I dropped some hints about staying at the W Hollywood in my post about whether you would still stay here after receiving an emailed warning from the hotel prior to our check-in:

On weekends, W Hollywood is a high energy, adult environment. If you’re looking to live large, you’ve come to the right place. If you prefer a quiet environment or are traveling with children, we suggest you stay at one of our sister properties. Contact us at 323-798-1332 for assistance. You won’t be charged for a cancellation fee within 48 hours of receiving this letter. 

Even though we’re not known for living large, we still decided to stay at the hotel for the same reason we picked it in the first place, it was in the PERFECT location for the main reason of our trip.

If you haven’t already figured it out, we’re slightly obsessed with the show Hamilton as evidenced by our NYC trip, and Chicago trip. Having the American Express Platinum card helped us score tickets in the past but this time Sharon was ready the day tickets in Los Angeles went on sale and grabbed a pair for the day before we were coming home from our Southwest trip. Since our trip to Hollywood was centered around seeing Hamilton, it made sense that we booked the hotel across the street from the theater where it was playing.

It also helped that the W Hollywood is only two blocks from another Hollywood place I wanted to visit ever since I heard about it, the Scum and Villany Cantina (there will be more about that in an upcoming post).

So, knowing we’d probably be the old people at this hotel, we sucked up what was left of our pride and got into the Uber to sit in LA traffic to get to the hotel.

W Hollywood
6250 Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood, CA, 90028

This was our first stay at a W Hotel. The brand has a design aesthetic that people seem to either love or hate. On first impression, it was a little too over the top for us but not overly garish. It was stylish but still held back a bit so it was tastefully done.

When looking for information about the rooms before booking the hotel, I found plenty of bloggers writing about how they were upgraded to a “Marvelous Suite” or “Fantastic Suite” but very little about the base level room. As it turns out, a lowly Gold Starwood Preferred Guest member, like myself, gets exactly the room that was paid for, a base level “Wonderful Room.”

PRICE

Cash rates for this hotel when I was looking were going for around $300 a night, which turns out to be $350 once you figure in the taxes. This is a SPG category 6 hotel and costs between 20,000 – 25,000 points per night. Rooms during our stay were 20,000 points. That’s a lot of points but I wasn’t looking  to pay $700 for a two night stay so I booked an award stay. I know that some will question paying 40,000 points for a two night stay but this WAS the perfect hotel for our stay and what good are points if you’re always afraid to use them.

PICTURES

The W Hollywood is a 305 room hotel built in 2010, located right on Hollywood Blvd., a half block away from the corner of Hollywood and Vine.

The lobby is located directly inside the hotel entry (the hotel has dual entries, one from Hollywood Blvd. and the other on the back side of the hotel for the valet and taxi stand).

Just off the lobby is the Living Room area with the bar off to the left.

We were checked in promptly and given the keys to our room, a Wonderful Room with king bed located on the 8th floor on the back side of the hotel (away from the construction noise, as he told us). Our room was about 2/3 the way down the hallway from the elevator.

The room had one king size bed and two night stands and four pillows, so we were off to a good start.

I do need to mention that next to a Japanese ryokan (where we slept on the floor), this was the LOWEST bed I’ve even slept on. Even Sharon mentioned “Did they forget the box spring?” when she saw it. Despite appearances, it was a comfortable bed, just low (Note from Sharon: I thought it was a terrific height. It was wonderful to not have to literally climb into the bed!).

The desk area was functional, with a desk and a rolling chair.

There was also a multi-plug outlet, but the placement made it impossible to plug in a power brick. Good thing we brought our power strip with us. The room also included ONE bottle of Dasani, complimentary to SPG Gold members. I’m glad they spent the $0.99 cents to thank me for my loyalty. The Smartwater 1L bottles in the room were $5 each.

The bathroom was where the W Hollywood showed off its design flair. The room was tastefully done with white marble and a textured feature above the toilet. The lighting around the mirror was a nice touch.

The room also had a large walk in shower, that had a watertight seal so that there were no puddles on the floor after you finished.

The strange thing was a partially frosted glass panel which faced right into the bedroom. I guess this is for people who want to “bring the party” but I just thought it seemed a little creepy. I’m just glad they didn’t discriminate because both Sharon and I could peek in while the other was showering.

After settling into the room, we headed to the outside bar on the ground floor. we chose the welcome drinks instead of the extra points. With drinks going for $15+ each at the bar, I figured this would be a good value. There are two outside bars (only one was open when we visited) and the tables and couches have servers taking your drink orders. In the evening, they have several fire pits they light as well as a fireplace. It was a comfortable place to relax even though it was steps from Hollywood Blvd.

When we returned to the hotel after dinner, the vibe had changed somewhat. The Living Room area (the caps are intentional – that’s the name of the area) had music playing but we were tired and went right to the elevators to our room. When we were walking down the hall to our room, we were following another male guest who had each arm around a female “friend” who were wearing mini-mini skirts. They ended up going into the room directly across the hall from us (which I see from the hotel floor plan I posted above, was one of the hotel’s suites). I guess that’s the type of party the hotel was warning us about but since it was only three of them in the room, I guess that’s totally acceptable.

I went to take pictures of the Living Room at night to see how “crazy” the hotel was.

As it turned out, the rowdiest ones in the lobby were the 10 year old children running around the couches, bouncing to the music. The rest of the guests were either eating or looking at their phones. Not the type of party I was thinking about based on the warning. On Saturday night, there were several groups of millennials (or whatever we call the young people now) in the hotel elevators, trying to get to the rooftop bar. Hotel security was on every floor to inform them they had to go to the lobby and wait in line outside the hotel for the one elevator with access. I thought this was a great policy and the hotel is obviously taking the past problems of noise and in-room parties seriously.

We did hear noise coming from several rooms as we walked down the hall on both nights but nothing more than we’ve heard in other hotels. Once we entered our room, we didn’t hear any other noise. It was actually one of the quietest rooms we had all trip.

FINAL THOUGHTS

We spent a lot of Starpoints to stay at this hotel for two nights because it was in the perfect location. We didn’t regret our decision to stay at the hotel. In the end, our fears about the noise and party atmosphere were unfounded and Sharon and I both agree that the hotel might have exaggerated a bit, maybe to keep away those who would complain. The rooms were large, nicely decorated, and quiet. I’ve avoided staying at W Hotels before because I thought they weren’t our scene. After staying at one, I’d do so again under the correct circumstances. I’m just not going to go out of my way to stay there.

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