And, as always, and now celebrating its 53rd year (!), REVELS is offering us a way to welcome the new year~ About This Year’s Production Midwinter Revels drops us into the colorful medieval Feast of Fools, where everything is topsy-turvy by design. The status quo quickly becomes the status disruptus as the body politic officially lets off steam. Rulers are temporarily deposed by servants, wit triumphs over power, and a fool finds himself steering the ship of state. This musical feast will feature vibrant processionals, lively carols, delicate harmonies, vigorous dances, and a full ritual serving of the wild and the holy. Come sing favorites old and new and dance your way with us into the lobby of Sanders Theatre and out into the brand new year! On this shortest day of the year, what could possibly go wrong? And welcome the new year with Boston’s biggest party,  First Night! As always when visiting our fair cities in the winter: bring layers of clothing and comfortable, waterproof footware! Hasty Pudding Theatricals is a great way to cozy up for a winter break. Now celebrating its 175th year with HEIST HEIST BABY! Paparazzi, get your cameras ready! It’s 1990, and Manhattan’s rich and famous are flocking to an annual gala at the Upper West Side’s biggest museum. Anyone who’s anyone will be there…. And we are happy to welcome Sea Hag to our community of favorite local restaurants!

The post Irving House Gazette, Winter Solstice 2023 appeared first on Irving House at Harvard.

If you have found your way here, you have already taken an interest in Irving House at Harvard.   You may already be a savvy traveler, seeking the best values in accommodations near Harvard Square.  You may be a novice explorer, curious and persistent. Welcome!

If you are planning to be in Our Fair City of Cambridge in early July, here is a real treat:

https://bostonjerkfest.com

You have to buy tickets in advance, so I am putting this in here now just in case you love music, spicy food and general fun, a real ‘taste of the [Caribbean] islands.’

And for our savvy travelers:  please remember that if you want to experience the best service and know your accommodations wherever you go, book directly with the property.  You can generally book through the property’s own web site booking engine, or by email or phone.  This way you can find out particulars, maybe get better rooms, and all of the rate you pay is going to the property so they can better serve you now and in times to come.

But maybe more important to YOU is that if you have to change or cancel your reservation, booking directly with the property allows you the smoothest way to do so.  If you book through a third party, changes must be made with that entity (Expedia, Priceline and all of their sites).  There are often more restricted terms for making changes and we have often found that their customer service is less than optimal.

Third party bookings are sometimes restricted by the property, as we wish to offer our fullest and best accommodations to those who book directly.  Special offers are NEVER available to those who book through third parties.  If we are bumping guests to better rooms, we ALWAYS choose to bump those who book directly with us before we upgrade any third party bookers.  This way, we have more money to compensate our hardworking employees, and make improvements to our furnishings and amenities.  And your stay, wherever you visit, will be a more informed and delightful one for you and your companions.

The post Spicy Fun and a Savvy Traveler reminder appeared first on Irving House at Harvard.

Although the road is never ending take a step and keep on walking, do not look fearfully into the distance. On this path, let your heart be your guide for the body is hesitant and full of fear. ~Rumi Earth Day April 22! Hello Dear Faithful Readers~ I am sending this out a bit early so if you would like to find an Earth Day event near you to join, you can plan. If you click on the picture of the beehives above, you will be linked to a registration page for an upcoming webinar put on by the caretakers of our bee hives, Best Bees. In the webinar, bee keepers from across the country will be discussing their work and how they are celebrating Earth Day.  The webinar will be held 4/21. Here is another way to join the efforts to keep our home planet habitable: SciStarter: Science we can do together We at Irving House continue to seek to lighten our environmental footprint.  There is plenty left to do in all areas.  This day reminds us to keep up the good work wherever we are… And Zoia has provided a lovely photograph to inspire our work. She took this from the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park, a glorious sunrise. This is the place to see the first rays of sun in the USA! Not sure whether to put this in Wish You Were Here or Our Fair City, but here it is: Che, who works at our front desk in the evenings and some overnights, recently had a visit from a cat. Two Harvard students stopped by the front desk to ask if they could let this cat in, as he seemed to want to visit.  Che agreed, and kept an eye on him, and caught a photo.  This cat felt confident enough to just walk around the house for a bit before leaving.  Here he is at the top of the first floor stairs, quite content… Then, Anguel, also at our front desk, did some research on our feline visitor and found he is a local celebrity, His name is Remy.  He is well known and well loved in the Harvard University community…We are so pleased he wanted to get to know Irving House! Here is some background on this neighborhood celebrity in The Harvard Crimson and in The Harvard Gazette And just because this sounds so inviting, if you happen to be in Cambridge Friday 4/21, or any time after, this may be worth your visit: Copyright (C) 2023 Irving House at Harvard. All rights reserved.

The post Earth Day April 22 2023! appeared first on Irving House at Harvard.

Reports and photos from Zoia Krastanova Two guests returned their keys with sweet little notes~ This key went to France! And came home again…. Thank you to all the postal carriers everywhere who make this essential, massive, complex network hum along. Another guest Mayan Antonucci, has been charmed by our turtles.  She had stayed with us several times as she came to get medical treatment.  On her last visit, she brought us a three dimensional felt companion to those turtles  on our post cards. These and many other of our post cards continue to get sent all over the world….but that felt turtle now has found a home in Cambridge… And now Zoia sees turtles everywhere! Even in New Hampshire’s granite. The Harvard Square Open Market continues through the end of October~ Located between Massachusetts Avenue and lower Brattle Street, the market will highlight the work of over 45 artisans, designers and vintage vendors from across New England. Every Sunday until October 30th, which the exception of July 3rd (Independence Day weekend) and October 9th (Harvard Square Oktoberfest), visitors will discover unique, retro, quirky, one-of-a-kind and hard to find items and gifts in a festive, European style street fair environment.  Shoppers to the Square and the “market” will also find eclectic and robust dining, shopping and entertainment options on Church Street, including, MOTTO, Bonde Fine Wine Shop, Swiss Watchmaker, Fjallraven, the Sinclair, Dunkin Donuts, Cambridge Artists Cooperative Gallery, Lizzy’s Ice Cream, SOURCE Restaurants, Raven Books, and the Christian Science Reading Room. And in Central Square the Farmers Market continues too! Bachata/Salsa Sundays have begun! This Sunday, September 25th, Special Tango Workshop featuring bachata and salsa, dancing, bachata and salsa lessons.. As we look to our quieter months, we savor our two favorite specials for the month of November:                                 Thanks Giving Pies                                                                           Veterans’ Day Available only if you book directly with us, of course..

The post Autumnal Equinox 2022 appeared first on Irving House at Harvard.

Here is the testimony I gave at this event, Access To Markets Symposium on October 5th.

For those In the hospitality/travel/services sector, the issues of monopolies are different from—or do not yet include—Amazon.  However, Google plays a role in all of them.

Google’s business model includes revenues from key word searches.  Key words are chosen by and paid by any entity wanting traffic to its site.  These show up as ads, but the presentation is more subtle than it used to be.  In addition, the big sites buy up other sites and create sites that include the names of small properties.  So visitors seeking an individual hotel property, such as ours, Irving House at Harvard, or Irving House, will enter these key words and get results that include our name, and may even look like our site, but are not.

This does not serve the traveling public, or any public.  If travelers planning a trip to Cambridge have already heard of Irving House, and wish to know more, or book a room, the best result is our site, where they can learn all about us and book a room with us.

Any other site will get them a third party with limited information about our room types, amenities and terms of booking.  This third party site also controls communication between the property and the guest. So when the guest has a special request, or wants to change the room type or any details of the reservation, they must deal with the third party.  Expedia in particular has terrible customer service.

Our guests and we experience both sides of this.  We are sometimes blamed for Expedia’s poor service!

Because Google makes money from this stream, I don’t see how it would agree to changing it at all.  But here are two suggestions:

–Proprietary names can only be used for paid results by the entity that owns the name or by an entity authorized by that entity to buy these words.  This could be trademark secured, or domain secured.

–Placement of and identification of paid results should make it much more obvious to the searcher that these are ads, third parties, not the entity they are seeking.

Another issue is the sometimes-hidden side effects of these large platforms on communities.

1–With Amazon, it takes the form of delivery vans driven by contractors (not Amazon employees) that are under enormous pressure to deliver in increasingly short time frames. To meet these schedules, drivers often leave their vans parked in ways that block pedestrian or vehicular pathways.  They do not get ticketed, or they ignore the tickets they get.

2—The packaging that is necessary with shipped items is handled by the communities where the residents receive goods.  This increase in trash & recycling bulk is not often discussed, but is significant and not paid by Amazon in any way.  Brick and mortar stores must pay to dispose of the shipping packaging of their items, and their customers often bring their own bags, or at least use less material in carrying items home than all the shipping material for sent items.

3—In the hospitality realm, the rise of AirBnB has had an enormous negative impact on the availability of residential units, as it has enabled ‘hosts’ to offer furnished apartments in the hotel marketplace.  These units are not licensed, have no oversight of any kind.  Their safety, security and cleanliness are all unknown, regulated only by users’ ratings.

4—In addition to removing housing from the marketplace, these units are not hosted in any real way.  Those who stay in them often find themselves asking neighbors—true residents of an apartment building, or the next-door house—for help to dispose of trash, find a bus stop or bank, or any information a newcomer might need.  While a hotel has staff to attend to these needs and answer these questions, residents come to resent having to play host to a stream of strangers in their own communities.

5—Local authorities (licensing, building department) are at a loss to address these issues.  They cannot know whether alarm systems are operating, emergency egresses are clear, that the unit is kept free of vermin, anything at all.

6—Licensed properties charge and remit room occupancy tax to their localities and the state.  Unlicensed properties do not.

7—Licensed properties commit to accommodating the traveling public.  Unlicensed properties can refuse service to any guest with any bias they wish.

The public shopping for goods and services has become accustomed to these enormous platforms to get information and make purchases.  On these sites, all offers seem equivalent in some way—apartment=hotel room, book=book regardless of how it arrives in your home.  The costs of this convenience are hidden.  So part of fixing the problem must include educating the public about the costs to themselves directly and to the communities they live in, or visit.

These monopolies are powerful enterprises which have shifted the habits of shoppers and hope to keep them addicted to their model of doing business.

Leveling the playing field must include a robust, national, even international, regulatory framework that protects the interests of consumers, communities and businesses.  This must include regulations and a guiding of the public conversation that fully and accurately informs the public on ALL of the costs of these seeming convenient methods of search and purchase.

Respectfully submitted,

Rachael Solem

The post Localist News appeared first on Irving House at Harvard.