in part because the immediate alternatives (Marriott, Hyatt) are not as good, not in terms of service or value for money and in part because its an independent quirky smal scale boutique which has stolen my heart. So. Five Stars and I'm stickin to it.
If you're looking for a quaint, cozy, and charming place to stay near MIT and Kendall Square, you're done looking. I put my family up here in December, and they had a wonderfully pleasant experience. The sixth floor double queen-bed room was immaculately clean and the little firestation trinkets really gave it a warm feel.
The continental buffet breakfast, included in the charge for the night, was delicious. The fresh squeezed orange juice was a fine compliment to the bacon and eggs. The staff was also bent over backwards to accommodate all of our requests, and stowed our luggage while we did some afternoon shopping.
And while some people have noted that the Kendall can be pricey, look for their weekend bargains! Except around MIT commencement, the Kendall Hotel is generally cheaper than the Marriott next door.
So after deciding to take a night out in Cambridge, my boyfriend and I found ourselves staying here and I read other Yelp reviews and was starting to dread the idea. However, I was pleasantly surprised.
The hotel screwed up our room because of http://expedia.com and http://hotels.com and compensated us with free dinner at their Black Sheep Restaurant, which included a soup or salad per person, any entree, one dessert per person and then non-alcoholic beverages. Although the selection on the menu wasn't plentiful and they didn't have the lobster risotto I wanted, what we both ended up ordering was surprisingly good. Desserts were both awesome and the room itself was really cute. We were staying in a suite and after looking at the floor plan concluded that it was significantly larger than the other rooms, which isn't saying much. Everything was really clean and put together and the breakfast that's included is pretty good for a 'continental' breakfast-type. French toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, fresh fruit, muffins and coffee and tea....all serve yourself. AND the french toast was good....bacon wasn't so great but not bad.
All in all I would go back again but not in a heart beat, there are, I'm sure, far better restaurants and hotels in the city. And for parking, just tell them you're staying there and they give you a parking pass.
This place was really nice. The stuffed dalmatian on my bed was a cute addition. I loved the free breakfast, terrific strawberry scones, eggs, bacon, everything. The place is very clean and comfortable and the staff was very helpful. They have high quality toiletries. I have found the lotion they carry only at a few hotels, but I always hoard it. It smells terrific.
I loved the staff and thought the hotel was really cute. The price is reasonable for the area. If you want an all amenities cookie cutter hotel there's a Marriott across the street, but if you want a nice "homey"hotel this is the place. The price included a nice warm breakfast every morning.
This is a so-called "boutique" hotel. Which means that the whole place is cluttered with junk, you stay in a tiny tiny room, and you pay exorbitant prices for it. Not worth it!
Nice hotel. Maybe a bit expensive, but so are most of the hotels in Boston. The service is good, and the decor is neat.
My dad and grandparents shared a room here and seemed to like it. It was cheaper than the Marriott and their other options at the time.
