I spent Sunday night at the W Los Angeles in Westwood.

It’s a nice hotel and I had no problem getting an upgrade. All rooms are supposedly suites, but the standard room is a 350 square foot offering that they call a one room suite. To my mind that doesn’t qualify, so fortunately they offered me something that does.

It’s a W so the lobby is a hip lounge, though not too active on a Sunday night.

The pool area must be a scene most of the time, but the was unseasonably cold even for February so it was more or less deserted with only one person on a lounge chair and only one cabana occupied.

The W was guilty of one of my major hotel pet peeves. They didn’t do a turn down service. Information in the room says to call if you want it. I do want it, it’s a wonderful thing to come back to the room and have the stereo on a nice classical music station and perhaps a complimentary bottle of water by the bed. But I don’t like to call for it, I feel rather petty.

I’ve seen the notice to call for turndown service before. I’ve never called, but they’ve always done it anyway. Not here. Small issue, perhaps, but it’s those little things that add up to an overall experience.

The W was a decent enough place to stay, but too many small things gone wrong.

• The tub in my suite had a slow drain, so water backed while taking a shower. I did let them know at checkout, but it wasn’t worth waiting to shower to have them fix it during my one-night stay.
  

• The elevators are really quite slow, long wait times despite the hotel not being busy at all. Other guests complained at the elevator of the same thing throughout their stays.
  

• The front desk always had a line, there’s not enough staff (and occasionally staff milling about around the desk but not helping guests).
  

• I had a question about the high-speed internet and called down, they promised me a call back from engineering. No call ever came. Fortunately I figured out the problem on my own.
  

  Speaking of high-speed internet, I’m beginning to be bothered by nicer hotels that claim to be Wired no less that don’t offer wireless connectivity in the guest rooms. (And as an aside, it’s my biggest complaint about the soon-to-open Westin Arlington Gateway.) A wireless router can be had free after rebate often enough, how hard can this be? And with wired internet, why can’t they offer a decent-sized cord? (Though there’s an extension cord for sale in the minibar. Heh.)
  

  
  I’m going to finally break down and buy a small router for travel. I can’t believe I haven’t done so before now.

Breakfast in the restaurant was fairly good (though service somewhat indifferent, it took a long time to get the check and then it had items on it I neither ordered nor received).

The real bright spot was waking up at 5 am and calling down for coffee. They had a pot at my door within 5 minutes. They asked whether I wanted cream for the coffee, I told them half and half and soy milk and that’s what they brought me — almost instantly.

More photos after the break…

Garden/walkway to pool

Pool

Bathroom

Living room

Bedroom