The Prospect Hollywood
The best hotels understand that the key to capturing repeat guests is to capture an idealized spirit of the location outside. The Prospect Hollywood imagines a luxurious version of the heyday of Los Angeles in the 1930s, and each room feels like its own quiet boudoir stashed amid the clamor of Hollywood's streets. This intimate cluster of buildings was built in 1939—the same year that Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz were released—as a tiny apartment complex, and in its individually designed rooms, all of them conceived with pops of color and hints of splendor, it's easy to imagine yourself transported to those days. In this residential neighborhood, Hollywood Boulevard is just two blocks south.
With just 24 rooms, staff can remain professionally on top of things, mixing cocktails on demand (rooms also have pocket wet bars) and parking guest cars (there's only valet parking; no self-parking on site). Most of all, though, the Prospect Hollywood feels like a comfortable cocoon. Its bricked courtyard beneath soaring palms and century-old apartment towers (pictured below), distinguished by a fountain and a fire pit, feels like Old California itself. Most rooms, having been apartments in a previous life, have plenty of space.
When you arrive back to the Prospect after a long day in a crazy city, the sense of privacy and community brings you calmly back to earth, and your living quarters (antique-style phones, lucite four-poster beds, gold-leaf ceilings, modern TVs with relaxation channels, and lots of other plush touches) have much more panache than your own back home. (These images are of Room 17, on the second floor; no elevator.) Guests are also granted free access to the co-working space NeueHouse, a mile away.
There's no pool, but the location is a perk of its own. From its front door, you can easily walk to a solid list of Hollywood's best attractions, including the Dolby Theatre, the Chinese Theatre, the Hollywood Bowl, the Pantages Theatre, Musso and Frank's Restaurant, the Walk of Stars, and the Red Line of the Metro, which travels to North Hollywood/Universal City and Downtown, and so will save you from having to battle Los Angeles traffic and parking every day.
When you imagine what a solid boutique hotel should look and feel like, The Prospect Hollywood plays the role well.
The best hotels understand that the key to capturing repeat guests is to capture an idealized spirit of the location outside. The Prospect Hollywood imagines a luxurious version of the heyday of Los Angeles in the 1930s, and each room feels like its own quiet boudoir stashed amid the clamor of Hollywood's streets. This intimate cluster of buildings was built in 1939—the same year that Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz were released—as a tiny apartment complex, and in its individually designed rooms, all of them conceived with pops of color and hints of splendor, it's easy to imagine yourself transported to those days. In this residential neighborhood, Hollywood Boulevard is just two blocks south.
With just 24 rooms, staff can remain professionally on top of things, mixing cocktails on demand (rooms also have pocket wet bars) and parking guest cars (there's only valet parking; no self-parking on site). Most of all, though, the Prospect Hollywood feels like a comfortable cocoon. Its bricked courtyard beneath soaring palms and century-old apartment towers (pictured below), distinguished by a fountain and a fire pit, feels like Old California itself. Most rooms, having been apartments in a previous life, have plenty of space.
When you arrive back to the Prospect after a long day in a crazy city, the sense of privacy and community brings you calmly back to earth, and your living quarters (antique-style phones, lucite four-poster beds, gold-leaf ceilings, modern TVs with relaxation channels, and lots of other plush touches) have much more panache than your own back home. (These images are of Room 17, on the second floor; no elevator.) Guests are also granted free access to the co-working space NeueHouse, a mile away.
There's no pool, but the location is a perk of its own. From its front door, you can easily walk to a solid list of Hollywood's best attractions, including the Dolby Theatre, the Chinese Theatre, the Hollywood Bowl, the Pantages Theatre, Musso and Frank's Restaurant, the Walk of Stars, and the Red Line of the Metro, which travels to North Hollywood/Universal City and Downtown, and so will save you from having to battle Los Angeles traffic and parking every day.
When you imagine what a solid boutique hotel should look and feel like, The Prospect Hollywood plays the role well.
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