Desert hotel in dire need of an update

Regarding “Old Hollywood’s Shadow Falls on Palm Desert” [Weekend Escape, Jan. 18]: The Mojave in Palm Desert is not 1940s-esque; it is 1940s for real.

The rooms have a 1940s-style heater and air conditioner added to the middle of the wall. If you stay there in the winter, you must suffer being cold until the unit heats the room, which takes two to three hours, then listen to the noisy unit heating the room all night. Although I had the misfortune to stay in the winter, I would imagine it is the same in the summer.

Also, the complimentary breakfast tasted as if it had been there since 1940.

All of this might be acceptable had the rates reflected the 1940s, not 2004.

Deborah S. Kravitz

Sherman Oaks