Ocean Drive Villas — Hotel in Hollywood

There's a reason the French Canadians love this place. Immaculately clean, spacious and recently renovated rooms with a contemporary flair and lots of beautiful tilework. Nice outdoor common areas, some covered, along with relaxing lounge chairs -- and even shuffleboard, make outdoor living a delight. Added to this are convivial staff who are attentive and friendly, especially Eureka, who is a trained chef! Compared to other places in Hollywood, with tiny front rooms and even tinier kitchens, the 1 bedroom unit #8 provided generous space for our family of three to spread out (and more than enough closets to store suitcases and gear). We locked our three bikes to piping behind a building out of sight, but seemingly quite secure.

My family's stay at Ocean Drive Villas put us but a minute's walk to the main beach area and world-famous Hollywood Broadwalk. Every morning, I took a long walk with my coffee after watching the sunrise, then dine al fresco on one of their tables with my family, followed by a long bike ride on the Broadwalk. The only drawback to the location, especially on the weekend, is that it might get a little noisy during the day; Hollywood, however, is NOT SoBe (South Beach), so once the sun goes down, it's chill time.

For longer-staying guests with a car, parking is a must, either on site or just across the street. The co-owner Veronika made sure we always had a spot. Since we were there on business and staying about a month, we prepared 100-percent of our meals (we write cookbooks) in our well stocked kitchen (we're farmers, so we brought our own produce from Wisconsin!). Appliances worked well and IKEA dishes, pots and saute pan (not some junk from Wal-Mart) were ideal for our use. When we needed to use an oven (our particular unit #8 did not have one), Eureka let us know when we could roast our winter squash in a vacant room between guests. The whole Hollywood Beach area, with it's narrow passageways and white buildings, reminded me so much of Santorini or the French Riviera. It was fun being in this middle of this scene.

Verdict: There's no need to speak French to love this place and settle in like it's your spacious beach nook away from home, whether there on business...

For the love of all things....DO NOT STAY HERE... JUST DON'T, IT'S NOT WORTH A DIME OR THE TIME FOR DEBATING IT.

I have NEVER had an experience so awful. The rooms were so gross and questionable. Even being right off the beach the amount of filth was unacceptable. There was so much hair and debris from the previous guest I couldn't get comfortable. The edges of every wall, counter space etc, was just years of disgust built up. When we first arrived there was not a single person on property and no parking available in the small 5 space area they have on the side of the building so we had to park across the street. If no person is working on the property when you arrive, you will not be provided with a parking pass or note to assure your car won't get towed. We actually called the tow company ourselves to be sure we wouldn't be towed. This was after almost 35 failed attempts to reach an actual person that worked at the hotel. Someone did answer a couple of times but after they said hello, they stopped responding. The next day when we went to the front desk we finally found a living soul who worked there. She was an angry one though as she was already arguing with someone over the phone when we walked in. We explained to her the issue we were having with the parking and and the room and she could care less on top of act like she didn't have time for the complaint. We simply wanted a park pass so we wouldn't be towed. Also, if you choose to park on the street, just to park for 24 hours is $72. So if there is no empty space provided by the "hotel" you will be paying a nice penny for a space. My family and I had a reservation for the following weekend with the same hotel but ended up forfeited our stay and any money we lost on the reservation because it was too late to cancel. We ended up staying at a hotel down the road and were immediately happy we did so.

If you stay in this hotel and you arrive after 5 pm, you will be left on your own to figure things out and if there is a problem, not a single person will be there to guide you either. I'm sorry I booked at this excuse for a hotel but wanted to absolutely WARN anyone before booking here....

Ok let me tell you bout my experience .. I reserved a room here because it was my husband's first experience here .. first that yanna is useless .. not customer service at all ... Rude as hell .. so we got in early like 930 am and I have always dropped off my luggage so then we could go swim until we can check in .. which we did .. I paid for a Luxury room she gave me a standard room .. was mad about that but I was too scared to say anything because these people are Russian .. anyways we got our room and everyone else's room got cleaned but ours .. yanna told us we had to pay to get our room cleaned after she knew we are staying for 7 days .. iam used to getting my room cleaned new towels every day .. nope we had to ask her every day for towels and beach towels .. why ?? Not professional at all .. and NO TOILET PAPER .. we had to go to town to get toilet paper .. they didn't seem true and good people to me .. it was the worst experience I ever had and I'll never stay at this place ever again .. I didn't feel safe at this place .. cops were called on a guy next to our room .. who knows why .. the only thing Great about this place is the location .. very close to beach .. later on our last day my husband asked her may I borrow this broom ? She said yes but hesitated and why because I think she was trying to charge me to clean my room .. but didn't .. I don't know what kind of place they are running there .. but they had a cleaning lady and didn't do our room .. all them good reviews are made up on that website .. probably her family .. don't go on these reviews only Google ... I am so glad to be home now .. there's other places we looked into that would be very Happy we rented from them .. Thank you Cindy from Michigan one more thing she gave us the key pad number to our room and it did not work.. only the key so that leads me to think she gave everyone's key pad numbers to everyone's room .. so...