happytrailstoyou

If you have stayed in any of these hotels, I would like to know your opinion of them.

We have the option of booking a standard room at the Crowne Plaza, a studio with kitchen and breakfast at the Residence Inn, or a room with a grand view at the Tower Hotel.

Any opinions?

Jean

I've worked in Beverly Hills (California) for 30 years, and I'm not familiar with these hotels. Do you have addresses?

happytrailstoyou

Thanks, Jean.

Tower Hotel, 1224 South Beverwil Drive
Residence Inn, 1177 South Beverly Drive
Crowne Plaza, 1150 South Beverly Drive

HTTY

Jean

OK, now I know what you're talking about. Yes, technically they all have a Beverly Hills address, but walk across one street from any one of the three and you're in the city of L.A.

All three have changed owners and names several times over the past few years. I don't know if that's good or bad. One of them, probably the Residence Inn, is in a building that was a hospital in a previous life. The hospital closed, and the building was re-purposed several years ago.

The Tower Hotel was most recently a Loew's Hotel and before that the sister hotel of a San Francisco boutique hotel. It has the best location of the three you list. Although busy Pico Boulevard passes by the front of the property, a nice residential area is at the back. I'm not sure what the "grand view" would be of, but as the hotel is at a higher position it might be possible to see the exterior sound stages of 20th Century Fox. The view north is Century City, Beverly Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains. The view south is residential for several miles (other than the supermarket across the street). There used to be a well-regarded restaurant in this hotel, but I don't know whether that is currently the case.

happytrailstoyou

Thanks for the interesting information about these hotels.

According to the Tower Hotel web site, some rooms have this view: Located on the upper level floors, these guestrooms are highlighted by views of the surrounding Los Angeles skyline. From your private, furnished balcony, you can see downtown L.A., across the horizon to the air-traffic control tower at LAX, and the wooded greens of the Rancho Park Golf Course.

I knew these properties are on the fringe of Beverly Hills. Is the area like that in the 1998 Alan Arkin movie, "The Slums of Beverly Hills"?

Jean

That would be the view to the south ... on a clear day.

"The Slums of BH" film reference would be closer to the area of the Crowne Plaza and Residence Inn. The area around the Tower is very nice.

happytrailstoyou

Thanks, Jean, for your informed answers.

Do you know a good Thai restaurant for lunch in Beverly Hills. It doesn't have to be fancy--just good.

Also, we are looking for places to eat light dinners, such as an entree salad, fish tacos, a salad and pasta, an omelet, or other light fare?

joesorce

Residence Inn is great if you don't have a car, since they'll shuttle you anywhere in a 5 mile radius. The hotel gets good reviews but has no pool.
Crowne Plaza sits off by itself, without a car you wouldn't enjoy your stay unless you don't mind hopping the bus EVERYWHERE.

Jean

I happened to drive past all three hotels on my home from work today. I still like the area around the Tower Hotel the best. The Residence Inn shares a large intersection with a car wash, gas station and bank. It looks nice but still reminds me of the hospital it used to be.

All three hotels are a half mile from an area of Beverly Drive, between Olympic and Wilshire, that contains many moderately-priced restaurants and cafes.

For Thai, you'll need to drive:

Natalee
998 South Robertson (near Olympic)
310-855-9380
[loud]

Talesai
9198 Olympic Boulevard (near Oakhurst)
310-271-9345
[a bit pricey]

Tuk Tuk Thai
8875 West Pico Boulevard (betwn. Doheny and Robertson)
310-860-1872
[dependable, a bit romantic]

Nearby, not Thai:

John O'Groats
10516 West Pico Blvd. (just west of Rancho Park)
310-204-0692
[excellent breakfast, very good lunch and dinner, moderate prices, long waits on weekends]

happytrailstoyou

Jean,

We ended up staying at Residence Inn because (1) it is highly rated on TripAdvisor and (2) we had a one-night free deal through Hertz.

The location is, as you said, not very good, but what isn't obvious is that most of the rooms face a narrow, uninteresting court yard. I had an extremely unpleasant experience dealing with a woman named Ashley who claimed to be the manager. The breakfast is good, but the staff is inadequate to handle the crowds. The best thing about the hotel is great valet service.

We had a very good dinner at Natalee, which, fortunately, wasn't too noisy when we were there.

Jean

Well, free is free. Can't argue with free. I was afraid I'd been too biased in my view of the respective locations of each hotel. Glad you had a nice meal at Natalee, but I think you got lucky on the noise level.

Cheers.

Surfergirl

When it was a hospital, it didn't need much of a view. Most people weren't in a position to get out of bed and look out! It also houses a lot of the local band "people" (i.e. roadies, lighting, sound, etc) coming in for rock concerts.

happytrailstoyou

With regard to location--The Tower was about a block away, and we found that if we made a couple right turns when going out the front door of Residence Inn we would find ourselves in a pleasant residental neighborhood.

Exploring various walking routes from Beverly Drive, one morning we walked past The Avalon Hotel and went inside to check it out. Nice.