Renaissance Hollywood
 

Can anyone offer a review of the Renaissance Hollywood on N. Highland? Did it use to be a Holiday Inn?

I read somewhere that it is new construction, but that may not be correct. I haven't seen it with my own eyes -- yet.

Bruce

See
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,...446544,00.html

Here's a quotation form the article:

"They'll also have a new place to stay overnight. A four-star, $160 million
hotel adjoins the Kodak Theater, built from the shell of a onetime
semi-seedy Holiday Inn, which was gutted. Marriott's 22-story, 637-room
Renaissance Hollywood Hotel includes a stunning three-bedroom,
3,500-square-foot rooftop suite with floor-to-ceiling glass windows
spanning a 270-degree ocean/mountain panorama - $5,000 a night,
including butler (rooms for the rest of us start at $169)."

The Renaissance Hollywood Hotel isn't just a rebranded Holiday Inn. My understanding is that, for all practical purposes, it's a brand new hotel that simply makes use of some of the structure of the old Holiday Inn.

Also see http://www.renaissancehollywood.com/

[This message has been edited by Curator of Yesterland (edited 05-06-2002).]

Thanks, Curator, for the wealth of information.

I doubt that my puny little Rewards Silver card will do much good in terms of an upgrade ... but I can always dream.

I am staying at the Renaissance Hollywood right now and the silver rewards card got me an upgraded room. I highly recommend this hotel as it is my new LA hotel of choice. The rooms are very modern with cordless phones, electronic mini-fridge, highspeed access, and nice and functional furniture. The hotel location is great for hollywood nightlife and easy access to good restaurants in the new Hollywood & Highland shopping area. Don't forget to ask for your $50 bonus bucks!

Enjoy!

jmd001, I stayed at this property last week, and it is just wonderful. As TrAAveller indicated, it is now my hotel of choice in the LA-area, as well. My room looked like it was designed by Vern of Trading Spaces fame...very funky, nice furnishings. I had a quite stunning view of the LA skyline in the distance and of the Hollywood sign.

The concierge lounge is very nice, set up as self-serve; only saw an employee there during breakfast hours. I think parking was $10 self serve (no in/outs) or $13 valet (with in/out priv). There's also a nice mall connected to the hotel and the Kodak theater.

I can hardly believe the hotel was a Holiday Inn, it's completely new looking, even the architecture from the outside. It is as good as new.

Have fun!

I stayed at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel this past weekend. It's a beautiful property located adjacent to the famous Graumen's Chinese Theater. The room was very nice, clean with a clever hollywood/modern design.


The Hollywood & Highland complex is quite a sight, complete with live music on Saturday afternoons. The Hollywood Rosevelt Hotel and Pig'n Whistle bar are within a couple of blocks.

One of the best parts is that the Los Angeles Metro has a station right at the corner of Hollywood & Highland. Having ridden on half a dozen subways, this one has the most beautiful stations I've ever seen. A round-trip costs $2.70. We took it up one stop to Universal Studios and had dinner at Citywalk. You can ride all over LA. They have a map that lists sightseeing notes on their website: www.mta.net.

Hadn't been to Hollywood for a long time, but I'll return soon. And would definitely stay at this hotel again.

A nice new hotel in a very busy part of town. Much traffic connected to the Complex and parking stucture is complex keeping the theme intact. A parking maze going down 6 levels. Seperate elevators for self parking and Hotel access. Self parking is $10.00 with no in and out privaleges. $2.00 with validation for 1 1/2 hours with dinner and hotel checkin. Valet parking is $22.00 with in/out.

Rooms are nicely furnished modern art deco syle with great beds. High floors have a great view of the Los Angeles basin on a 'clear' day. Amenties are lableled BIO with Sunflower & Citrus flavor. Nice shower head with easy adjustment control. LOOONG coridors.

A surprisingly nice hotel part of the urban renewal of the area with the Movie omplex. First rate restaurants like the Grill is a nice addition. Hollywood Blvd was the center of town in the 1950-60's and before there was a Westwood or even a Beverly Hills as a destination, so to speak. Since then activities have moved Westward all the way to the beach communities.

The Farmer's Market and Los Angeles Art Museums are convenient side trips, as well as, the newer Universal Studios and City Walk by subway. The Hollywood Bowl is a nice walk for an evening concert in the summer.

I am amazed at the increased traffic throughout the area, since I moved away ten years ago.

This would be my idea of a long weekend or a mileage run to see something different. But then, I sstarted the 60's on the East end of Hollywood Blvd and knew it all the way West before moving to Santa Monica beach and the San Fernando Valley.

Happy Landings!

Stayed there for New Years Eve. One night. Took the subway from the hotel to "Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles" had dinner. Silver got me a nice room with a view. Got on one knee and got engaged. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif So of course, I think highly of the hotel.

Minor Details:
No bathrobes were in the room on arrival.

Security was checking access before they let you on the elevators (New Years?), however you could easily bypass them by walking up the grand staircase to the second floor and then grabbing an elevator.

Renaissance Hollywood rapidly deteriorating
 

I just wanted to pass along my experiences at this hotel for anyone who may be considering staying here. In the last year, I've been at this hotel for probably about 50 nights, with 15 of them this month alone.

This hotel has historically had poor high-speed Internet service (most mornings, it's nearly impossible to connect without calling the STSN people to ask for a box reset, because STSN says that the hotel did not buy enough bandwidth for all of its guests, and they have to "reset" the system when it gets confused). Calls to the front desk and the GM have not provided any noticeable improvement in service. In fact, this week I've been here for 3 days and have had to call STSN three times. This results in between 15-30 minutes of lost time each time.

Housekeeping has also gone rapidly downhill. As I type this, there are what appear to be used glasses and plates sitting in the hallway outside my room. It's been there for 36 hours. I've watched 3 members of the housekeeping staff walk by it, and I actually pointed it out to a staff member 14 hours ago. But it's still here...

The rooms are inconsistently cleaned. Both last week and this week, drinking glasses haven't been replaced. Trash cans haven't been emptied. Turn-down service occurred only 2 of 4 nights last week.

Unfortunately, I've now given up on this hotel, but wanted to pass this along in case anyone is contemplating staying here (or, with luck, had more positive experiences to share).

Deleted

[This message has been edited by socrates (edited Mar 23, 2004).]

The biggest problem for me has been the access from self parking to the Hotel via the elevators and through the 'mall' to the second floor Hotel entrance, down the hotel elevators to the first floor and checkin desk, then back to the hotel elevators to the floor the room is on.

Then the reverse to leave the Hotel back to the car parking, that is part of the Kodak entertainment center.

But a nice touch are the good restaurants, The Grill and Wolfgang Pucks. I have not been to the Travestere Italian spot. The Japanese Shabu place is so-so!

Didn't know you could do this...thanks for the tip. I have had HS Internet service in the past that was slower than carrier pigeon.
More on topic, I stayed at this property a week ago on an award certificate. Found it to be an OK property but I don't have the mattress time there that you do. The only real glitch was waiting for my valet parked car for 45 minutes...after repeatedly inquiring as to it's whereabouts.

There is another way to get to the front desk from parking, although it's still not pretty. If you park in the northeast corner of the garage (on whatever floor you park on), there is a stairwell that opens up just outside the Post Office and police station (adjacent to valet parking). From there, you can just walk inside the main entrance to the hotel lobby. Unfortunately, it doesn't work in reverse, becausde it's a one-way security door that only opens to the outside.

(Hotel staff finally removed the garbage from the hallway . . . 48 hours after it was first put there and after 4 staff notifications.)

I just stayed here last weekend and I would have to agree with the foregoing. Although I was generally pleased with the hotel for price, location, amenities and value, the housekeeping did not meet with Renaissance standards. My coffee pot was missing the filter basket (naturally not discovered until too late) and there were extraneous hairs in glasses, towels, etc. Bottles left in hallways remained there for hours.

The parking situation is a complete nightmare. In addition to what is reported in prior posts (e.g. ridiculously long walk from hotel to garage) there is a complete disconnect between the garage personnel and the hotel. I was told to self-park in the garage, but neither the bellboy nor the checkin clerk told me that I would need a special card to enter and exit the garage. When I attempted to leave the garage, I was required to pay $10 to exit. I got in a huge fight with the manager but there was nothing I could do as they told me that they didn't know anything about the Renaissance. I called for security - he was very polite but informed me that the garage was owned by the city of LA and therefore probably didn't have any arrangement with the Renaissance (Which, as noted above was incorrect). When I returned to the hotel, the night clerk provided me with the necessary garage passes and apparently comped the self-park charge.

IMO, the hotel needs to educate their entire front door staff about the parking situation as almost everyone in LA will be bringing a vehicle.