A look at a King Suite at the Andaz West Hollywood

We published a full review of the Andaz West Hollywood in the not too distant past, so I’m not going to go over old ground. That review, however, covered a King Bed Sunset Boulevard View room, so as I recently saw the inside of one of the property’s suites, a short(ish) companion piece seems in order.

The suites (in general)

The Andaz West Hollywood has a number of suite types but the differences between most of them aren’t very big, so what you see in this article should be very close to (if not exactly the same) as whatever suite you book or are upgraded into at this property.

The key thing to note is that all but three or four of the hotel’s suites sit one above another at either end of the property – one column of suites facing south and west and the other column facing south and east.

The higher the floor, the better the view, but the suites which sit on the east side of the hotel are better than their counterparts on the other side.

The suites on the west side mostly have their southerly view obstructed by the Sun Rose Hotel (once called the Pendry West Hollywood) and on bin collection days, these suites can catch some of the noise coming from the access road that sits directly below.

The suites on the east side have less obstructed views (some will see the sunrise over Downtown) and don’t have the access road issue.

Andaz West Hollywood King suite

This particular suite is located on the “better side” and so faces south and east.

Upon opening the door, this is the first view that you see.

And as you enter, you’ll find yourself in the suite’s relaxation/sitting area which is furnished with a high table (with stools), an L-shaped sofa, a coffee table, a floor lamp, a long cabinet (with drawers, mini fridge and coffee maker) and a flat screen TV.

It has been a long time since this suite has seen a makeover and, frankly, this area shows it most.

The furniture looks tired and old and is not in keeping with a hotel that thinks of itself as “cool”. In fact, the only thing even vaguely cool about this part of the suite is some of the artwork on the walls.

Attached to this area, however, is my favorite part of the suite – the “sunroom”.

This is an area enclosed on three sides by floor-to-ceiling windows where you’ll find a couple of armchairs (with footstools) looking out over the Sunset Strip.

In keeping with all of the other furniture in this suite, the armchairs aren’t particularly good quality (they’re upholstered in some kind of wipe-down fabric), but they’re comfortable enough and that makes this a very nice area to relax or to get some work done.

For those of you wondering how these “sunrooms” came to be here (every room facing Sunset Boulevard has one), these were once the hotel’s balconies which were made famous during the building’s “Riot Hyatt” days.

When the property was renovated in 2008 and rebranded as the Andaz West Hollywood, the balconies were closed in with the floor-to-ceiling you see in the images above and the sunrooms were born.

Anyway, back to the suite itself …

All of these King Suites stretch the whole depth of the building (from the back to the front) and they take up approximately 800 sq ft (~74sqm), so they’re very big. The sitting area and the sunroom sit towards the front of the suite, the bedroom sits at the back and the en suite bathroom sits towards the middle.

When you open the door that divides the sitting area from the bedroom, this is the view that you see.

On the left is a closet next to a cabinet with drawers.

Then comes a large mirror (see above) and then the main sleeping area.

The sleeping area is spacious, the closet is a good size, and the drawers are very useful, but the lack of any kind of bedside table is a little annoying.

There’s a ledge that also acts as a headboard and there are double power outlets on either side of the bed, but there’s very little space to actually put anything that you want to keep within reach once you’re in bed.

A further annoyance is the floor level lighting which switches on if it senses even the slightest movement. If you happen to get up in the night and haven’t blocked the lights with a cushion or a bag, they’re likely to wake up anyone else sharing the room.

Once again, there’s nothing premium in here and the furniture looks its age, but there’s definitely a lot of space and, to give the property a bit of credit, the bed is comfortable and the blackout blinds on the window do a great job of plunging the room into darkness.

Moving on …

The en suite bathroom is the most modern part of the suite and that’s because I’m reasonably sure that it has had a makeover at some point in the past ten years.

There’s a large walk-in shower cubicle with rain shower.

There’s a double vanity unit and a full-size tub.

And there’s a separate small room for a toilet and a hand basin.

This room can be accessed from the rest of the bathroom or from a door leading from the sitting area.

The bathroom is the only area of the suite that has a genuine premium feel to it. There may be a little too much patterned marble here (although not quite as much as you’ll find at the Grosvenor House JW Marriott in London), but the black (granite?) countertops and the plain white sinks and tub look good. More importantly, they’re also functional so they do the job they’re required to do.

The water pressure in the shower isn’t the best, but that’s down to California’s water preservation measures and nothing to do with the property, so I can’t really complain about that.

Final thoughts

The King and the Queen suites at the Andaz West Hollywood are in need of some TLC as they’re really showing their age. The bathrooms aside, the furniture looks cheap, old and dated and it doesn’t live up to the image the property is trying to portray.

These are suites that you book for their size and the space they give you, not because of any luxuries or features that they offer.

In fairness to the property, you can often book one of these suites for under $500 (+ taxes and rip-off destination fee) per night, and by Los Angeles/West Hollywood standards, that’s very cheap for an 800 sq ft room, so it seems like the Andaz knows that these rooms are in urgent need of refurbishment.

Obviously that’s not going to be of much comfort to anyone who books without doing their research, but that’s why more people should be reading articles like this one 🙂

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