Susan in LaLa Land — First Impressions of the Wilshire Grand

important note: an ARLIS member stayed at this hotel with a fellow worker & did not get a room as nice as the one I had. Looking at the rate sheet, she probably got a "standard" room & not an "executive" one. Be aware that if you are going to share with more than one person, you might want to spend the extra $24/night.

Probably more than you ever wanted to know ... but if you are one of those who wants to know what to expect read on. Of course all of this is based on my preferences -- there is no accouting for taste is there?

The Neighborhood

• Walking? I can't speak to this because I didn't do it, but from my window I could see a RobinsonMay department store and something that calls itself "International Food Court."
• Driving: going east on Wilshire, take the first right after the 110. If you are on the 110, take the 6th St./Wilshire exit, go east, and you are right there. The valet parking isn't in front of the hotel, but on that first right, and then a left into the garage just before the next corner. This can take some time if it is rush hour. $20 if you are staying here includes in & out privleges, but that means you have to tip each time you want to see your car. If you are not staying here, parking is $22 per day.

Registration

Slow, but what else is new. Behind the desk is a truly awful mural with different squares showing different sites in California. Some are realistically right on, some are realistically awful! With any luck, you'll be registering at the same time as 20 of your closest friends so you won't have to stare at it the way I did. The good part is that even though it was an hour before check-in time, they let me have a room right away, and let me stay a bit after check-out time at noon.

The Room

My single room wasn't available yet so they gave me a double room. If you'll be sharing with someone, you will be happy. I don't know if all the doubles are like this, but this one is *huge* -- I've seen smaller suites! Two full sized beds, a couch, two side chairs, two bathrooms, two closets, desk, mini bar & vanity area. You could comfortably share with three people, but the third person wouldn't have a bathroom or a closet.

The beds are comfortable (firm) as are the pillows. Decor is in the brown, beige, dark gray realm, and there are lots of lamps. If you travel with electronic toys, the outlet by the desk has a surge protector with plenty of empty sockets for computers & such. Other extras include a coffee maker (tea bags, but we tea drinkers never get a pot that really boils water), iron and ironing board. Drawer space is limited, but each bed comes with its own luggage rack. No more racing to the room before your roommate to get the only one.

I had a do not disturb sign up, but I did overhear that if you don't have the sign up, your bed is turned down and you get a piece of chocolate. Next time I'm going for the chocolate and not worry about the mess in my room.

The one complaint is that the TV would be puny sized in a normal size room -- in a "deluxe" double, it was almost useless. For junk TV devotees like me, there was no Nick or A&E, but they did include HBO. Have you ever noticed that when you go somewhere where there is HBO nothing you want to see is on the schedule?

The Bathrooms

I'm remodeling both my bathrooms right now, so talk about a ton of details ... but to me this is the true sign of a hotel's quality. And these pass nicely because the tub is real cast iron/porcelain and not one of those fiberglass horrors. The walls & floor are completely tiled in a truly ugly color of beige, but the real problem is they tend to be slippery -- be careful here. Both bathrooms have full baths & showers. The only other potential problem here is if you want support bars near the toilet and in the shower -- these rooms are not equipped -- be sure to specify if you want "handicapped" enabled rooms.

The details: the towels are thick, plentiful & 100% cotton. Only one has the hair dryer phone, scale and magnifying mirror, but you have to be taller than Sherman to be able to use that mirror, so no big deal. And I'd rather not have the bathroom with the scale, thank you. I travel with my own soaps & shampoos, so I didn't try theirs, but they look nicer than usual & come in ginseng & comfry flavors.

Food & drink

For the caffein cravers, there is a mini-"espresso bar" in the City Grill.

Hotel Restaurants: generic American, Japanese, Korean and Italian. Note: very little is available that is specifically vegetarian and almost no dishes available for vegans except for the Japanes restaurant. There is an "International Food Court" across the street, but I wasn't there and can't comment on it. The salads in the American restaurant (the only one I had time to eat in) were very good and contained tomatoes that actually had taste.

Room service: Dinner gets rolled in on a cart and is served nicely, but avoid the tasteless pizza at all costs. Salad was good, as were the rolls.

Staff

The staff is one of the nicest I've seen in a hotel in a long time. Everyone from the housekeepers to the waiters to the concierge was friendly and greeted me. It was a very pleasant experience.

The Business Center:
You can hook your laptop up to the Internet for $2/15 minutes. I couldn't get mine to work with the name server, so they didn't charge me. My kind of staff. Since we will have an internet room, this shouldn't be a big problem.

The Bottom Line?

This will be a nice hotel to be in for ARLIS/NA 2001. The elevators come quickly, and there are enough of them (remember conference where that wasn't true?), and again the attitude of the staff makes this a very pleasant place to stay.

If there's something you are interested in that wasn't mentioned, send me email & I'll try to answer.

last updated 11.6.00