I was a bit anxious about this hotel due to some reviews I'd seen here, but all in all, after an 8-night stay, I feel justified in saying that it's a good place to hang your hat after a day of tooling around Boston.

As others have noted, the main drawback is the far-from-the-T location. There is a bus (CT2) that runs right next to the hotel on weekdays, but we went ahead and rented a car because we planned on going to some outlying areas during our stay. Thanks to tips here we saved the hotel's $28/day parking fee and instead parked along Vassar street behind the hotel--in 8 days we never had a problem finding a spot, and felt 100% ok leaving the car there. The walk to the hotel's door is barely a block from Vassar.

We did hoof it once to the T station across the river -- Boston University West. It's really not a super-long walk, about a half mile or 10-15 minutes at a reasonable pace. Plus, there's a Starbucks right there that we frequented for our morning lattes.

We paid about $70 per night through Hotwire. I think up to $90 or so per night is reasonable, considering there are other costs (such as Internet access-see below) to consider.

For food, there aren't a lot of restaurants close by, but there's a website called Foodler that serves the area (probably due to all the colleges around). It aggregates a bunch of delivery services and is simply awesome for finding food you want and having it delivered to your room. There's also a big mall within 2 miles (Cambridgeside Galleria) that has relatively cheap parking and quite a few fast food and eat-in restaurants to choose from.

Insist upon a river view room. The view almost completely makes you forget that you're a long way from the closest T station. I took advantage of the photo opportunity nearly every night and got some truly excellent shots.

One drawback other than location - Internet access is $10 per day, and it's pretty slow. I'm a tech junkie and am highly intolerant of bad web access, so this was frustrating, not to mention there are very few hotels anymore that charge for the privilege.

This hotel really is far from the T stops, by at least half a mile. Bring your walking shoes if you're going stay at this hotel and depend on public transportation.

Aside from this, it was a good value. I bid for a 3* hotel on priceline, and won it for $55. The room looked just like the virtual tour photo on the hotel's web site. The bed was extremely comfortable and the room was nice and clean.

Service at this hotel was hit-or-miss. Some personnel were very helpful and professional (the enthusiastic doorman & the lead guest services man) while others missed the mark (the young woman at the guest services desk, the restaurant staff).

We used the shuttle once. It picked us up at the Kendall/MIT T stop. It took 30 minutes for the shuttle to arrive. Warning: the shuttle is an unmarked minivan. It didn't have the hotel name on it anywhere. Might be good to ask when scheduling it what the vehicle looks like. The shuttle only runs limited hours and you have to schedule it. Good luck getting clear info from the guest services desk about this.

The restaurant food is pretty pricey, even for hotel restaurant food. Dined in there one night and took food out another. Both times, it took quite a while for the host/hostess to acknowledge us and take care of us. Seems like they'd rather be doing something else.

We spent two nights at the Hyatt Cambridge March 15 and 16, 2006. The hotel was clean and the staff very friendly. The room was was a fantastic $45 on Priceline with a total, with fees, for the two nights of $109. Hard to beat. We were offered, but chose not to upgrade to a Charles River view room (for a price). The same view was much appreciated at the bar on the second floor. Self-parking is an outrageous $28, but we were assured this is "cheap" for Boston. Our room was set up a bit oddly with a short hall-like space running perpendicular to the bathroom door, between the bathroom and the sleeping area. The coffee pot was on a counter at the end of this hall with an opening at ceiling height into the bedroom. It is not the most efficient use of space, but not a major item. The room had lower ceilings than newer hotels and similar details bely its age. Still, the room was comfortable and well-appointed. A friend of mine who's an MIT alumna swears by the Cambridge Hyatt and claims it as her favorite hotel in the area. I was not blown away, but still thoroughly enjoyed the stay.
The hotel has lovely common areas and is in a great location to visit MIT as it sits virtually embedded in the campus grounds. It's a short $8-10 taxi ride to Harvard. We were in town looking at colleges, so the location was ideal for us. It is an easy taxi ride or drive into Boston, but lack of parking in Boston and in Cambridge make the taxi preferable. Others have commented on the subway set up, so I won't re-hash. With four people, it was not much more expensive for us to take cabs.
The only minor gripe I had was a heating system that did not let me turn it down as low as I would have liked. I found similar situations at the other two comparable New England hotels we stayed at, so perhaps it's a common problem in cold weather.

This property is average on the outside.

On the inside, it is above average.

Stayed in a room which overlooked the Charles River. The view of the Boston skyline was spectacular!

Bed was very comfortable. Bathroom was small, yet managable.

What made this property was the service. It was obvious that the staff was focused. We arrived after a long flight and lousy yahoo directions. The doorman greets us with a huge smile and energy that was appreciated. Dave was his name. He took the time to know us and made our stay great!

People on this site complain about the access to the T or distance from anything. My reply is simple:

EVERYTHING is less than a $15 cab fare away. If you are staying at a Hyatt, you can afford a $15 cab fare. Suck it up and go with it!

Coming back in April and I look forward to seeing Dave at the front door and being treated well!