Charles River Plaza Parking

My experience at Charles River Plaza Parking with the reverse commuting parking has been extremely unsatisfactory. Everyday my car is blocked b/​c they parallel park additional cars as they try to fit as many cars as possible in that garage. It takes awhile to find a valet to move the car and once you do, they ask me to find someone else to move the car. I have to add an extra 10 – 15 mins to account for the time it takes to find a valet to move the car. Once I am able to finally move my car, there is usually a line at the exit b/​c of the people who are paying cash take a long time since that is a slow process or people cannot exit b/​c of the traffic on the street. You basically need to get to the garage by 8 to make sure you are out by 830 so you don’t get charged the $ 12 overage rate for under 1 hr.
I had to pay the $ 12 overage once b/​c I had to wait 10 mins to find the valet guy and wait for the valet guy to finish his conversation with another valet guy. Then he told me to find someone else, despite having 2 valet people standing right in front of me who have nothing better to do than chat with each other. Once I got him to finally move the car, he took another 5 mins to slowly walking to the car, look up the ticket number to find the keys, retrieve the keys, and then move the car. As a result, I was exiting the garage past 830 and was charged $ 12. When I explained the situation to the person at the gate, she gave me attitude and told me she can’t do anything about it and that I should have left earlier. This was extremely frustrating since I would have left earlier if my car was not blocked.
There was also an incident where there was a long line for the exit. I swiped my card so the gate could lift, but the car in front of me did not move b/​c of the traffic on the street. Once he finally moved, the gate closed before I could exit. I asked the guy at the booth to lift the gate again since I had passed the stage where I could swipe my card again. He told me he can’t do anything about it and told me to backup and swipe my card. There was already a line behind me so I couldn’t back up. I had to get out of my car and swipe the card, but it didn’t work b/​c I already swiped my card. The guy at the gate again said he couldn’t do anything. After arguing with him about how can i get out if the gate won’t lift after I already swiped my card, he lifted the gate.
Also, if you get to the garage around 4 pm, it takes about 20 mins to find a parking spot b/​c they fill the garage with as many cars as possible.
The lack of customer service, inability to think logically and extremely rude attitude has made my experience at this garage horrible. I cannot recommend this place to anyone.

These must be super old reviews — I have to say, having a reverse commuter spot where I am out by 8:30 and back in by 4 works for my schedule, and saves me the 45 minutes of driving around Beacon Hill every evening looking for a parking spot 9 blocks from my apt. HOWEVER — they charge for pretty much every holiday, their overage rates have gone up to something like under 1 hour $ 12 (so if you’re running 10 min late), 1 – 2 hours $ 24 and up to 4+hours $ 48. I pay $ 110 per month so leaving my car there for even a few hours is half of what I spend on a monthly basis. Forget about snow days, they charge full price and it’s probably how they make most of their money in the winter. When I come in in the morning my car is always blocked in and the valets have to move it — they work for MGH and not the garage so if that’s why you’re 10 minutes late it doesn’t matter. All that said, if you can stick to your schedule and find a spot on the street before an 8 day blizzard it’s not a bad spot, the people are generally friendly PLUS you can walk up through Whole Foods everyday (THAT makes this worth it :)

Live in the Beacon Hill/​West End area and drive to work outside the city? Charles River Plaza is your answer. For $ 95/​month, you can park overnight and on weekends in the garage. Out before 8:30 and in after 4:00 — perfect for those of us fleeing Boston each morning.
While you can’t beat the price (last I checked, 24 hour spots in this neighborhood were going for around $ 400/​month) there are some things I definitely dislike about this garage. One is that they over-​sell spots. Yes, they have tons of valets, but that’s because every single row is double-​parked. You’ve got to find a spot on the one end row to steer clear of this problem, or else you’re flagging down employees to move three cars just to leave. My other issue with this garage deals with the exiting process. If you have a monthly swipe card, no problem. But if you’re paying with cash, the process takes about 5 min. Sitting in your car, on your way to work, holding your swipe card while two cars take TEN minutes to exit can be incredibly frustrating.
Despite the headaches that pop up every once in awhile, one massive blizzard and you’re thanking your lucky stars you’re not out on the street, snowed in. For that reason, Charles River Plaza Parking is A-​OK.

You and your girlfriend a pumped! You live in Boston… yes! Unfortunately you work in the burbs and need to drive out every morning. No! And you don’t want to hunt for parking on Beacon Hill every night around 7:30 PM. Never!
Enter, Charles River Plaza Parking. Amazing. $ 95 a month will get you a «reverse commute spot.» Out by 8:30 AM and you can enter after 4:00 PM. Great deal.
On top of that, the garage is staffed by tons of friendly valet (no charge) as they try to pack the garage during the work week. My girlfriend has developed friendships with a few that are happy to open the door for her (even when we don’t need help with car) and wave us off to another day of work in the burbs.
— National holidays are free all day
— It seems they give «snow emergency days» free as well
Four stars, not five, because say you want to take a day off, you’re sick, or off to a vacation (not in this economy!) you’ll get nailed with $ 32 a day parking. That’s the usual rate.