Hotels

Fancy room on Viceroy Hotel website

Last week I accompanied my BFF to LA. Her client flew us down (thank you rave-in-a-plane Virgin America) from San Francisco and put us up for three nights at the Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica, CA.

It was a lot of fun to stay at a luxury hotel, and even though I was tempted, I resisted telling the staff that I was a travel writer. So no, I didn’t get any special treatment, darn it. Next time I’m definitely going to wear a big “Online Hotel Reviewer!!!” badge.

Whist Restaurant at the Viceroy Hotel pool

The Good

• We walked in and they handed us flutes of champagne. And it was tasty stuff, not the cheap, headachey kind.
• The beds and linens were awesome, totally soft and luxurious
• The restaurant, Whist, which involves big, white vinyl club chairs set around the pool, was phenomenal. The charcuterie was delish, and I think “duck fat french fries” speaks for itself.
• The staff was charming and well meaning

Our actual room at the Viceroy Hotel

The Bad

• Why does anyone think a sliding shutter is an adequate bathroom door? Hello? A little privacy, please!
• Not a single full length mirror to be found, which probably didn’t matter because the lighting was wack – dark and shadowy.
• The room was tiny, basically two queen beds with as much space around them as an airplane aisle (sorry the photo is so blurry, but seriously, it was dark!)
• Even though the front desk offered to print our boarding passes (which was a lovely surprise) it took a second call to actually get them sent to our room.

The Random

• The decor was very “Anthropologie Does Hotels” — lots of grass-green feature walls, white ceramic dogs, and annoying smoked (not full length) mirrors
• Our “ocean view” room looked out over the road, at another row of hotels, and then (presumably) at the ocean on the other side of those buildings
• The “sensuality kit” in the honor bar, which included two condoms, a pack of lubricating jelly, and two obstetrical towelettes, was cheaper (all that for $10!) than the cashews

Sensuality Kit - $10 of fun

The Viceroy is a swank hotel, and I would totally stay there again if someone else wants to foot the bill. But I gotta admit: not really worth $300/night, which is the “special” going rate for our “Ocean View Double”, and definitely not worth the “usual” rate of $449/night!

For the record, the cashews were $16, delicious, and worth every salty bite.

Photo credits, from the top:

Image 1 and 2: the Viceroy Hotel website

Image 3: Lucky Cat Photography (but don’t judge by that photo!)

Image 4: inroomplus.com