Location is good....hotel not so much
OK....my wife and I are not world travelers by any means, and we get that we are in a prime location in the center of Hollywood, but for $200+ a night, I expected a little more. The room itself was pretty small (we booked a King Bed). The room was apparently recently renovated, but you wouldn't have known that. We were on the first floor near the pool. The room, to me, had a dank smell to it, but my wife never really complained about it (and she complains about all kinds of smells), so maybe it was just me.
The hotel is old, so I get it that not everything will be perfect, but I expected a little more from this place than what we got. We actually enjoyed ourselves at the pool, but we were there on a Wednesday and Thursday, not a weekend, which I understand can get pretty crazy. The drinks poolside were good, but they were really pricey, too. Like $22 for a couple of well drinks. Oh well, though, you are on vacation, right?
The whole lobby was just ridiculously dark. This place just seems like it is trying too hard to be cool and hip. Service was fine. The valet was actually very quick (but it should be since they are soaking you for $33 a night).
The location is right across from Grauman's Chinese Theater. Having never visited LA before, we chose the hotel as much for the location as the room itself. From that standpoint, seeing the circus that is Hollywood from this location was good. Other than that, everything was just a little bit off.
On top of that, they had an emergency power test on the day we were leaving from 9:15 to 10:15 AM. So the whole place lost power. That was kind of weird. But I guess it was out of their control. Just seemed to be one more thing that added to the overall disappointment.