Thursday, June 21, 2007

Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel

In May, my friend Jenny came out to visit. After spending a few days in my sleepy beach town, we decided to head up to LA for a night out.


We started out the day by hitting up the garment district to pick up a few purses. Whenever you go shopping there you have to look like hell so that you can barter for lower prices. So Jenny & I head up to LA in sweats, tank tops and baseball caps all in an effort to blend in and look as poor as possible. Believe it or not, this does come into play later...


After spending some time at the garment district, we decided to go and check into our hotel room for the night. We are responsible girls who do not drink and drive. Jenny had always wanted to stay at the Roosevelt Hotel because it has so much Hollywood history and is a very trendy place to hang out. Here is where the fun begins....


We arrive at the ridiculously priced Hotel at around 4 pm for check in. Mind you, we originally requested a 1.30 check in and was told this would not be a problem. After waiting in the reception line (for what seemed like ages) we were informed that our room would not be ready for another HOUR. Not to mention, they didn't give us the room we originally booked even though it was reserved. Apparently, reservations at this place are not really valid seeing as the other 2 people checking in had gotten screwed too. The receptionist told us that she would call us as soon as the room was cleaned. With nothing else to do, we walked down Hollywood Boulevard (looking like hell on earth) waiting for the call to come in. We are not off to a good start here.


After an hour of aimless wandering and a bit of shopping, we headed back to the hotel to try and get into our room. We got the keys and couldn't wait - this was the most expensive hotel I've ever stayed in and was expecting a lot. This is what it looked like - the bed:


The bathroom:


The only thing missing from these photos would be the front door and a the mirrored wall opposite the bed. The design of the room was just OK but all of the concrete in the restroom made it feel like a prison. Not quite what I was expecting when the room rate is over $700/night. Here is a view of the pool and Tropicana Bar from our balcony:

By the time that we got checked in, it was time to get ready to go for dinner. Jenny had made reservations at Parc where we had a good meal and great people watching - including a few celebrities. After dinner we walked back to our hotel which was just a few short blocks away. Of course we had to stop by some stars and hand prints along the way...




Once back at our hotel we changed clothes and headed down to the Tropicana Bar. The place was packed and we had a great time. We made our way into a couple of roped off areas and we even crashed some guys birthday party. He was nice....



The next morning when Jenny went to check out she was presented with a bill for over $400 from the Tropicana Bar. Apparently, someone was charging all of their shots, drinks and food to our hotel room. When Jenny tried to fight the charge they were total jerks about it! Long story short, they charged over $2000 to Jenny's card and it 5 phone calls, two bank reversals and a whole lot of yelling to get it fixed. Unbelievable!


I think at some point we were asked not to snap structural photos but considering how hellish the whole stay was, I'm posting these just to piss'em off. Enjoy!


Playing A Little Bit Of Catch Up...

Life is busy.
I'm sure that we can all attest to that but I really have to ask - what happened to May 16th -June 21st? It's all a distant memory at this point and I'll see if I can catch you up to speed here. I guess the easiest way to tackle this is going to be in the form of several smaller blogs so I don't overwhelm myself.....here goes nothing!