Review of Highland Gardens Hotel 2*

I love an old hotel that has been updated/modernized for a very unique living experience. Highland Gardens looked the part from the outside, but inside of our room was not so great. My direct observations and experience: The ONLY convenient thing about this hotel is that it’s one block up from Hollywood Boulevard, in an area that can probably be considered the bottom of Hollywood Hills. This hotel is NOT handicap accessible. There is no elevator in this hotel. The only balcony areas belong to the rooms around the pool area — basically, all of the rooms in the front of the hotel facing Franklin Ave are considered “low cost” rooms. When I arrived in the evening of my check-in date, there was no one at the front desk and no bell to ring for service — I had to walk around the first floor yelling until someone showed up to check us in. No big deal, though, considering employees need breaks…. Customer service wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t the worst either. The phone in our room did not work. The clock in our room did not work. The lamp shade on one of the lamps had holes in it, and was dirty. The dresser in the room was also damaged. The chairs were very old, and slightly damaged. The shower was a little worse than a shower in a run down college dorm, less roomy actually because it was standing room only. The parking underneath the hotel was not lit at all, so the safety is questionable. In the lobby and breakfast corners you could hear the customers having conversations amongst each other about their dissatisfaction with the room. In fact, my Mom had a conversation with one of the guests about the room — they, along with us, felt duped. I would even go as far as saying this hotel’s listings on these hotel/travel booking websites for this hotel is simply false advertising. When confronting management, the manager (Jack) insisted that the advertising pics for this hotel actually were pics of rooms in the hotel, just not pics of the room that we stayed in, and that the room we were stayed in is one of the “low cost” rooms — implying that because we only paid $200 a night for a “low cost” room, we deserved a room with a tiny shower, poor lighting, damaged furniture and lamps, a phone and clock that did not work at all…a bunch of bullshit, basically. Most troubling is that the phone that did not work — fortunately we are a family equipped with cell phones and American service providers — hopefully the many international guests had cell phones that could be used in America. If you value hotel room comfort during your vacation, and if you are planning to go to Los Angeles any time soon, then I highly recommend you do not stay at Highland Gardens, or anywhere in Hollywood to be honest.