Alsace Living LA — Hotel in Los Angeles

dear CIM and fellow travelers,

i recently stayed for a week at your amazing hotel. so for context, i owned and GM'd the rose hotel in venice CA which was voted a top 10 hotspot in the world by vogue, top 60 hotspot in the world by conde nast traveler, and a host of "best of LA" awards which are too tedious to list (it includes the new york times, so there's one!). also, my little cousin Amaury is the executive chef at Le Meurice in Paris which is a two star restaurant (it's an abomination that it doesn't have three, because he is a sorcerer in the kitchen), and he is Alain Ducasse's golden child (i hope i don't have to tell you who he is!)......i've also consulted on many 5 star hotels like the st. regis, the sofitel legend and the ATH in panama city, and offered my services to donald free of charge because i love him....etc.....all this to say that i feel i may know a thing or two about hospitality!!!

soooo......the good; donald the GM is amazing, warm, friendly, looks like a movie star, and is the hardest working GM i've ever seen except for myself. he's receptive to feedback and runs a tight ship. he's a fantastic asset to your team (though could use a little polish on his luxury language, but hopefully if he's read my extensive document on the subject, he'll be up to speed in no time!!).

everything you touch, feel, and listen to should feel like the concept of the hotel; the hotel exterior seems to be a bit of baja cool with a splash of wes anderson (this is a good thing!). the colour palette is soothing and deserty, it's quiet, the music is subtle and oozes "the alsace", the crowd are cool but not in a "cool" way, just chilled back and curious just how i liked my guests at the rose to be. it's important that when the guest first arrives at the front desk the host is the last barrier between their hell travel and luxury, and they should also reflect the concept of the hotel. by and large this was achieved with the AMAZING nancy (may i suggest you give her a promotion and a raise!), mixed with the laid back and quirky vibe of evan and josh. cindy however we'll get back to later. they were also super helpful and friendly and by the end of the stay (even with abel) i felt we were family, which is what a hotel is supposed to be.....a "home away from home". the rooms are immaculate; super clean, and easy on the eye with no bells and whistles, the fridge looks cool, the showers are great...all this is fantastic. you could probably use a kitchen, but with the excellent chulita next door and a plethora of delicious restaurants up the street, maybe it's not necessary. it's great that you serve boxed water. good for you and good for the planet....and there's an abundance of it on demand.

the bad: i have never EVER been spoken to in 35 years going to luxury hotels all over the world from bora bora, to shanghai, to seoul, to new york, to bangkok, to paris, to the seychelles, to l'ile maurice, to panama, to st. barths, to jamaica,....etc etc how i was spoken to by your front desk manager cindy. i won't go into details, but the term is that it was an "abomination". i was in a state of shock days. what made it worse is that she did it in front of nancy (you can ask her for her version), who is a member of her staff as she's supposed to be the front desk manager and leading by example. how is nancy supposed to learn how to speak to guests with a manager like that? if this had happened at the rose, she'd have been fired on the spot

i have really nothing but great things to say about "the alsace" (except being from the basque region in france and living in mexico, it's pronounced "al's ass" or "alz ass" and not "alz ace"...but each to their own i guess, at least nancy after 100 tries got it right....love you nancy!).

this is what a hotel is supposed to be like. it's a little treasure, and having sold the rose in 2019 have been looking for "my" hotel......and after 5 years of wandering lost staying at establishments like "the proper" for my "home away from home", i've found it.

it's A GEM....

I decided to stay here for our anniversary trip and it was literally the worst decision I made. I stayed between August 11-14, and I’ve spent so much time talking to their managers(specifically Christina and Conner) about their incorrect listing and fraudulent charges and I’m still wasting time after getting home.||||This newer hotel is clean and nicely made in an up and coming part of town, and the staff besides Christina and Conner are great, but the service received from Christina and Conner was just abysmal.||||They had free parking listed on their google page, I booked through a third party(Agoda) and that also mentioned parking included included in the price, but they didn’t want to honor that even though they pulled up both google and agoda on their computer and saw the same thing. They got super defensive and did not want to take ownership regarding their google page, and basically said that they ‘have no control over that’. They said that they’ll not charge me for night 1’s parking, but if I wanted to park for the rest of my stay they’d charge me. So night 2 I parked on the street a couple of blocks away.||||On day 3, Christina told me she spoke to the owner and they’ll honor free parking I was like ok, they rectified their mistake even though I dealt with poor service from them, they were not apologetic about it, and failed to mention this to me the day before. Oh, they were also very quick to change the google listing to show paid parking under their amenities as opposed to free parking like it was the day before. Somehow they gained control over that overnight? I have screenshot of everything below.||||After getting home the next day(today), I saw a new charge from the hotel. I ended up having to deal with Christina again over the phone and she told me it was for the minibar. I luckily took photos when I checked in, and also took photos when I checked out, but she insists that I consumed items even though the photos show time and date stamps and is again, not apologetic at all. How am I supposed to know what items are supposed to be there and in what quantity? I mentioned to her that I was able to check in early on the 11th since the room was ready, maybe housekeeping never got around to restocking from the previous guests but still implied that I was lying and that I consumed them. I told her I’ll dispute it with my credit card since it is a fraudulent charge and she said “that’s your choice”.||||EDIT:||I just spoke to her again, and she told me since they took care of parking they expect me to honor the mini bar charges? And that she does not want to waste her time anymore and i should take it up my credit card company and hung up on me while i was mid sentence. I had asked for a photo with a timestamp of the minibar supposedly stocked before my check in because she said that the housekeeping manager has records of everything on an ipad. She could not provide me a timestamped photo like I did and has decided to just show how terrible of a manager she is, once again. I hope the owner of this hotel sees this review and takes proper action.||||Moral of the story, don’t stay here unless you feel like just spending money for no reason. I spent about $700 for 3 nights, not included the parking and minibar charges that are on...

I'd describe Alsace as 'fine', particularly if you're just using it as a base to explore. If you want a 'boutique' hotel that adds to your experience in LA, I'd look elsewhere, as I wouldn't qualify this as boutique.

I am generally not too fussy but, having now stayed, and having traveled a lot, I am a bit surprised by some of the more positive reviews, so thought I'd add some notes I think are useful to anyone like me trying to work out if Alsace is for them.

The best part is the location (with caveats). It's a good spot between Culver and WeHo, with a few really nice restaurants, but isn't a place you'd otherwise hang out or walkaround.

The room decor is nice, it's clear there was vision, but the maintenance isn't the most thorough and lets it down i.e. there was thick dust on top of the mirror (that I see because I am tall), and the sink overflow drain was dirty etc. Just little things that indicate standards have slipped.

The room layout is also a bit odd - mine had the bed as the first thing you encounter upon entering, leaving it next to the corridor. The walls/ soundproofing isn't the best, but on par with other hotels that struggle here. Being close to the corridor means even somewhat noisy guests walking down with bags will disrupt quiet sleepers.

I stayed in a terraced room with a view of the hills, but I wouldn't say it was worth the additional cost. The terrace has very basic furniture that doesn't make it a place you want to hang out.

Front desk were friendly, but don't expect a sense of 'above and beyond'. I emailed them on my way there about potential concerns about my check-in (due to forgetting a physical bank card, which some hotels requrie for deposit - totally my stupid mistake). I'd say the response amounted to 'that's your problem'. When I got there we did manage to find a solution, which was great, but that could've been shared earlier to alleviate stress.

There's no proper breakfast available - a few pastries out on the side by the lift (that I'd avoid) and a pod coffee machine. I'd seen other reviews mention a continental, but I was never directed to this.

The hotel positions itself as boutique, but the general overall lack of service, comforts, or standards means it feels closer to a motel than a hotel.

I was also charged for mini bar snacks I didn't take. I've questioned this with the hotel, and it's been ignored. This mistake happens, it's a few dollars and it's fine. I wouldn't normally even bring it up with them if other things had been fine. But it's a silly mistake that leaves another negative...