First off, I want to apologize to fellow Yelpers. I feel like I am much more inclined to leave reviews of places when I've had a sour experience than when I've had a pleasant experience. I promise I will make an effort to give credit where credit is due.
The Good about Sheraton Needham:
There is plenty of good. The hotel lobby is spacious and inviting. There is an overwhelming earth tone throughout the place, but as someone who LOVES the color brown, I thought it looked great. As I walked to my room, the smell of new carpet was still in the air. It's one of those smells that isn't particularly good, but it's still very welcome as my brain quickly associates the smell with cleanliness. My room had two double beds and a couch, and was quite spacious for a standard room. The bed and bedding were very comfortable. Also, contrary to a previous poster's comment, I thought the rooms were very quiet. Maybe I was in an isolated section of the hotel that night, but I didn't hear any noises. All in all, it was a great hotel, if it wasn't for one experience...
The Bad:
It was getting late and as my coworker and I were laying in our beds, we were contemplating whether to go somewhere real quick to get something to eat, or to find a few things at the snack shop downstairs (Sidenote: the snack shop's selection is scarce). We ended up taking the lazy route and headed downstairs to pick a few unhealthy snacks to stuff our faces with. After deciding on our treats, we headed to the check in counter to pay for our food. There were two groups ahead of us who were checking in. It was a lengthy wait, but I do not blame it on the hotel staff at all. The first group had a million questions, and it held the line up. This is where everything gets weird. As we were waiting in that line, an employee who was in the check in counter's side room (And who was also there when we checked in) made eye contact with my coworker and I as we were standing in line. It was a weird eye contact that didn't seem suspicious at the time. He left his office, and I thought nothing of it. Eventually, we paid for our food and made our way back upstairs to the room. As we got into the room, that employee who made the weird eye contact with us was in our room. Before I could say anything, he said, "I...just needed to check a lightbulb." He went over to a lamp in the far corner of the room, pulled the string to see if it worked (it did), and then hurried out of the room. I was in such a state of shock that I couldn't even think of any words to say. How thorough is your service that you feel the need to inspect lamps at 1am? Needless to say, as soon as he left, my coworker and I ravaged through our belongings to make sure nothing was stolen. Luckily, everything was there. I'm thinking we got back to the room just before I became the former owner of an iPod.
I went to bed really angered, and as I woke up I made sure to mention it to the staff as I was checking out. Their response was "Well, we can offer to give you free parking." I don't think they understood the severity of the issue. I wasn't looking to get anything for free, the hotel tab is on my company's dime, I just wanted to make the place aware so that it would never happen for future guests. There is no excuse to be in someone's room at 1am to inspect a lamp.
So, since the staff didn't feel the need to recognize how extreme a situation this was, I felt the need to warn everyone here on Yelp. If you have any valuables, make sure you keep them locked up in the in-room safe. Or, better yet, stay at any of the other Boston suburb hotels that wouldn't rifle through your stuff in the wee hours of the morning. I will personally never stay here again. read more