Tilt Hotel Universal/Hollywood, an Ascend Collection Hotel — Hotel in Los Angeles

Mixed bag of feelings at this place. For the price it was alright. Significantly cheaper than surrounding hotels, but you can see and feel that price difference. At the end of our stay I really felt we should have paid to stay at the Hilton despite the price difference. It would have just been that more luxurious.

Lets talk about rooms. Rooms were a bit off. It smelled like paint a little bit. The rooms have clearly been remodeled. They looked nice but... Where... are... the... windows... Our room literally had a little shutter that looked out to an alley way with garbage and an occasional car. NOT good. Especially since we were not made aware of this what so ever. All the images online show windows. Clearly they dont want you to know it feels dark and a little bit like a prison. No carpet floors, very grey and red in our room. However the rooms were clean which was good. The hotel is built at the bottom of a VERY steep hill/mountain. So a part of the hotel is technically under the ground. And those rooms dont have windows. 4 rooms down, a room had nice windows. But ours not so much. Bed was comfy and blankets were good. An issue I had is that the AC was really loud. We could turn it down to the lowest of 70 and it would run really loud. We left it on Auto and it would wake us up in our sleep. Its not a window fan (Cant be since some of these rooms dont have windows...) its a built in wall AC. Also most of the outlets didnt work. I would plug in my charger and it wouldnt stick. Just would fall out. We had to move the lamps and charge from them since they actually worked and stayed in the wall. Really annoying. The walls in the room were thin too. I could hear everything going on... unless the AC was on of course.

Another disappointment was the pool. MAN. I was really looking forward to swimming in a pool but this one was so tiny. Really really tiny. So much smaller than the pictures. Its indoors and old. That needs to be renovated. I didn't really want to go swimming in it which killed some of my excitement. One of the main reasons why I would have rather stayed at the Hilton.

The walk to Universal isnt that far. Its not complicated to get there either. Just cross the street and keep walking until you find Universal Studios Blvd and cross the bridge. However after the bridge it is a but of a steep hill. Take that into account because my husband and I did not. Its steep so be prepared. Bring water. After that you head into the E.T. Garage on the right side and follow signs for Universal City Walk and park.

Now staff. They were alright. The guy who checked us in was SUPER quiet. I couldn't hear a word he said. My husband kept asking him the same questions over and over until we understood what he was saying. There was also one night were front desk called us... AT 10:30 PM??? To ask if i owned a white car. I do. I called them back after hanging up and asked them what was going on and it had something to do with my parking tag. It was sitting on the front dash like the rest of the nights. Then he asked if it was a Toyota and I said no its Volkswagen Tiguan... Like what? Did he just assume my white car was the Toyota? Why didnt he ask that in the first place? There were at least 5 white cars there. Nothing became of it but it was still really strange to me. House keeping was great. They always came by and cleaned things up for us and brought new towels. 10/10.

There also isnt a kitchen or bar. I would have liked to have a drink or two. Breakfast also really is just a small snack. A bagel and maybe muffin. No kitchen so don't expect any breakfast food besides what would come packaged. 30 minutes before

Overall, I wouldnt stay here again if I wasnt on a budget. Like i said, I wish my husband and I spent an extra 500 staying at a nicer place. Its fine for the quailty. My issue is that the place feels like its trying to be upscale. But its not. Laundry machines out of order, drink machine out of order. Most outlets in the room didnt work... The building doesnt feel run down its...

Overall, we are giving our experience a 2/5.

First impression: the horrid smell. It’s heavily perfumed when you walk in. So much so, you can smell it in the covered parking garage. I look forward to the clean typical hotel smell, but that was not here. I don’t know if it is their cleaning product or an air freshener, but it is way too potent. If you are sensitive to fragrance, I do not recommend staying here at all because that smell is also in the rooms. It never eases up.

The elevator smelled of cigarettes and urine, like the kind you smell in an alley on a hot day. We were there during the LA storm, so it shouldn’t have smelled like that.

Then we got to our room, and the floors made you feel like your socks/feet are wet. Like instead of cleaning, they put down a disinfectant and leave it? Our feet became sticky and dirty within minutes of being in the room.

After our 3-night stay, the room was so damp (even with ac running to try and dry things out), that clothing items and belongings were musty and stank.

I agree with other reviews that the beds are very firm. Not a problem for all. My husband quite liked it. My kids loved the pillows. I can’t rate them poorly for a firm mattress. That’s preference.

The bathroom was moldy in the grout. The curtain also had moldy patches. Our floor towel actually turned black in spots from the moldy bits wiping onto it.

We registered with 4 people, and we were only supplied 3 towels. When we asked for more, we were told they didn’t have any. For 3 nights. We did eventually get another towel, but they could not get us more washcloths. That’s pretty gross.

Our coffee maker stopped working on our final morning. While I was down there to report that, another woman came down asking for a hair dryer because hers wasn’t working. They didn’t give her a hair dryer, and I had to grab coffee from the lobby to take up since they didn’t do anything about the machine. We also needed coffee for our room, as we were only given decaf for our room upon arrival. When I asked for more, it was as if I was putting the front desk employee out.

I do want to clarify that the employee who checked us in was kind and personable. The other person seemed to be annoyed with any restock request.

This hotel isn’t cheap. We get that it is marketed as being near universal, but it is quite expensive considering the amenities. You have to pay for parking, you have to drive or walk to the park (no shuttle provided. To be fair, they make that clear when you book with them), and there is no breakfast included.

We knew those things when we booked, but for the price and ‘hotel’ title, we expected it to be cleaner. We expected kinder staff interactions. We certainly expected it to not smell so bad that our luggage needed airing out. The lobby looked make-shift. Trash cans always full, storage room always open and messy, sticky lobby floors, stuff piled behind the bar counter. It wasn’t $200+ level of care.

Final, less important thoughts: the theme of the hotel is cute, but it isn’t done with purpose. When we first arrived, its entrance is a bit hidden, so be careful not to miss your turn. It’s supposed to look like a movie theatre, yet when we tried to ask a question through the garage window (like a ticket sales window), the employee frustratedly gestured us to come inside. What’s the point?

Positives: the water pressure is fantastic. Best out of hotels I’ve ever stayed in. The juice is the lobby was a nice addition. Good restaurants within walking distance. Traffic light making driving out of the hotel easier. I actually felt the areas was pretty safe. While loud from very nearby traffic, I felt safe...

DO NOT STAY HERE. I was walked in on by house keeping as I was naked and the staff isn't taking this as serious as they should be.

I stayed at this hotel for 3 nights and 4 days and I had no complaints up until the day of check out. I had roughly 30-40 minutes left for my checkout time and my partner and I were finishing up getting ready for check out. Our bags were packed and ready to go, but I still needed to shower for the day, so as my partner was taking our things to our car, I decided to take a quick shower, as I knew I still had time. My shower was running and I was alone when I heard a knock on my room door. I thought it was my partner, since we had our "DO NOT DISTURB" sign posted and maybe he had forgotten the room key, so I stepped out to unlock the door, but since I thought it was him, I didn't feel the need to grab anything to cover myself with. I was simply going to tell him not to come in until I was back in the restroom, but as I stepped out of the restroom, the housekeeper was already a step in to my hotel room with the door wide open, so she saw me fully exposed. I quickly ran to grab a towel and I went out in the hall to find and catch her name to report her, but she was no where to be found, so that tells me she was hiding. I've never had an incident like this happen to me at a hotel, especially when I have a " DO NOT DISTURB" sign posted. It's basic hotel etiquette to not walk in or interrupt guests when that sign is posted on the door, even when the time is close to check out. I also don't understand why the housekeeper would even step inside if there's a shower running??! You can absolutely hear it from outside of the door, so I know for a fact that this wasn't a full accident.

When I spoke to the person at check out, he was kind enough to hear me out thoroughly and issued a parking fee refund, but I want more than the $82 parking fee back for being disrespected and violated the way that I was. I called again to ask when I could speak to a manager and I understand if there's no set day that a manager is on site, but the clerk I spoke to named Alam, was disrespectful and consistently interrupted me while I tried to speak and answer his questions about what had happened to me. He informed me that they can't issue any refund since our payments go through a third party resource who pays them for our stays, but there was no type of additional information given to me in regards to any type of policy in the case that these incidents occur. He shortly, with a nasty attitude, said to call Monday-Friday in the mornings if I wanted to catch a manager.

This hotel has TERRIBLE customer service and I'm absolutely disgusted and traumatized by these events that have occurred. No one, absolutely NO ONE, should be walked in on the way that I was. You never know people's ill intentions and luckily I wasn't physically assaulted, but what if the next time this occurs to someone else, it goes down that route? To an adult or even worse, a minor? Please, save yourself the trauma and stay at other hotels. There are plenty nearby and more that I'm sure are better than this place. I will be looking into potentially filing a police report on the staff member who walked in on me and no, I won't be taking this review down because people need to know how the staff decides to treat these serious incidents.

Have the day that...