Loved the Magic Castle Hotel! We stayed for 3 nights and were welcomed like family. Daphne gave me a big cuddle when we arrived as I had been emailing her prior to our arrival.
This was the first part of our holiday to the USA to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary. Not only were we upgraded to a 1 bed suite upon arrival, but we found that the staff had left us a bottle of wine (called "Honey Moon") and a congratulations card signed by them all which was a lovely touch!
The bed linen and pillows were beautifully clean and fresh as were the towels and dressing gowns. The furnishings are a little dated I agree, but our stay here was excellent.
The staff are so friendly and will go out of their way to make your stay as pleasant as possible. Gretchen, the front office manager drove us up to the Yamashiro restaurant to have a look round and gave us some useful information which was a lovely touch.
They provide free breakfast and a free 24hour mini bar service from reception giving free snacks, chocolate and soft drinks.
The location of the hotel was great - one street away from Hollywood boulevard and the Metro subway - one stop to Universal Studios.
Overall a lovely stay which I would not hesitate to repeat on our next visit to Hollywood.

We were only staying one night and wanted to take our kids (9, 12) to see the walk of fame, so we wanted to stay within walking distance of Hollywood Blvd. This was Perfect! We were two blocks away. The hotel had Excellent service. They greeted us with a drink (non-a) and knew who we were. Snacks, pop and movies were free. Selection was great. Everyone was so friendly and when we asked for extra blankets, someone was there within 10 minutes. Our room was large with a separate bedroom with TV. We could put the kids to bed and stay up to watch TV and use the kitchen. The staff suggested a pizza place to deliver and it was terrific and delivered right to the room. We also had a cruize to catch the next day and they set us up with a driver in a large towncar to take us to the port of LA. He was outstanding too! He even was there to pick us up when the ship came back in and took us to the airport and that was on Easter! Absolutely wonder service. We all are looking forward to visiting again! Oh and the pool was great too!

The only issue that could be for someone are the stairs and there is no elevator. Remeber these are old apartments, but ours was kept up VERY well.

We stayed for 16 nights and found the location to be excellent for all the tourist sites, especially in the Hollywood / Beverly Hills area, being only a short walk from the chinese theatre and Kodak theatre on Hollywood Boulevard

We were very impressed with the staff who were friendly and very helpful , the service from the staff was without fault, the best we have experienced in a long time.

The pool was clean and well maintained and heated, very nice indeed.

The Magic Castle Club adjoining the hotel gives membership to hotel guests but bear in mind if you have children you will only be allowed to take them in for Sunday Brunch, all other times is Adult only. Having said that the Brunch was excellent and great magic shows to accompany it. There is a strict dress code but relaxed a little for the Brunch.

So why only the average rating ?

Safe parking in underground car park but $10 per day and we were charged for all 16 nights although we only parked in the garage on 13 of the 16 days being away in San Diego and Las Vegas for a few days.

Our big dissapointment was our room, room 108 which was a suite but in a bad position being on the gorund floor the view from the windows was a derelict falling down fence at the back of the hotel. The suite was also in bad need of decoration and refurbishment, no handles on the wardrobe doors, loose electrical sockets, the fridge wasn't working although was quickly replaced. The bathroom was the worst being in a very poor state of repair, although clean. The Plumbing system was very noisy so if anyone in an adjoining room decide to have a shower in the early hours you could not fail to wake up.

We didn't see inside any other rooms, but would recommend you ask for a pool view room.

There is no bar or restaurant, except in the adjoining club but an adequate continental style breakfast is servved in the lobby, you can sit around the pool or take it to your room, although we found it hard to get a table by the pool as there were only a small number and in great demand.

I would certainly recommend this hotel on the grounds of service and location alone, but bear in mind your room may be quite the same as the photos on the website !

Andrew Parker
Suffolk
England
UK

This hotel is a former apt bldg which provides clean but somewhat shabby rooms. We were traveling with teenagers and needed more than one sleeper sofa for them, but were not eager to spring for 2 hotel rooms, so having both an extra bedroom and a sleeper sofa in the living room was ideal. We reserved a 2-bedroom unit, which is recommended if you are troubled by noise, as these units are in the back (away from the street). We also appreciated the heated swimming pool, the free breakfast (fruit, scones, muffins, juices, coffee), the laundry facilities, the free water bottles and snacks and the cheerful hospitality of the staff (who readily offered advice, printed directions to sites and help with dinner reservations). It was also convenient having a reasonably priced parking facility ($10 a night) underneath the hotel. (L.A. is huge and sprawling, so you need a car to see anything beyond the immediate Hollywood area.) I would choose something newer and nicer if it were just the two of us, but if you are traveling with kids who are too big to share a sleeper sofa (and the local suite hotels I tried informed me that they did not have additional cots at their L.A. locations), this works out well.