Los Angeles: The Standard Hollywood – A substandard experience

The first couple of days in Los Angeles, we stayed at The Standard on Sunset Blvd. I had really been looking forward to stay at The Standard, as this is where the girls from SATC check in, when they visit LA in season 3. I think my reasoning was that if the hotel were good enough for Carrie B, it would definitely be good enough for me, so even though the online reviews I could find were a bit so-so, my expectations were still sky high.

After leaving the car at the valet out front, we walked into a super hip lobby, with cool features such as a guy in a glass cage and some really streamlined cactuses. The reception staff was friendly, and since we had made the reservation in advance, it didn’t take long before we were handed our key cards and could start walking towards our room. Unfortunately, from this point, everything fell flat.

Our room turned out to be one of the worst in the entire hotel. It was down a long dark corridor, and we had the Sunset Boulevard traffic thundering right outside. In addition, the room was almost below street level, so it was pitch dark, even in the middle of the day.

Yes, I know very well that there will always be less attractive rooms (and somebody has to stay there), and that we could have paid a little more for one of the pool-facing rooms, but man! That room just sucked! However, we only stayed at The Standard  for 2 nights, and the rest of the trip, we were blessed by the hotel gods (we got upgraded to a suite at Mondrian!), so I shouldn’t complain.