The spare room that is not quite a spare room
Most people visiting family in Boston start out planning to stay with them. Then the arithmetic happens. One spare room and four of you. A sofa bed and a bad back. Somebody's teenager giving up their bedroom for a week and being quietly furious about it.
Staying nearby instead solves the thing nobody says out loud: everyone gets to be pleased to see each other, because nobody is sharing a bathroom by the fourth morning. You are ten minutes away, not two thousand miles away, and you go home at night to your own quiet.
We are in Dorchester and Hyde Park, which is where a great many Boston families actually live — not the tourist map, the real one. If your relatives are in Dorchester, Mattapan, Roxbury, Hyde Park or Milton, you are minutes from their door.
Why the kitchen matters more on this trip than any other
A family visit is not a restaurant holiday. It is coffee before you head over, somewhere to put the leftovers they sent you home with, a bottle in the fridge, and breakfast for the kids at whatever hour they wake up.
It is also the meal you cook for them, which is hard to do from a hotel room and easy from a full kitchen with a dining table.
And if the visit is the kind that comes with a reason — a new baby, someone unwell, a funeral — the practical things matter more, not less. In-unit laundry. A door that closes. Somewhere for people to sit that is not a bed.
Bring the car, and keep it
Family visits mean driving. To their house, to the shops, to the appointment, to the cousin's on the other side of town. Every one of our apartments has free off-street parking, so the car sits where you are staying at no cost and you are not circling their street at eleven at night looking for a space.
That is a small thing that turns out to be a large thing. On a street where residents park, one more visiting car is a genuine imposition — and not having to ask is worth something.
If several of you flew in from different places, several of our buildings hold more than one apartment, so you can take two at the same address rather than scattering across the city.
Apartments that suit this trip
9 Warner Street, Apt 9W2View ApartmentFree cancellation — 100% refund any time before check-in
42 Glenway StreetView ApartmentFree cancellation — 100% refund any time before check-in
19 Ellis Street, Apt 1View ApartmentFree cancellation — 100% refund any time before check-in
143 Erie Street, Apt 1View ApartmentFree cancellation — 100% refund any time before check-in
9 Bernard Street, Apt 9B1View ApartmentFree cancellation — 100% refund any time before check-in
Common questions
- Is it the whole apartment, or a room in someone's house?
- The whole apartment, to yourself. Your own front door, your own kitchen, your own laundry - no shared hallways, no front desk, nobody else in the property.
- How long can we stay near family?
- Anything from a single night up to 27 nights. Longer stays are common for medical treatment and work placements, and the nightly rate drops as the stay gets longer.
- Is parking included?
- Yes. Every apartment has its own free off-street parking, so you are not paying a garage on top of the stay and you are not circling for a space when you arrive.
Coming to Boston for something else?
- All 19 apartmentsEvery whole apartment we let, across Dorchester and Hyde Park
- Red Sox & Fenway Park
- Gillette Stadium events
- Coming to Boston for treatment
- Boston hospital stays
- Graduation weekend
- Concerts & arena shows
- Salem in October
- Where to stay in Boston
- Near Boston Medical Center
- Harvard & MIT visits
- Wedding weekends
- Conventions & trade shows
- Marathon weekend
- Hyde Park
- Holidays in Boston