If this hotel were cleaner and updated with relatively new room furniture, it could actually be kind of fun, if what you are looking for is an eccentric, retro hotel in LA. As is, the place feels like your weird uncle's, if he were a cheap, dirty, chain smoking swinger from the '60s.
We stayed at this place on our way to San Francisco from San Diego. All the other hotels in LA were booked at the time, likely because Obama was in town fundraising. What enticed me about the place was the pictures of the half-sized olympic pool with deck chairs around it. But, trust me, the pictures are misleading.
When my wife an I arrived, I was told that I wouldn't get a smoke-free room, because I had booked through a third party. Arguing was pointless, I soon discovered. The staff promised to provide an air purifier, but it never came.
The enticing pool was made useless by about 40 splashing teenagers, who must have been there as part of a school or church field trip. They wouldn't have bothered me, but my wife was really looking forward to relaxing poolside. Apparently the pool is open to the public as well, which doesn't surprise me.
What's most disappointing about this place is that, when it opened 50 years ago, it surely was a lot of fun. But it is in disrepair and poorly managed.The rooms are tired and unclean, at least ours was. The mattress was spongy, the furniture was nicked and scuffed on the edges, the carpet was worn and stained in spots, and the whole place wreaked.
It's the kind of place where as a guest you are forced to make tough decisions like whether to sleep in your clothes, because the room feels icky and would likely blow up if a blacklight were illuminated in it, and whether to leave your balconey door open, because you want to breathe freely but don't want to be robbed while you sleep. (See other reviews for stories about nocturnal theft and bedbugs.)
Do yourself a favor and skip this place, unless you want a colorful story about that time you stayed at the Sportsmen's Lodge in LA.
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