Last month my mother who lives in Florida stayed with us for one week and then went to a motel in our old hometown of Framingham, MA. She checked around at a few hotels which were much more money and decided on the Best Western. A less expensive motel is next door, The Monticello, but I would not recommend it although it is $35.00 less per night than the Best Western. I stayed with her a couple of nights during her two-week stay there.

General Information

The Best Western is located at 130 Worcester Road also known as Route 9. Framingham is a town of 65,000 people and a shopping mecca most of which is within a couple of miles along Route 9. Best Western is located in the middle of this strip.

The phone number is 508-872-8811 and the website is http://www.bestwestern.com/prop_22047.

Check in is at 2:00 p.m. and check out is at 11:00 a.m.

Pets are not allowed. The website is a bit misleading both in terms of the picture of the hotel, which I will describe in a moment, and the distance from Logan Airport. In spite of spending most of my life in Framingham I wanted to double check myself so went to www.mapquest.com. Best Western is 23.32 miles from Logan Airport not 17 miles and mapquest tell us it will take you 32 minutes. I will tell you that it will take you 32 minutes if you do not hit one light or hit any traffic both of which are highly unlikely so plan on a 45 minute drive or more depending on the time of the day.

About the hotel

Best Western advertises itself as “The World’s Largest Hotel Chain.” This particular hotel has 2 buildings with 184 rooms. The building you see in the picture cannot be seen from Worcester Road. It can only be seen by going around the main building and that is a very flattering picture of what you will see. That isn’t to say this is a horrible hotel. It isn’t. But what you see is not exactly what you are getting.

My mom and I checked in a bit early but there were rooms available. At first she was given a room in the large 6-floor building. She was asked if she would prefer the smaller 2-floor building and be on the first floor and she did. That was wonderful. The clerk was very, very nice and accommodating. He told us although there was no breakfast in the hotel there was coffee in the small check-in area (and there was) as well as free USA Today newspapers. This isn’t really a lobby – it is just a small, functional check-in area with a couple of chairs. The 2-floor building was a Howard Johnson’s and it has been converted to a Best Western. The grounds are simple with a few flowers and plants but it was well kept and looked as if they were working to add more. Both buildings have elevators.


There is a huge free parking lot around both buildings. We pulled right up to the stairs that took my mom to her first floor smoking room. Non-smoking rooms are available. There is a slightly high step from the parking lot to the walkway so a ramp from the parking lot to the door of the hotel would be a great idea. She is not in a wheelchair but does have some trouble walking.

This hotel is connected to Chili’s (Restaurant) and it is possible to get to the first floor via the restaurant without using any steps and using an elevator. We ate in Chili’s one night (very good) and we did attempt that but truthfully the elevator was difficult to find and by the time I found it, my mom was slowly walking up the steps. This was inside the building. That is a nice feature of this Best Western. If it is raining or cold you don’t even have to go outside to go to a restaurant and Chili's will deliver food to your room.

There was staff standing outside as we walked in and they asked if they could help with her luggage, which was very nice. They really did not have to ask.

The room

Her room was a decent size with two double beds and a sliding door out to a small concrete patio. It would have been nice if there had been a chair on the patio and it would have been even nicer if the sliding door was easier to open. Of course the view is of the parking lot and a major road so other than her smoking outside while I was there, one wouldn’t go outside unless they had to for some reason. There is a security bar on it, which was a bit tricky to work.

The room was clean and fairly plain but nicely decorated in red and grays. There was a table and 2 chairs, a night table, a desk and chair and a dresser with a television. One of the handles on a drawer was broken but luckily she didn’t need all 6 drawers.

My mom asked for a refrigerator, which was supposed to be a rental, for $5.00 a day. Since she was staying for two weeks, they waived that. The refrigerator was supposed to be in the room but when we walked in it wasn't. We went out for a bit and when we got back one was there.

Over the two weeks, my mom had 3 refrigerators in the room because the first two didn’t work. The lighting was very interesting. The lights are controlled by switches on the wall that would seem easy but were not. It was hard to know which one went to which light. We couldn’t even turn on one light and one had no light bulbs so we called the front desk and within 10 minutes someone came with light bulbs. She explained to me that the wiring for the lights was new and some mistakes were made but she showed up very nicely how to work them and that turned out fine.

The air conditioning worked very well which was good since it was a very hot 2 weeks! My mom had an open closet, basically just a bar. There was a sink outside the bathroom with a coffee maker and fixings for no charge. The bathroom was in good condition with a hairdryer, tile floor, soaps and shampoo. There was a sign reminding us that if we forget something to let them know, such as a toothbrush. There were only two tiny wastebaskets and a larger or third one would have been nice.

Amenities and Other Information

There are in-room data ports.

The room was $90 per day but since she was there for 2 weeks they gave her a substantial discount and charged her $70 per day which is what the room is worth except for the fact that it is located in Framingham which is a desirable location since it is not far from the airport and not far from Worcester, MA to the west. The towns and cities that are closer to Boston have plenty of hotels but you will pay for being that much closer to Boston. There is a bus called Logan Express which takes you from the parking lot, almost across the street from this hotel, to Logan Airport for about $14.00 round trip. Amtrak also runs through the town so it is quite convenient.

Children under 12 stay in the room for free.

There are ice machines, soda/juice machines and candy machines as well as coin-laundry facilities. Safety deposit boxes are available at the front desk for no charge.

They have 2500 square feet of meeting space and can accommodate large and small groups.

The pool is very nice. It is large with lounges and large glass windows but this too abuts the parking lot so you are not going here for the view! The pool is open Monday-Fridays 3:00pm-10:00pm; Saturday and Sunday 12:00pm-10pm. There is no fitness room.

If you go to the website it will tell you that it is across the street from Shopper’s World where you will find bookstores, clothing stores, computer stores, and any other kind of store you can think of. If it isn’t in Shopper’s World then look next door for the jewelry store or down the street for the mattress store. Actually it isn’t across the street thought. Directly across the street is a brand new, huge Wal-Mart. (For those of you who know the area that was Caldor) Shopper’s World is diagonally across the street.

You will find Applebee's in Shopper's World, which you can walk to if you want.

My final thoughts

This is not a vacation destination. This is a functional hotel to be used for functional reasons. Framingham is a town you may want to stay in for a couple of days because you are visiting your child who goes to Framingham State College or you have business in Marlboro and this is less expensive than the Sheraton. Few people, other than my mom, would stay here for two weeks.

Even though the hotel is on a very busy road, I never heard any noise that I noted. Of course the air conditioning unit may have been very loud masking the noise!

There were several minor problems that were fixed quickly and in spite of the lack of a ramp and the sliding door that is hard to slide I am going to recommend this Best Western but call it average.

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment.


Framingham

Recommended: Yes