El Patio Inn — Hotel in Los Angeles

The EL Patio is here to get your money, and they get it any way they can. I had a horrendous experience at this motel. I don’t like the fact that I am about to lead into what they may interpret as trash talk, I assure you I am being completely honest. This was a bad experience and I solely blame the way this place is run and cared for. My reaction is completely justified, and I write this now to protect others from falling into this trap.||Recently, the electricity was shut off at my apartment for a few days. One of those days, my partner and I decided we wanted to stay at a small hotel for the evening. We live nearby the El Patio, and we thought it looked kinda cute on the outside. It looks like an older motel, set back on a rectangular lot. ||They advertised having a free breakfast online which helped sell me on renting the room there, but after my credit card had cleared, and I received my non refundable room booking confirmation, in the fine print it stated that this rental did not include breakfast. False advertising if you ask me. ||Check in is at 3pm and check out time is 11am which is not a bad time for check out, but the people who run the El Patio, were knocking at our unit door at around 10:20 to see if we were done with the room yet. It wasn’t done in a friendly way. ||There is a sign in the office that states that they can charge up to $300 for a deposit which is well over the amount that all amenities present are worth. The deposit is not given back at check out, they hang onto it for three to seven days. During those three to seven days it’s to be assumed they detail your room after you leave and decide how much to take out of it. ||My singular experience of this process wasn’t a great one. ||They did take money out of the deposit, even though everything was left in the same condition when we arrived and charging people $50 to $75 for a small spot on the cheapest thinnest towels I’ve ever seen, is the complete opposite of what a hotel is supposed to be offering. ||Hospitality and relaxation are two wonderful things good hotels provide, this is definitely a motel, that even other reviewers have reviewed being hostile, cheap, overpriced, and uninviting.||The rooms are maybe 300 square feet with two uncomfortable queen sized beds or a king bed, all with a uncomfortable thin polyester comforter and two small cheap unfluffy pillows, a small cheap table with two equally cheap flimsy looking chairs, single night stand and a very cheap and smaller lcd television hooked to the wall. || The television has weak sound and is not a smart tv, the model is very dated but does have hdmi hook ups available for your devices or computer. ||There are three WiFi signals for each side of the hotel lot and all three signals are described on my computer as ‘weak risky insecure signals.’ After a few minutes of using their signal, I disconnected due to slowness, signal brown outs and the worry of security of my devices and used my own cell signal instead. ||The air conditioning unit was barely doing its job, leaving the room muggy. ||The curtains are roman blind style covered with cheap vinyl and cotton curtains. There is an additional window with privacy glass in the closet area. ||The room style screamed only three words; budget, cheap, and uninteresting. It reminded me of a convent with less style. It was not well cleaned, you could see evidence of food and debri in every corner and under the bed was a nightmare realm of dust bunnies. ||All rooms are non smoking. If they catch you smoking you forfeit the entire deposit.||There was a ceiling fan making a lot of noise, and the main light was the brightest unflattering fluorescent lighting I’ve seen in any hotel. ||There was a small sconce with two much better less abrasive light bulbs between the beds, above one shared nightstand for all in the room. None of the lights were dimmable. ||Outside the bathroom is a small closet area with a small fridge and a microwave on top of it.||There isn’t any real style, unless you count ‘budget’ as a style. ||Most rooms at the El Patio include a small ‘recently’ remodeled bathroom with an enclosed shower, sink, mirror and trash can. The paint was peeling in the bathroom, the shower was super slow draining, meaning we were ankle deep in water during the entire shower. ||The bathroom had one tube of shampoo, one small bar of hard soap, no conditioner, no body lotion. ||Their towels are some of the worst quality I’ve ever come across in my travels and apparently very important to this motel. ||During check in they have you initial several clauses in your rental agreement, one that states they will keep a part of or all of your deposit if they find any ‘spots’ or ‘dark spots’ on their towels or bed sheets. ||They even say not to use the towels to clean the bathroom floor. ||Did I mention that I’ve seen higher quality towels at the 99 cents store? I have. ||The extra clauses in the rental agreement were no joke and I’m sure added as an extra way of getting more money out of their guests and less of a protective measure. ||It was shocking and unfortunate to find out they took a good portion of our deposit because of what they claim were unusable towels and we seriously didn’t do anything to deserve that. ||This is my main point of why I will not be going back as I understand that a budget motel is a situation in which you get what you pay for most of the time. ||It’s when they get more out of you than you originally booked for that defines the integrity of the location. No one likes being told they owe money from their deposit, but it’s much worse when the deposit is used as a means for extracting more money from unsuspecting guests on a budget. ||The attitude of the people who run this place was my first warning signal that I was not in a good establishment. They were fully unwilling to help or accommodate me with anything I asked for and extremely focused on getting the deposit and having me sign their contract. ||My mother taught me that hospitality should always be given to everyone regardless of what they look like or what they do. I am always hospitable to every guest in my home, and I hold the same standards for businesses especially hotels. ||There are several hotels on Ventura Blvd, I suggest you choose another one and read as many recent reviews as you can to make your decision. ||Much love and respect, and safe...

By saying this place was horrible is a compliment. I was looking for a resonae place to stay for me and my children near Universal Studios and for $150.00 a night I figured it would be ok. I read all the reviews which can't be real. Immediately when I arrived I knew I had made a mistake. I looked at the room and immediately asked to be refunded. Of course I was told that was impossible. The management lives in the office in two small rooms filled with clutter and dirt. There was a young girl I assume to be the daughter of someone in management who while we were getting our bags from the car walked freely in and out of our room holding prescription bottles. It was truly uncomfortable. When my 7 yr old son looked at this place he actually asked to sleep in the car. I was horrified to stay there but didn't have a choice. The mirrors in the bathroom were filthy with brown stains that couldn't be removed where you could barely see into them. The towels were old and scrappy. We were very afraid to shower. The "free wifi" didn't reach our room saw hick was only three rooms away from the office so if you wanted to use wifi you would have to sit outside the office to catch their signal. But the worst part is the BED BUGS!!!! I saw a small big crawling on the wall but not being familiar with these bugs I didn't know for sure but I took a picture just in case and partially my ignorance had me believing these things would only be on beds. WRONG! The day after my kids slept in the second bed they were bitten everywhere. My sons back was bumpy and itchy as well as my son and daughters arms and hands. Since I had already checked out before we knew what this was once I called the Hotel to inform them they denied it all and said they didn't have them. Liars liars liars! They were rude and had no compassion to what we were experiencing as a result of the infestation in their Hotel. The manager gave me the number to a corporate which turned out to be a fax machine. What's the worst of it all is despite all our efforts in trying not to bring these things home yes they are here. I have spent money on sprays and an exterminator. My kids can't even stay home. What was supposed to be a good vacation turned out to be a nightmare only because of this place. I can't sleep. I'm horrified of things crawling on me. I have constant bites and I'm now going thru trying to remove these things from my home. I don't have allot of clutter so I just want to throw everything I have away. Where I tried to save money staying here I am only spending more and then some plus my peace of mind now dealing with these bugs and nothing not even an apology from this place. My advise is it may seem worth it to save a penny here but DONT DO IT!!!! The worst experience I have ever had in my life. I am paying for staying there everyday and it's a...

Great location, but terrible customer service, sleazy business practices, and mold in the shower.

El Patio Inn is in the perfect spot and they’re banking on it. I reserved the room about 2 months in advance. I received a voicemail the week before I arrived, asking to confirm my arrival time (they don’t have front desk after 9pm) and informing me of a pre-authorization charge on my card. Sure, despite me planning to arrive at 4pm, I called them back.

I show up and the front desk guy said they canceled my reservation themselves because I didn’t respond to their email/voicemail asking me to confirm my arrival time. Wtf. I showed him my phone displaying their number and exact time I called back. He said “9 days ago?! That’s a long time. Since you didn’t contact us in the last 3 days, we didn’t know if you’d come and we cancel your reservation.”

He said it’s a busy weekend (Halloween Horror Night at Universal) and they want to sell the room in case I don’t show up. What a sleazy practice. No other hotel has ever done this.

Their cancelation policy says they charge full price if I don’t show up. They already had a $100 pre-authorization hold on my bank account. Why is this an issue? Because they want to double dip on the room or force you to upgrade. They hope you don’t show up so they can charge you full price and still rent the room to someone else. If you do show up, they force you to pay for an upgrade.

What a sleazy business.

After telling him I want a room for the agreed upon price, he texted someone for permission. Their boss said no, I can pay for the upgrade or find another hotel. I asked for their boss’s name, he said “I can’t give you that information.” After asking 4 more times for a supervisor, he eventually wrote down “Syed” and the hotel’s generic email address.

After I threatened to leave a bad review, he said “that’s fine” and smiled. They know they’ll always have customers due to their great location. So I paid for the upgrade because I was losing out on time at Universal Studios.

The room itself was fine. I didn’t spend much time in it. When I took a shower in the morning, there was pink mold in the grout, and black mold around the shower door and drain. I know this is a semi-cheap motel, but mold shouldn’t exist in any capacity. Their “it’s a 2 star hotel, you have 5 star expectations” defense doesn’t work with basic health standards.

I went to inform someone about it during check out, but they don’t have anyone at front desk in the mornings—it’s self check out.

This hotel is unprofessional, moldy, and has sleazy business practices. The only way they are staying in business is because of how close they are to Universal Studios—and...