W Los Angeles - West Beverly Hills Review: What To REALLY Expect If You Stay (2024)

Hotel Class:Upscale

The W Los Angeles-West Beverly Hills isreally in Westwood, and is a hip hotel with a California party vibe in a quietresidential area near UCLA. The W offers guests a taste of Southern California glam with the Backyard, an enormous outdoor restaurant and bar thatfeels intimate and tucked away, with lovely landscaping, including lush palmsand a rocky waterfall. The Backyard offers a variety of seating areas,including cushioned banquettes, a chic covered bar area, long tables that areperfect for groups, and a tented dining room. The Backyard even offers a superfancy dog menu, for dogs who enjoy a power lunch. The adjacent pool area, byceleb designer Thom Filicia, features private cabanas with rugs, sofas, andflat-screen TVs, sprawling white daybeds positioned around the small freeformpool, and ranks of stylish lounge chairs with tables for resting co*cktails.Relaxing poolside “Blissages” are available to relieve the excess tension.

TheW’s lobby is high energy and modern, with tall banquettes in silver andcomplementary blue chairs and sofas, bright throw pillows, egg chairs, and coolcoffee tables. The chandeliers are huge and mod, and the walls are hungwith big and splashy modern paintings. The overall effect is sexy, particularlyat night, when the cool lighting comes into play. The Living Room Bar serves alight menu and signature co*cktails with a live DJ. For guests who want amore substantial meal, there is STK LA, a hip modern take on a traditionalsteakhouse, with circular white leather booths and lots of gold and black trim. Even the businesscenter is a little over the top, with lots of gold, large conference tables, sofas, and chairs on swings, and workstations that face the windows and palm treesoutside. The vibe is young, hip, andhigh-energy, whether guests are coming for business or pleasure.

The W's biggest drawback -- and it's not much of one -- is the one thing it can't control: itslocation. Clean, safe, but somewhat staid Westwood is a fine base for exploring other parts of L.A., and you'll probably have a car no matter where you stay, but if you're not in town for something taking place at UCLA, there's little reason to actively seek out this part of town. If youarein town to conduct business or celebration at UCLA, there isn't a lot of choice nearby anyway.(As you'd expect, the W tends to fill up for graduation, parents' weekend, and during alumni-related events, so keep those dates in mind when you book.)

The 297 rooms start at 400 square feet and come in a variety of categories with superlative names thatinclude, in order of luxury: Wonderful, Fantastic, Spectacular, Fabulous, Mega,and EWow (for Extreme Wow). Decor features gauzy curtains,impressionistic palm trees on the walls, tasteful carpeting, and lots of glass.Each room has a large, glass-topped work desk with a white Eames office chair(and plenty of outlets for electronics). Beds are either king- or queen-size,with pillow-top mattresses. Whimsical accent pillows say "Dream" on the back and are flipped over at turndown service.

Bathrooms are modern and chic; some rooms havelarge, luxurious, glassed-in showers; others have freestanding soaking tubs andseparate showers. Some rooms have no dresser drawers and scant closet space. The walls tend to bethin, so light sleepers may want to bring earplugs. In addition, the outdoor barsand downstairs event spaces can be noisy in the evenings; higher floors arequieter and offer better views. Hypoallergenic rooms are available uponrequest. Amenities include 42-inch flat-screen TVs with DVD/CD players, videogame consoles, iPod docks, minibars, in-room safes, and free Bliss toiletries, butthere is a daily fee for mini-fridge rental.

The W Los Angeles-West Beverly Hills features a 7,000 foot outpost of the luxe Bliss Spa, with 10 treatment rooms, a huge menu of spa services, movies at the manicure stations, and a brownie buffet. There's also a large 24-hour gym with cardio and weight machines and free weights. The hotel provides area running maps to guests who prefer to exercise outdoors. The pool is too small for laps but perfect for lounging. Yoga classes and loaner bikes are free for guests.

The W offers plenty of dining choices, including STK LA, a trendy steakhouse with a raw bar and DJ accompaniment. The lobby's Living Room Bar also has a DJ and serves small bites, including truffle popcorn and cheese plates. The Backyard is the W's outdoor restaurant and pool bar, and serves breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, and more. There's a happy hour, and once a month, the W puts on a popular concert and party called Rendition. At the end of the day, the W provides turndown service for guests' pets.