Hotel Reviews
Looking for a posh SoCal hotel to spend a romantic weekend or a decent place to park the in-laws? Check out these looks at lodgings by Times hotel reviewer Valli Herman.
July 6, 2008
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * *
The new eco-friendly Hotel Palomar is luxuriously green
IT USED to be a sign of quality if a hotel replaced your bath soap and sheets every day. But in this era of melting ice caps and dying oceans, the paradigm of luxury includes an element of social responsibility that makes those niceties seem wasteful.
June 29, 2008
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * *
London West Hollywood: Sunset Strip swank in the works
How can you not like a hotel that has as its symbolic hospitality ambassador the stubby, stalwart and sweet English bulldog?
June 8, 2008
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * * 1/2
Casa del Mar elegant -- and pricey -- in Santa Monica
THE GIST
May 11, 2008
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * *
San Diego's Hyatt Regency Mission Bay Spa and Marina
As vacation approaches, parents everywhere are trying to figure out how to have a little fun for themselves while the kids drag them through theme parks and to crowded beaches.
April 13, 2008
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * *
Pool-centric Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa emerges from a makeover
Like those misguided victims on extreme makeover TV shows, so many hotels and resorts these days are renovating themselves into properties that have been "improved" beyond recognition. Happily, after a $35-million makeover, Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa in Rancho Mirage has emerged carefully refreshed -- and you can hardly see the scars.
March 30, 2008
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * *
San Diego's Hard Rock Hotel goes with the formula
It's been billed as a parable of successful urban revitalization, a testament to the strength of branding and a pretty groovy place to crash.
March 16, 2008
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * *
Palihouse Holloway flunks the long-weekend test
When your wanderlust, occupation or toxic remodeling project causes you to uproot, chances are you're landing in limbo, a.k.a. temporary housing.
March 2, 2008
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * *
Thompson Beverly Hills Hotel shines at night
You've met this guy. He's well-dressed, bounces mostly between New York and Los Angeles, knows everyone. And he won't shut up.
February 17, 2008
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * 1/2
Seeking more TLC at Palm Springs' Colony Palms Hotel
If you're not careful these days, you can fall victim to a mind-altering infection. I call it the Price Perception Plague. It has already made consumers of wine, fine art, spa treatments and designer fashion think a high price equals great quality. I found the latest outbreak at the 56-room Colony Palms Hotel in Palm Springs.
January 27, 2008
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * *
Palazzzzzzzzzo
As a city that has set trends for entertainment, shopping, fine dining, hotel and spa design, Vegas hit a turning point last weekend with the opening of the Palazzo Las Vegas.
January 6, 2008
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * 1/2
Park Los Angeles visitors at the Westside's Orlando hotel
Now that you're practicing all those New Year's resolutions, here's one to add: Book visiting relatives into a hotel.
December 16, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * * * 1/2
Grand Del Mar in San Diego offers old-world grandeur
Just when you thought the era of palatial hotels had ended with the robber barons, along comes the Grand Del Mar, a 2-month-old resort, golf course, spa and great big guilty pleasure. Enjoying the near-decadent levels of luxury made me question my commitment to democratic ideals.
November 25, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * 1/2
The Malibu Beach Inn's renovation leaves room for improvement
The fires that swept through Malibu last month may be the last time the middle classes get to stay at the colony's newest luxury lodging.
November 11, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * 1/2
Mod makeover for W Los Angeles-Westwood Hotel
I couldn't resist him, sitting there alluringly in the sultry darkness of the W Los Angeles-Westwood. He was small, dark and handsome, and I just had to put my fingers all over him. But then he froze and refused to issue a single word.
October 28, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * 1/2
Spring break in October at the Desert Springs in Palm Desert
After a 125-mile drive across arid terrain from Los Angeles to Palm Desert, a tropical anomaly rises on the horizon. It's Desert Springs, the vast JW Marriott resort that defies the local climate and appears instead to be a misplaced slice of the Everglades.
October 14, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * *
Made-over Beverly Hilton stars in a sequel of its own
Heads were turning toward the collection of car candy parked along the Beverly Hilton's driveway one recent evening. The valets lined up a Rolls Royce with custom rims, a rare Spyker and a pair of exotic Bentleys. But a nearly 5-year-old Ford got the best spot: Valets apparently sensed the soul of the turquoise Thunderbird convertible, the remake of the 1955 classic.
September 30, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * *
Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey still in its awkward years
Like teenagers everywhere, the 17-year-old Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey is working on its identity. It's tough getting attention when you're a child of the Southern California Ritz family. The historic property in Pasadena basks in its matriarchal role, while the Laguna Niguel resort is a golden girl of the California coast. Worse, new babies are on the way downtown and in Rancho Mirage.
September 16, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * *
Checking in to the Oceana, a Southern California fantasy
Maybe it's because L.A.'s the town that movies built, but lately, hotels across Southern California seem less like lodgings and more like film sets.
August 19, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: *
A toss and turn for the worse at Laguna BeachÂ’s Surf & Sand
How much would you pay for a view?
August 5, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * *
Mrs. Parker's hipster circle
It's 102 degrees in the shade on a late July afternoon, but the staff at the Parker Palm Springs is just beginning to feel the real heat -- the kind that comes with exposure. In a few hours, the first of six episodes of "Welcome to the Parker," a reality TV show, will be broadcast on Bravo.
July 22, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * *
Makeover adds upscale perks to Lake Arrowhead Resort & Spa
When the winds or rains are just right, the mountain ranges of Southern California come into view and tempt us to travel their winding roads. Yet our reward for twisting and turning up those two-lane alpine highways too often is a rustic lodge with amenities as rough-hewn as the splintery timbers that frame the walls.
July 8, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * *
Luxury at Carlsbad's La Costa resort is all in a day's work — yours
Luxury hotels are supposed to be places where people like my great-aunts could have thrived. They were so pampered, according to family lore, that they would walk into doors if someone wasn't steps ahead holding the portal open.
June 24, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * * *
Newport Beach's Island Hotel high on hospitality
Sometimes you just have to stop and smell the flowers. Good thing I did, because the pristine blossom in my room at the Island Hotel in Newport Beach wasn't some cheap imitation but a specimen so perfect that it looked fake.
June 10, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * *
San Diego's Keating Hotel looks slick but sputters
I've never had the urge to switch the TV channel to NASCAR races, but I was at the Keating, San Diego's new high-concept hotel, and needed to hear the roar of engines to complete the experience.
May 27, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * * *
Luxury and elegance at the Four Seasons Resort the Biltmore Santa Barbara
Take a deep, deep breath. Smell that? It's a combination of ocean breeze, rose petals and money — lots and lots of money.
May 13, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * *
Makeover on the marina in Redondo Beach
For a middle-aged gal, she's looking pretty good. At 45, the Portofino Hotel & Yacht Club has emerged from a yearlong, $11-million makeover that has put this Redondo Beach inn back into competition with the other beach babes.
April 29, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * * *
Ojai Valley Inn & Spa: Shangri-La, not la-di-da
With lusciously decorated rooms that start at $400 a night, a championship golf course, an every-treatment-possible spa and an adults-only gourmet restaurant, the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa doesn't, at first, seem like the kind of place you'd take your brood for a family vacation.
April 15, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * *
Huntley Hotel: A '70s vibe on Santa Monica Beach
Not too long from now, we're going to laugh that we ever thought deep shag carpets, low tables carved from wood chunks and white leather chairs were the epitome of cool. Wait, we did that already ... in the 1970s. And yet they're back, and they're all over the Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica.
April 1, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * * 1/2
At Westlake Village Four Seasons, luxury spa meets medical clinic
I've discovered rehab lite.
March 18, 2007
HOTEL REVIEW | RATING: * * * *
US Grant Hotel, a Belle Epoque beauty in San Diego
Before I was ushered into the elevator at the US Grant near downtown's Gaslamp Quarter, the bellman asked me to gaze at the lobby floor. There, beneath a small, square plaque, lay the contents of a new time capsule containing parts of the hotel's 96-year history.
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