Originally Posted by
speed.skater
Thanks all for the replies. Have taken note of the Commonwealth which was suggested multiple times. Will also keep checking prices for Westin and Colonnade. I think my parents would accept the Yotel for one night. But they plan on spending three nights and they'd probably find the room a bit too small and basic for a longer stay.
Sorry, I don't want to give the exact date. I do understand it would help. But I'm already disclosing quite a bit of personal information ITT and I'm a bit of a privacy nut.
It seems in addition to it being graduation season, there is a medium-to-large conference/congress/event in town with several thousand participants. (I don't want to name it to keep this semi-anonymous.)
The three suggestions Commonwealth, Westin, and Colonnade are all in the USD 480-700 range for the date in question.**
Due to rates being elevated even considering it's Boston, I'm thinking of buying Hilton, Hyatt, or IHG points during a points sale and getting them on an award stay.
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** Not price-optimized. Expedia.com rates without tax. The Commonwealth and the Colonnade are towards the lower end of that range.
A lot of big conventions in Boston are centered around the Marriott, Westin, and Sheraton, which are all connected, with the Colonnade being a good choice for the overflow.
Another idea for a well located hotel (IIRC almost on top of a subway station) is the Lenox, which is a nice probably three and a half or four star boutique hotel. I didn't mention it earlier because it's more traditional in style.
If there's a big convention with high prices and bad availability, maybe you should look in different neighborhoods if the dates can't be changed. The Hyatt across the river in Cambridge isn't bad but it's not near a subway. There's a LM that emphasizes modern art between MIT and Harvard that people seem to like. There's a nice independent hotel that's fairly modern near between Harvard and the river, but I don't know how recently it's been renovated. On the other side of the MIT campus, there's a big Marriott (almost like a convention hotel), a RI, a boutque hotel in an old firehouse (with quilts, etc. so definitely not modern), and some other choices. There are some nice hotels in more historic areas of Boston, but they wouldn't be modern.