We travel frequently with our high school speech team (all girls) and this year, as in the past, we traveled to Boston over Presidents' Day weekend for the Harvard Invitational. The house we had rented for last year's tournament was sadly unavailable this year but we prefer to stay in places with a kitchen, so we booked at Lotus Place. Our experience was very pleasant.

The B & B is actually the entire second floor of a renovated three-story house. The owners live on the first floor but were not hanging around or intrusive in any way -- just helpful and available when we needed them. Our group was comprised of four high school girls, two female coaches and an 8-month-old. I had called several weeks before our stay to request a travel crib, which Amy (the owner) kindly said was not problem. We were delighted to find a full crib set up in the coaches' room (actually a small anteroom -- perhaps it's usually a storage area?) when we arrived. The apartment consists of three relatively spacious rooms, each with its own bathroom. Only one room is en suite, but the other two bathrooms are adjacent to the bedrooms so it wasn't a problem for us. There are curtains you can pull across the hallways to keep your room and bathroom more private from the others as well. The beds, by the way, are terrifically comfortable. Bathrooms are furnished with hair dryers as well as a liquid soap, shampoo, and conditioner dispenser in each tub/shower (like you find in Asian hotels). The front room is the largest, with a bay window, television and the aforementioned anteroom/storage area. This would be great for a couple with a baby (as it was for us). The middle room is nearest the front door and is the en suite room. The back room is just past the kitchen and has its bathroom directly across the hall.

The spacious central living area is very nice, with a comfortable couch, very large round dining table, large flat-screen TV with DVD player, and a really lovely kitchen with the granite countertops mentioned in a previous review. This central living area also got lots of light in the afternoon. There are french doors to a balcony from this room, which must be useful in the summer. The kitchen is equipped with all the usual appliances (refrigerator is huge) as well as coffee, tea, and breakfast supplies such as fruit, cereal, milk, croissants, etc. Breakfast is self-serve, which we very much preferred as it allowed us to be on our own schedule.

The location of the B & B is convenient, less than a block away from the intersection of Broadway and Prospect, where there is a really good Korean restaurant and a 24-hour convenience mart. It is another block down Prospect to a Whole Foods Market, and just a little further is the wonderful Carberry's Bakery & Coffee House with delicious coffee, teas, pastries and sandwiches. The Central Square T stop on Massachusetts Avenue is about an 8-10 minute walk in this direction as well (probably less if it's not icy February and you are walking sans luggage!). It would be an easy 15-minute walk or so up Broadway or Mass Ave to Harvard Square if the weather allowed, or you can take the T from Central Square. Either way, the location is very convenient to major attractions in Cambridge.

There were very few "cons" to our stay, and we did leave a comment sheet with our hosts so perhaps the few things that we felt could be improved upon will be soon. These were:
1. Heat. Boston in February is COLD. There did not seem to be heating vents for the hot air heat in the rooms, or perhaps we just did not see them. The back bedroom did have a space heater, but the girls who stayed in there didn't feel they needed it. We could have used it in the front bedroom as it really did get cold in there (perhaps because it has the most windows). Since we were staying as a group we just left our bedroom doors open and cranked up the heat from the living room, but we could see how this might not be an option for unrelated people staying there.
2. Utensils. Since we had the entire apartment to ourselves we wanted to do some cooking and save money on restaurants. There is plenty of silverware, glasses and dishes but there was not a spatula nor potholders.
3. Washcloths. These were not provided, but towels were amply supplied which made us think that perhaps washcloths were simply overlooked.

We did leave these few points on our comment form and the owners were very accommodating to our requests before our stay, so they may likely be remedied soon.

Overall, we had a great stay in very clean and comfortable surroundings. I think Lotus Place is ideal for a small group traveling together such as ours, or for a family. It would also be fine to stay there as a couple and just occupy one room, as long as you are familiar and comfortable with the B & B model of accommodations and willing to be friendly with other guests.

If we have the same size group we will certainly stay there again next year!