It's not the Four Seasons, but it's not Four Seasons price. Incredible value for your money...the suite is literally a one bedroom apartment with full kitchen, dining room, living room with DVD player, and 2 tvs. Separate bedroom. Ashley and Marcelle from front desk are amazing and helpful and so are everyone else whom I came in contact with. The whole hotel is like Melrose Place and although the carpet is a little worn, the bed was so comfortable with down pillows and down duvet. It was the most relaxing stay, simple pleasure....I would definitely come back. The Magic Club brunch/show was okay....lots of kids so depends on what you are looking for...activities for the kids, great! a relaxing morning brunch....no....my 12 year old daughter loves it. I definitely can skip this as food is mediocre and show is mediocre. I love the hotel though.

This place is simply the best. We were greeted with smiles and the famous, but not very often found, American 'Can Do' attitude to any request or enquiry. We had a one bedroom apartment that was stylishly and simply furnished. It was clean, the bed was 6' and had lovely cotton linen and down duvets and pillows. The bathroom, although not modern, was again clean and had everything you could need, including nice toiletries. There was a television in the living room and the bedroom, and also a DVD player and CD/Radio player. Each evening, whilst we were out, one of the staff came and tuned the radio into soothing classical music and left a hand written card on the pillow telling us the weather for the next day, together with two Hersheys Chocolate Kisses. Each morning, a free newspaper was delivered to our room. Breakfast is included in the rate, and although the pastries are delicious, there is a lot of sugar in them, and also most of the cereals are of the less healthy variety. This is the only negative I could find. There is an excellent laundry with washing machines and dryers and it costs $1 per machine load! This is not well advertised. There is also free internet access, although when I enquired, the manager offered to loan me his new laptop, so I was able to sit by the pool and check my e-mail! I have read reviews mentioning stairs to climb. Well, the hotel only has ground floor and first floor rooms, so is hardly in the league of needing a lift! We were on the first floor and the balcony overlooked the pool, as do most of the others. The stairs are really not an issue, unless you have a real mobility problem. The location is perfect for all the Hollywood sites, and we hired a car, with the help of the wonderful Reception Staff. They also printed off detailed driving directions to Universal Studios and the Getty Museum. In three months of travelling, we found no hotel staff to match those at the Magic Castle. They need to be publically recognised. I am sure they go home with a smile on their faces, as they do a great job with total commitment and must feel very satisfied at the end of the day with all the people they have made happy. I would stay here again without any doubt, but probably bring some healthy meusli with me!!

We just returned from April spring break in Hollywood with our two teenagers, and we loved our four nights at the Magic Castle Hotel. First and foremost is the service at the hotel. It is rated as a "two star" place, but that doesn't do justice to the very customer-focused attitude of all the staff. They helped us whenever we needed it, and they treated us with a sincere friendliness that you don't learn in customer service class. It seems that the owners or managers have done a great job of hiring the right people. They all seemed genuinely concerned about our happiness at the hotel, and they went out of their way to help us whenever necessary. Again, this wasn't the "false smile, patronizing attitude pretense" that seems to pass for customer service; this was a bunch of nice people trying to make sure we had a good time at their place.

One example: Our key card was not working for us to enter their garage, so one of the staff members came out of the hotel to help. (Yes, apparently they were monitoring the garage entrance and noticed our problem.) When I pointed out the problem, the gentleman used his card to open the garage for us, then said that he would run inside, re-program my key card, and meet me in the garage to give me my card. (Yes, he came down to meet me.) This is just one example of how they went out of their way to take care of us.

We also enjoyed the other aspects of the hotel: the location is great (close proximity to all of the Hollywood attractions), our 1-bedroom suite was spacious and decorated with personality (not a generic hotel look), and the heated pool, although on the small side, gave us a peaceful retreat from sightseeing (my kids loved the pool).

We had a great time at the hotel and would stay there again in a heartbeat.

It all depends what you expect. If you are expecting a 4 * hotel you may be disappointed. If, like us, you are looking for pleasant spacious accomodation for a family of 4 you'll be very pleased. I thought it was great value for money.

We stayed for 4 nights in an enormous 1 bed suite with 2 small children (5 and 7) sleeping on the lounge sofabed. The suite appeared to be a converted apartment and was very large and airy and nicely decorated in a light, modern style with new furniture and carpets (laid 2 days previously I was told). It was spotlessly clean. Our suite included a fully equipped kitchen . The kitchen appliances and wall cupboards, while freshly painted, are quite old, probably dating back to when the place was an apartment... The refurb budget clearly didn't stretch to ripping out all the old fixtures. An upside of having the old wall cupboards dotted around the suite was huge amounts of storage for luggage. The bedroom and bathroom were fine.

The continental breakfast was very good and the service excellent. I don't think I've ever had a better welcome from any hotel than the one that we got when we checked in. All of the staff (Front desk, security, cleaning) are very helpful and take pride in the place.

Pool was also fine and parking is available on the property for $5 per day.

The location is very convenient for some of the tourist sites and there are plenty of places to eat within 10 minutes walk. We could hear traffic noise from our bedroom at night but it didn't stop us sleeping.

I'd definitely recommend this place for families. In value for money terms it comes out as excellent, hence the rating here, even if in absolute terms it is not the Four Seasons.